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  • The Imitation Game: Alan Turing Decoded

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Jim Ottaviani
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The Imitation Game: Alan Turing Decoded Paperback – July 9, 2019

by Jim Ottaviani (Author), Leland Purvis (Illustrator)
4.1 out of 5 stars (126)

Alan Turing (1912–1954) was the mathematician credited with cracking the German Enigma code during World War II, enabling the Allies to defeat the Nazis. After the war, Turing went on to launch modern computer science through his creation of the universal Turing machine and the Imitation Game, an artificial-intelligence test that is still in use today. Turing kept his code-breaking work a secret in order to safeguard his native England, but failed to hide his sexual preferences, which led to his tragic death at the hands of the same country he worked so hard to protect. Jim Ottaviani and Leland Purvis show Turing to be an eccentric, persecuted genius and a groundbreaking theoretician whose seminal work still plays a role in the science and telecommunication systems that fuel our modern world.

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  1. Part of Series
    The Imitation Game
  2. Print length
    240 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Abrams ComicArts
  5. Publication date
    July 9, 2019
  6. Grade level
    8 and up
  7. Reading age
    13 years and up
  8. Dimensions
    6.38 x 8.98 x 3.78 inches
  9. ISBN-10
    1419736450
  10. ISBN-13
    978-1419736452
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jim Ottaviani is the author of three New York Times bestsellers and the recipient of multiple Ignatz and Eisner Award nominations. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Leland Purvis is an Eisner and Ignatz Award nominee and an occasional reviewer for the Comics Journal. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Abrams ComicArts
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 9, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1419736450
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1419736452
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 years and up
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.38 x 8.98 x 3.78 inches
  • Part of Series ‏ : ‎ The Imitation Game
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 8 and up
  • Best Sellers Rank: #2,121,816 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 out of 5 stars (126)

About the author

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Jim Ottaviani

Jim Ottaviani

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Jim Ottaviani has worked in news agencies and golf courses in the Chicago area, nuclear reactors in the U.S. and Japan, and libraries in Michigan. When he's not doing these things, he's spraining his ankles and flattening his feet by running on trails. Or he's reading. He reads a lot. Elsewhere on the web you can find him at www.gt-labs.com .

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
126 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

  • Katerina
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating lost moment in history
    Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2021
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Covers the history of Alan Turing, the man who broke the Getman Enigma code in WW2 thereby shortening the war by at least a couple of years and saving millions of lives.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Lloyd Feigenbaum
    4.0 out of 5 stars Weird comic book style, but interesting
    Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2020
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Learned a lot about Alan Turing but the comic book style was off putting and quite odd. Would have liked a more conventional book. I did finish it quickly after thinking I wouldn’t.
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  • PuzzleMaven
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great work, Jim
    Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2016
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    My husband is a physics teacher and he loves Jim Ottaviani's books - he has all just about all of the titles. Great work, Jim!
    One person found this helpful
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  • Myra Clabough
    5.0 out of 5 stars Available
    Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2019
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Price much better than new.
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  • David Fulmer
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Story of Alan Turing
    Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2022
    Format: Hardcover
    This is a graphic novel about the mathematician Alan Turing, famous for coming up with the Imitation Game, a key concept in the field of artificial intelligence and an idea that is illustrated in words and pictures in this very book. Less of a complete biography and more of a multivocal look back at several of the most notable experiences of Turing’s life, this book is a wonderfully illustrated and clear recounting of some of Turing’s accomplishments. The standout episode is his time at Bletchley Park, a code breaking operation of the British during WWII where Turing applied his mathematical brilliance designing a machine that aided in decoding encrypted German communications. The work was so secret that even decades after the war ended no one was permitted to talk about it, even when applying for future jobs. The artwork and narrative of this book are a wonderful introduction to the man and his work and the narrative frame is even a little edgy and experimental, itself a tribute to Turing’s groundbreaking math.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Glenn Ledbetter
    1.0 out of 5 stars Not for Me
    Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2020
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    Sorry, I just couldn't get very far into this graphic novel. Perhaps it's a masterpiece, for all I know, in its genre. Go for it if you like this kind of storytelling and write your own review.
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  • B. Capossere
    4.0 out of 5 stars good bio, especially in the latter third where it gets quite effective
    Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2023
    Format: Paperback
    I generally had a positive response to The Imitation Game: Alan Turing Decoded, written by Jim Ottaviani and illustrated by Leland Purvis, though I found the enjoyment somewhat marred by a few aspects of this graphic biography of Alan Turning. Despite those issues, the story is both informative and moving, covering Turing with a sense of gentle sympathy.

    Since it shares the title of the recent movie, I want to note at the start that this is not at all a novelization of that film, though of course it overlaps it greatly thanks to the generally agreed upon facts of Turing’s life. The fact that it isn’t a novelization isn’t a problem, though my guess is many might come to it thinking it is and so be at least a little confused if not disappointed.

