Better than most, 08 May 2008
It is a pity this book has not been written with a consistent level of care and attention to detail (as regards exposition, language); otherwise it would have been splendid. The overall plan and the emphasis on physics is excellent. There is a lot in this book which you would not easily find in other sources. In particular the exercises are very well done as miniprojects containing substantial further topics. There is an element of trendiness in the title: look up "Entropy" or "Order parameter" in the index and you'll find lots of page references, as behooves key terms appearing in the book's title; but look up "complexity" and you are referred to a series of exercises; one feels "complexity" was added to the title for want of a sexy buzzword that would distinguish this from any number of other stat mechs books.

Better than most, 08 May 2008
It is a pity this book has not been written with a consistent level of care and attention to detail (as regards exposition, language); otherwise it would have been splendid. The overall plan and the emphasis on physics is excellent. There is a lot in this book which you would not easily find in other sources. In particular the exercises are very well done as miniprojects containing substantial further topics. There is an element of trendiness in the title: look up "Entropy" or "Order parameter" in the index and you'll find lots of page references, as behooves key terms appearing in the book's title; but look up "complexity" and you are referred to a series of exercises; one feels "complexity" was added to the title for want of a sexy buzzword that would distinguish this from any number of other stat mechs books.

Good for all Plasma Physicists, 09 Feb 2001
I'm a Ph.D Physics student who've been woking on Plasma Physics during the past years and of course this book is one of my collections. I's firstly recommended by my supervisor to read it as a fundamental textbook because it provided both general knowledge and also some applications which were very useful and easy understanding for me who had no idea about Plasma Physics before. As time goes by, I've now been doing the research more deeply in details and still having this book with me like a foolproof thing everytime I lost any Plasma-ish ideas or definitions. I must say if you either work or study in this are, it's worth to have a copy on your book shelf, really.

Better than most, 08 May 2008
It is a pity this book has not been written with a consistent level of care and attention to detail (as regards exposition, language); otherwise it would have been splendid. The overall plan and the emphasis on physics is excellent. There is a lot in this book which you would not easily find in other sources. In particular the exercises are very well done as miniprojects containing substantial further topics. There is an element of trendiness in the title: look up "Entropy" or "Order parameter" in the index and you'll find lots of page references, as behooves key terms appearing in the book's title; but look up "complexity" and you are referred to a series of exercises; one feels "complexity" was added to the title for want of a sexy buzzword that would distinguish this from any number of other stat mechs books.

Good for all Plasma Physicists, 09 Feb 2001
I'm a Ph.D Physics student who've been woking on Plasma Physics during the past years and of course this book is one of my collections. I's firstly recommended by my supervisor to read it as a fundamental textbook because it provided both general knowledge and also some applications which were very useful and easy understanding for me who had no idea about Plasma Physics before. As time goes by, I've now been doing the research more deeply in details and still having this book with me like a foolproof thing everytime I lost any Plasma-ish ideas or definitions. I must say if you either work or study in this are, it's worth to have a copy on your book shelf, really.

A good introduction, covering a wide range of areas., 16 May 2001
This is a very good book. It approaches the subject in a clear and systematic way, making the book entirely accessible to people who have no prior experience in the field. The author writes in an informative style which allows the subject matter to be digested that much more easily. While he approaches some aspects in an oversimplified way and totally neglects other aspects (e.g. photon fluids and relativistic fluids), it should be noted that this in no way makes the book any less useful. It is meant to be an introduction, and for that it is excellent. Most books either focus on neutral fluids or plasma fluids, rarely both, and while they may go into more depth, they can sometimes lose the reader when they call on the physics of the other field. This therefore makes this book by Choudhuri a very good quick reference book to have and to study from. He also, in his bibliography, gives reference to some more in-depth books on the parts of the field that he didn't have time to go too indepth with himself, and his choice of books is very good, with many, in my opinion, ranking as excellent further reading material.

All in all, this book is very recommendable, for introductory and reference purposes, to any beginner readers.