Game Collision Detection: A Practical Introduction

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

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 author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. Three stars feels about right. It will stay on my shelf, but it will not be the first one I reach for.

A superb guide. The examples are small but complete.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. 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. 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.

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

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. I appreciated the honesty about what the book does not cover — it saved me from expecting things that were not there. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.