Reader reviews

Genuinely excellent — I finished it in a week and immediately started again.

This is the third book I have read on graphics this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The book rewards careful reading. Skimming it would be a mistake. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. An easy five stars from me. I look forward to whatever the author writes next.

Good book. The writing is direct and the author is honest about limits.

I bought this on a whim after seeing it mentioned in a forum thread, and I am glad I did. I found myself making notes in the margins, which is always a good sign. The book rewards careful reading. Skimming it would be a mistake. Worth picking up if you already have the basics. Set realistic expectations and you will get a lot out of it.

It does the job, though it took some patience to get through.

I came to this book already familiar with the basics, and it still had plenty to offer. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. Useful as a reference, less so as a straight read from cover to cover.

Mixed feelings. The good parts are genuinely good; the rest is forgettable.

I picked this up after getting stuck on a project and it turned out to be exactly the right book at the right time. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. The progression from chapter to chapter is well thought out; nothing feels out of order. The progression from chapter to chapter is well thought out; nothing feels out of order. Three stars feels about right. It will stay on my shelf, but it will not be the first one I reach for.

The clearest explanation of quantum computing I have come across.

I have been working with quantum computing for a few years now and I still found plenty here that was new to me. A few of the examples could be more realistic, but the underlying points come across clearly. 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. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.