Reader reviews

A superb guide. The examples are small but complete.

I came to this book already familiar with the basics, and it still had plenty to offer. I appreciated the honesty about what the book does not cover — it saved me from expecting things that were not there. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. An easy five stars from me. I look forward to whatever the author writes next.

Decent, but uneven. Some chapters are much stronger than others.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. The book rewards careful reading. Skimming it would be a mistake. Three stars feels about right. It will stay on my shelf, but it will not be the first one I reach for.

I got a lot out of this, even if a few sections felt rushed.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. The examples are small enough to type out and experiment with, which is exactly what I want from a book like this. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. Good value for the price and worth the time it takes to work through properly.

Finally, a book that treats game programming with the care it deserves.

I picked this up after getting stuck on a project and it turned out to be exactly the right book at the right time. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. One of those books that pays for itself within the first few chapters. Highly recommended.

Not for me. The pacing did not work and I struggled to finish it.

This is the third book I have read on regular expressions this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The chapters on regular expressions are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. The explanations are careful without being condescending, which is a difficult balance to strike. The progression from chapter to chapter is well thought out; nothing feels out of order. I would look elsewhere unless you have a specific reason to need this particular title.

Excellent from start to finish. No filler, no padding.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. The explanations are careful without being condescending, which is a difficult balance to strike. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with javascript.