Glenn Iba has a new puzzle book: "Round TripPuzzles" (PuzzleWright/Sterling Publishing) officially available Jan.4, 2011. Look for an announcement on his web page: http://glenniba.com/
From Glenn: "Also available there (on-line only) is a "long book introduction" that was cut by the publisher. It goes into detailed analysis of solving strategies I've discovered for Round Trip puzzles. I think it might be of interest to some of you, especially if you tackle the more advanced puzzles. Very briefly, these puzzles (for those not familiar) involve finding Hamiltonian Cycles in a graph, where the cycle must include certain specified edges. Informally, you are asked to find a closed path(returning on itself) that visits every grid dot exactly once, and include all the specified links that define the puzzle. The required links are sufficient to guarantee that the solution is unique. My web site includes samples of these Round Trip puzzles, though they are named Grand Tour puzzles there ("Round Trip" is the original name -- I changed the name due to concern that the name might be"owned" by Dell Magazines where the puzzles first appeared). On my site, you can solve the sample puzzles interactively via java applets[NOTE: the puzzles in the book are all new -- they are different from the puzzles on my site]. I would appreciate hearing your reactions to the book, and would love hearing of any new strategies you discover (beyond or in addition to what I discuss in the "long intro" .pdf on my web site). You cane-mail me directly at: "giba@alum.mit.edu". Thank you and happy puzzling!Glenn
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