Little Black Book of Ray-Tracing and Path-Tracing (Paperback)

Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

I bought this on a whim after seeing it mentioned in a forum thread, and I am glad I did. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. The author is unusually honest about where the simplifications break down, which I appreciated. Good value for the price and worth the time it takes to work through properly.

An enjoyable and informative read, though it could have been shorter.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. The progression from chapter to chapter is well thought out; nothing feels out of order. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. Good value for the price and worth the time it takes to work through properly.

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

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. A few of the examples could be more realistic, but the underlying points come across clearly. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. I have already recommended it to two colleagues and will recommend it to more.