- By Dan Veaner
- Entertainment
Print 
The puzzles are designed to test your Narnia knowledge. But if you need to bone up, the book begins with a Narnia reference guide, a short glossary of Narniana. The first challenge is Miraz's Maze, in which you must get Prince Caspian safely to the forest. That is followed by Cair Paravel Crossword, Truffle-Hunter's Word-Doku, the Satyr Scramble and more than 35 other challenges.
In Reepicheep's Letter Stack you are give a crossword puzzle-looking page, but with a stack of letters in the bottom squares. You must reposition the letters to spell words like Centaur -- I won't give away any of the others. Next you must work out a secret code to find a Magic Movie Quote. Bellotto has shifted the letters. He tells you how the code works, then leaves the decoding to you.
If you know who the great lion of Narnia is, or what a dwarf uses for air transport, this book is for you. It's a great way to relive the movie, or just to have fun solving puzzles.
If you enjoyed the Magic Movie Quote you will also like 'Quotable Cryptograms, which Belloto has co-authored with Terry Stickles, who is one of the foremost puzzle creators. He creates the King Features syndicated 'Sticklers,' as well as 'Stickdoku' for USA Weekend.
This book offers over 500 coded quotes using a variety of coding techniques. Substitution ciphers, random letter substitution, rail fence ciphers, and complex quagmire ciphers are techniques you will use to find the quotes.
The quotes come from a wide variety of sources, including Alexander Graham Bell, George Bernard Shaw, Douglas Adams, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bill Gates, Brooke Shields, Mae West, Albert Einstein, and Charles M. Shultz.
Quotable Cryptograms has puzzles for beginners, and a hints section to get you in the mind set. It also has advanced ciphers that will require tenacity and patience. if you have ever thought of working for the NSA, these puzzles will test your ciphering skills and perhaps your knowledge of the famous people who are quoted.
Bellotto is the author of the popular Crossdown crossword puzzle constructing software, which included the Web widget we use in the Lansing Star to present interactive crossword puzzles each week. He also offers Enigmacross for creating acrostics, and Quiptics for generating ciphers. He has contributed to a number of popular puzzle books, recently co-editing Star Trek Crosswords Book 4 . He lives and works in his ROchester home with his dog, Petra who is Crossdown's Vice President in charge of Recreation and Security.
----
v4i26