This book will take you on a journey into the exciting world of voice applications and Alexa. Craig has found a way to make a very technical subject accessible to anyone that is interested in learning about this new (and natural) way to communicate with computers. After reading it, I hope you are as excited about the future of voice and ambient computing as I am!

Craig has done it again. He’s written the first comprehensive guide to programming a technology that will be mainstream in a few years—Alexa Skill development. He’s beautifully organized all the key elements, giving developers the foundation they need to both deliver customer value through skills today and to carry them into the future as the Alexa Skill ecosystem evolves.

While we haven’t reached science fiction level computing just yet, conversational UIs are quickly becoming a must-have in our application arsenal. Whether you’re new to the space or you’ve been building skills for years, Craig can help. It’s all here, from getting started to polishing your app to getting it published.

Certainly the best introduction I’ve seen yet to actually building an Alexa Skill, covering real challenges and solutions you will encounter building your own applications. Craig has a knack for entertainingly explaining the core concepts well, with useful analogies throughout.

Craig Walls brings his wealth of experience to the Alexa arena and does the comprehensive job you would expect from him. Alexa is a hard topic to cover as there are so many aspects to it, but Craig explains them all. Though I’ve been writing skills for four years I learned new things from this book.

Lays a solid foundation for skill development and introduced valuable intermediate-level topics one would apply to give an app extra polish to set it apart from so many others. Importantly, it was a fun read with many easily understood code examples. I highly recommend this book for anyone doing Alexa skill development.

A guide to creating your own Alexa apps from conception to publication including a continuous integration approach and without losing your yellow brick road.

Written in a meticulous manner, this is one of the most complete Alexa books I’ve seen by far. Well done!