Fractals The Definitive Guide

Well worth picking up if you already have the basics.

I have been working with mathematics for a few years now and I still found plenty here that was new to me. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. Four stars, and I suspect a second edition could easily push it to five.

Better than I expected. Rare to find a technical book this well judged.

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. The code samples assume a particular environment, which took a bit of fiddling to get running properly. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. I have already recommended it to two colleagues and will recommend it to more.

The clearest explanation of mathematics I have come across.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. A few of the examples could be more realistic, but the underlying points come across clearly. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. 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.