Perhaps some bias from the Amazon UK page, fewer reviews and the bad ones are at the top.
I think a good example of this problem is Numerical Recipes. It's got a 4.5 in Amazon UK, slightly lower in Amazon US. Many people agree that it's not a good book - the main issue is that the authors apparently have little expertise in the areas they're professing to claim expertise in.
I'm sure Skiena knows his stuff, so that doesn't worry me, but it's entirely possible that people miss the mistakes. I'd just like to know why people gave such bad reviews.
I think a good example of this problem is Numerical Recipes. It's got a 4.5 in Amazon UK, slightly lower in Amazon US. Many people agree that it's not a good book - the main issue is that the authors apparently have little expertise in the areas they're professing to claim expertise in.
http://www.stat.uchicago.edu/~lekheng/courses/302/wnnr/nr.ht...
I'm sure Skiena knows his stuff, so that doesn't worry me, but it's entirely possible that people miss the mistakes. I'd just like to know why people gave such bad reviews.