Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
I think the team at GCHQ have finally cottoned on to just how tricky most readers found the puzzles of the previous book. The majority of the puzzles in the book were far easier than the ones in book I.
Sadly I gave up part-way through the meta in this one as well (partly because there was no prize to work towards). I also felt especially young when I saw the "Regex" puzzle. I had no idea what that was and had to make use of google before I understood what to do!
What made this one more interesting was the additions from the GCHQ archives. It was fascinating to read about how the organisation came about (before it became GCHQ), and interesting to see how it has adapted to respond to some more recent challenges.
Overall, I'd recommend this one over the first for the puzzle newbie. I'd also recommend that you treat this the way you would any other puzzle competition, and get at least one other interested party to sit with you and work together to solve the puzzles. It's more fun that way, especially for the incredibly exciting ones in the middle.
Sadly I gave up part-way through the meta in this one as well (partly because there was no prize to work towards). I also felt especially young when I saw the "Regex" puzzle. I had no idea what that was and had to make use of google before I understood what to do!
What made this one more interesting was the additions from the GCHQ archives. It was fascinating to read about how the organisation came about (before it became GCHQ), and interesting to see how it has adapted to respond to some more recent challenges.
Overall, I'd recommend this one over the first for the puzzle newbie. I'd also recommend that you treat this the way you would any other puzzle competition, and get at least one other interested party to sit with you and work together to solve the puzzles. It's more fun that way, especially for the incredibly exciting ones in the middle.