# Elliptic Tales by Avner Ash and Robert Groß

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/elliptic-tales/

2 people recommended Elliptic Tales by Avner Ash and Robert Groß in Hacker News comments and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 12 months, in 2 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

2 of the 2 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “An elliptic curve of rank ≥ 30”.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a rare popular book on higher mathematics for general readers, and as the best-known volume of a trilogy by Ash and Gross.

Summary written by Claude from 5 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 4 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- Singled out within the trilogy (2 comments in the sample): "Want to understand this more? Read the triplet of books by Ash and Gross, specially Elliptical Tales" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49375409)) "but maybe it is because I read it first" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47119041))
- Rare popular book on higher mathematics (1 comment in the sample): "good popular books on higher mathematics difficult to come by" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47115467))

## Other mathematics books people recommend

- [Elements by Euclid by Oliver Byrne](https://hackerapproved.com/p/elements-of-euclid/): 14 recommend, 2 mixed, 9 criticize
- [Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fermat-s-last-theorem/): 11 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize
- [Gödel's Proof by Nagel and Newman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/g-del-s-proof/): 9 recommend, 0 mixed, 1 criticize
- [Mathematica: A Secret World of Intuition and Curiosity by David Bessis](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mathematica-a-secret-world-of-intuition-and-curiosity/): 8 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Elliptic Tales by Avner Ash and Robert Groß", https://hackerapproved.com/p/elliptic-tales/ (2 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.