Throughout the book, each image is accompanied by an explanation of how it works, the story behind it – when it was discovered or who invented it first – and the details of exactly why it fools the human brain. The book includes many new and previously unpublished illusions, as well as new adaptations of lesser-known illusions. It also includes works by well-known illusion artists such as Bridget Riley, Salvador Dalí, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Oscar Reutersvärd, René Magritte, István Orosz and Rob Gonsalves. There are chapters on the following subjects: optical illusions from the real world (mirage, refraction, afterimage), ambiguous figures, impossible figures, color adaptation, moving illusions and paradoxical illusions.

This book features more than 150 fascinating optical illusions, from the earliest, experimental imagery to the present.

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Thursday Next series comes a “laugh-out-loud funny” (Los Angeles Times) and “brilliantly original” (Booklist, starred review) novel of a man attempting to navigate a color-coded world. “A rich brew of dystopic fantasy and deadpan goofiness.”—The Washington Post Welcome to Chromatacia, where the Colortocracy rules society through a social hierarchy based on one’s limited color perception. In this world, you are what you can see. Eddie Russet wants to move up. When he and his father relocate to the backwater village of East Carmine, his carefully cultivated plans to leverage his better-than-average red perception and marry into a powerful family are quickly upended. Eddie must content with lethal swans, sneaky Yellows, inviolable rules, an enforced marriage to the hideous Violet deMauve, and a risky friendship with an intriguing Grey named Jane who shows Eddie that the apparent peace of his world is as much an illusion as color itself. Will Eddie be able to tread the fine line between total conformity—accepting the path, partner, and career delineated by his hue—and his instinctive curiosity that is bound to get him into trouble?

Fun-filled, math-based puzzles include Elephants and Castles, Trianglized Kangaroo, Honest Dice and Logic Dice, Mind-reading Powers, and dozens more. Complete solutions explain the mathematical realities behind the fantastic-sounding challenges.