Reader reviews

Finally, a book that treats ai & machine learning with the care it deserves.

I was looking for something that would bridge the gap between tutorials and proper reference material, and this does that well. The balance between theory and practice is well judged; neither side dominates. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. 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 ai & machine learning.

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

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. The chapters on databases & big data are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

Solid and well-organised. A couple of chapters dragged a little.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. 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. Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

Solid and well-organised. A couple of chapters dragged a little.

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 chapters on artificial intelligence are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. The code samples assume a particular environment, which took a bit of fiddling to get running properly. A good addition to a technical library, as long as you know what you are buying.

Well worth picking up if you already have the basics.

I have been working with computational biology for a few years now and I still found plenty here that was new to me. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. The book rewards careful reading. Skimming it would be a mistake. Four stars, and I suspect a second edition could easily push it to five.

A worthwhile addition to my shelf, with realistic expectations.

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 author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. Worth picking up if you already have the basics. Set realistic expectations and you will get a lot out of it.