Reader reviews

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

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. The examples are small enough to type out and experiment with, which is exactly what I want from a book like this. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. Four stars, and I suspect a second edition could easily push it to five.

This is the one to get if you are serious about uncanny valley.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. It is denser than the page count suggests, and I found myself slowing down around the middle. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with uncanny valley.

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

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. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. One of those books that pays for itself within the first few chapters. Highly recommended.

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

I bought this on a whim after seeing it mentioned in a forum thread, and I am glad I did. A few of the examples could be more realistic, but the underlying points come across clearly. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.

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

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. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. I appreciated the honesty about what the book does not cover — it saved me from expecting things that were not there. Fine, but there are stronger books on the same subject if you look around.

A genuinely enjoyable read that also taught me a great deal.

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. The book rewards careful reading. Skimming it would be a mistake. Worth the money and the reading time, without hesitation.