    One of the conceits of the story is its use of “interviews” with Turing’s family and friends. It opens, for instance, with his mother explaining “Round-the-Garden-Chess,” a unique (I’m pretty sure) variation of chess whereby you make a move, run around the house, and then if your opponent hasn’t moved by the time you return to the game, they lose their turn and have to do a lap themselves. Generally, I liked this structure as if offered up some variety of voicing and perspective. At times, it was a little confusing. In this first example, for instance, Turing himself interrupts to take over the explanation. The color of the dialog boxes helps in piecing together who is saying what—his mother’s words set on a pink background, Turing’s on a yellow one—but even with this aid I confess there were a few times I had to back up or stop and think for a moment to figure out who a particular set of lines was coming from. Some of that is my fault I’m sure, but there’s also an odd inconsistency. At one point while describing his early chemical experiments, his mother’s words have their characteristic pink background, Turing’s appear with the yellow as before, but then the “interviewer” chimes in, also with a yellow background. That shared color occurs several times throughout, thus some of the confusion.

    We move pretty quickly through his childhood years, then onto his time at Cambridge with his closest friend Chris, which is where the earliest questions about his homosexuality arise, though only in hinted at here. More substantively, this is also where we start to get the beginnings of the more technical aspects of the biography in terms of math and computing. It starts with some classroom discussion of Hilbert and Godel and “completeness” and “consistency”, then moves into Turing explaining his earliest ideas for algorithms and a machine. These sections here and later will be trying for some readers. Those well versed in those topics will get it easily, others will have to work harder to get it or some of it, and I’m sure some readers will have it all just go right over their heads. Taking it slow definitely helps, as does rereading these sections a few times, which I certainly found necessary (though not always successful). Sometimes the illustrations were quite useful in aiding comprehension; other times I wish more had been done in that vein. In any case, while these moments might be frustrating, one can simply move on and still enjoy the story without fully comprehending the math.

    Section Two focuses on Turing at Bletchley Park, and these scenes are well done, showing Turing’s quirky and sometimes exasperating nature, as well as his brilliance and dedication. And while we obviously stay focused on Turing, we meet several other workers as well, who have their own quirks. We also meet Joan Clark, whom Turing briefly is engaged to, and here his homosexuality is raised a bit more directly, though his relationship with Clark and their breakup is mostly a very small sidelight. The focus is on his math, his code breaking, and their race to figure out Enigma. We get to see Churchill’s visit, and then we shift from Bletchley to a scene showing how the sailors of the HMS Petard risked their lives to gather Enigma rotors from a sinking U-boat, just what was needed to complete the cracking of Enigma.

    The next section takes Turing post-Bletchley/post-war and his continued work in the field of computers, algorithms, and “Turing machines.” And then sadly, his unfortunate downfall, nicely led up to by discussion of his loneliness. Here the artwork is perhaps at its strongest in the work, the way it use of space and color do a fantastic and moving job of conveying Turing’s isolation and anxiety. In one scene we see him in a doorway—a sense of him almost trapped, his one hand on the doorjamb and his bent knees giving a sense of sad weariness. In another panel we see his cleared out drawers—testament to how he’d been robbed but their emptiness acts as a wonderful metaphor for his life at that stage. All of this one in a blue-grey palette that adds to the sense of depression.

    We move in short fashion through his trial, conviction, and his sentencing, which included mandated hormone therapy, the effects of which are again nicely captured in the different manner in which he is drawn in these panels. Knowing of course where this is all headed adds to the sense of burdensome dismay for the reader, culminating in his death—almost certainly a suicide.

    As mentioned, I did have some difficulties with some of the concepts and thought that while some of that was my own lack they also could have been better conveyed. The art, especially in the first two-thirds is OK, but I can’t say I loved it. At times it felt a little too rough, too young. The story keeps one going then, and in the latter third as it turns from victory to inevitable tragedy, both text and art start to really work together in stronger fashion, making for an emotional and highly effective last third. As an explanation of his concepts then, the graphic story is decent, but as a biography it’s quite well done. Recommended.
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  • Elle Markov
    5.0 out of 5 stars A must read...
    Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2016
    Format: Hardcover
    This was a very good book detailing the life of Alan Turing, the brilliant mathematician and scientist that helped change the world.

    This book was very detailed; it left nothing out, from his beginning to his end. If you love history and graphic novels, this is a good one for you.
    2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Jack Geary
    5.0 out of 5 stars Loved this book immensely
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 6, 2018
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    This was an excellent book. Very informative. A more detailed look at the live of Turing from a variety of perspectives. Much more detailed than the movie
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  • M. l
    4.0 out of 5 stars Me dejó un poco fría la historia
    Reviewed in Spain on August 16, 2019
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Soy muy fan de estos temas y los cómics de filosofía, matemáticas, lógica, etc. El cómic está muy bien y lo recomiendo para enterarse de como fue la historia de forma entretenida, pero lo cierto es que para mi gusto se queda un poco fría y se saltan detalles y personajes muy importantes, tal vez otra fuente podría ser mejor
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  • shivam rai
    5.0 out of 5 stars he is the real man......
    Reviewed in India on July 17, 2017
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    the best biopic in the form of graphic novel.......
    he is an inspiration......
    he lived a miserable life(mentally).......
    lonely, tragic story.....
    i had tear in my eyes ........
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  • HM
    5.0 out of 5 stars Empfehlenswert
    Reviewed in Germany on January 25, 2019
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Toll gestaltet und fesselnd.
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  • Glenn Curtis
    4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on July 19, 2017
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    good
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