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Rating: 
Summary: Very confusing paperweight (if it was thick enough)
Review: After reading Tomoko Fuse's excellent book on Unit Origami I wanted to get a little farther into it. This books seemed a good place to start. It is not. On the plus side, there are many, many models in the book. Also, there seems to be some fundamental "theory" that generates them, which would allow a great deal of flexibility and range of design to anyone who used it. On the negative side, I can't for the life of me figure out how to make even a single model. The whole first 3/4 of the book consists of things like this: A line drawing of a polyhedron labelled, for instance, "Rhombicuboctahedron" and then a photo of an origami pice that doesn't seem related. Finally on page 40 (of ~75) there's a second on "Model Construction". It turns out you need paper in multiple sizes (1.6875 inches is one of them) to make almost all the models. And it still doesn't explain just how to put the units together or even how to make the units (other than "this is how to make a flat hexagon" type of instructions)! There's also some kind of method or technique called "gyroscoping" that I can't figure out. I would give this 0 stars, but the other review is so positive that I feel sure that, if one could penetrate the dense prose sections or understand the seemingly-content-free main body, great things could be done.
Rating:
Summary: Very confusing paperweight (if it was thick enough)
Review: After reading Tomoko Fuse's excellent book on Unit Origami I wanted to get a little farther into it. This books seemed a good place to start. It is not. On the plus side, there are many, many models in the book. Also, there seems to be some fundamental "theory" that generates them, which would allow a great deal of flexibility and range of design to anyone who used it. On the negative side, I can't for the life of me figure out how to make even a single model. The whole first 3/4 of the book consists of things like this: A line drawing of a polyhedron labelled, for instance, "Rhombicuboctahedron" and then a photo of an origami pice that doesn't seem related. Finally on page 40 (of ~75) there's a second on "Model Construction". It turns out you need paper in multiple sizes (1.6875 inches is one of them) to make almost all the models. And it still doesn't explain just how to put the units together or even how to make the units (other than "this is how to make a flat hexagon" type of instructions)! There's also some kind of method or technique called "gyroscoping" that I can't figure out. I would give this 0 stars, but the other review is so positive that I feel sure that, if one could penetrate the dense prose sections or understand the seemingly-content-free main body, great things could be done.
Rating: 
Summary: Origami for the serious Geometrician
Review: This is a book designed for constructing geometric models using small folded units or modules. A large number of polyhedra are explained in this volume. The beginning of the book (first 50 pages or so), talks about the different classes of figures and give detailed information about each figure, including photographs. There is then a short section devoted to creating different shapes of paper from squares (triangles, pentagons, hexagons, etc.). Finally there is a section for folding the individual units themselves. Each unit is capable of connecting to the others. There is an interesting feature that I would like to see in other unit books. After a particularly well-detailed unit, there was a one-page summary of the folding thus making it easier on the folder who does not memorize the unit and just needs a guide while folding the requisite number of units. This is a well laid out book that does an excellent job of covering the material and achieves is goal. But this is not a book for all folders. It is aimed at the serious folder of geometric solids. The typical low price from Dover makes this an easy volume to add to one's origami or geometry library.
Rating:
Summary: Origami for the serious Geometrician
Review: This is a book designed for constructing geometric models using small folded units or modules. A large number of polyhedra are explained in this volume. The beginning of the book (first 50 pages or so), talks about the different classes of figures and give detailed information about each figure, including photographs. There is then a short section devoted to creating different shapes of paper from squares (triangles, pentagons, hexagons, etc.). Finally there is a section for folding the individual units themselves. Each unit is capable of connecting to the others. There is an interesting feature that I would like to see in other unit books. After a particularly well-detailed unit, there was a one-page summary of the folding thus making it easier on the folder who does not memorize the unit and just needs a guide while folding the requisite number of units. This is a well laid out book that does an excellent job of covering the material and achieves is goal. But this is not a book for all folders. It is aimed at the serious folder of geometric solids. The typical low price from Dover makes this an easy volume to add to one's origami or geometry library.
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