Reader reviews

Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

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 index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. The progression from chapter to chapter is well thought out; nothing feels out of order. The explanations are careful without being condescending, which is a difficult balance to strike. A good addition to a technical library, as long as you know what you are buying.

The clearest explanation of programming I have come across.

This is the third book I have read on programming this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.

Worth every page. I have already recommended it to two colleagues.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. It is denser than the page count suggests, and I found myself slowing down around the middle. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.

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

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. One of those books that pays for itself within the first few chapters. Highly recommended.

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

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. The code samples assume a particular environment, which took a bit of fiddling to get running properly. It is denser than the page count suggests, and I found myself slowing down around the middle. An easy five stars from me. I look forward to whatever the author writes next.

Outstanding. I kept finding reasons to come back to it.

This is the third book I have read on game programming this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. A few of the examples could be more realistic, but the underlying points come across clearly. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with game programming.