Reader reviews

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

I was looking for something that would bridge the gap between tutorials and proper reference material, and this does that well. I found myself making notes in the margins, which is always a good sign. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. An easy five stars from me. I look forward to whatever the author writes next.

Good value. Not perfect, but I would buy another book from this author.

I picked this up after getting stuck on a project and it turned out to be exactly the right book at the right time. I appreciated the honesty about what the book does not cover — it saved me from expecting things that were not there. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. Worth picking up if you already have the basics. Set realistic expectations and you will get a lot out of it.

Excellent from start to finish. No filler, no padding.

I came to this book already familiar with the basics, and it still had plenty to offer. The examples are small enough to type out and experiment with, which is exactly what I want from a book like this. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. I have already recommended it to two colleagues and will recommend it to more.

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. 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. The book rewards careful reading. Skimming it would be a mistake. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with algorithms.

This is the one to get if you are serious about computational biology.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. A few of the examples could be more realistic, but the underlying points come across clearly. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. Worth the money and the reading time, without hesitation.

Worth every page. I have already recommended it to two colleagues.

I bought this on a whim after seeing it mentioned in a forum thread, and I am glad I did. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. 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. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.