If this book seems a bit out of place to readers of Optica publications, its possible relevance is in a chapter on radiative heat transfer. There are two authors listed, but the acknowledgement is written by an editor, thanking multiple authors, including different authors for the various chapters.
The authors claim they had a relatively short writing time and graciously admit that errors are inevitable, but the rather large number of errors present in the book would have easily been spotted by a good editor. Chapters do seem to have been written by different authors, as they have uneven levels of editing and proofreading. There are many misspelled words and grammatical problems, particularly in some of the chapters. The true technical soundness of the book is difficult to evaluate when the writing is so unclear.
The nature of the topic requires complex mathematical treatment, but the equations do not always include explanations of the variables involved. There is often loose handling of integrals, with limits vaguely defined, or contour integrals used instead of surface integrals. Some graphs have the axes labeled but no title, and some graphs are not discussed in the text. Terms are used without first defining or describing them (for example, "shaft work"). Terms like photo, diagram or graph are sometimes used interchangeably, even when they are clearly not.
Most of the figures are black and white, with color used only for headings and figure numbers. It is difficult to distinguish among textured grayscale elements on a pie chart. Transitions between concepts are not always smooth, and may even be jarring at times.
As expected for a textbook, there are end-of-chapter exercises and questions, most with answers, but some answers appear to be incorrect (numerical or concepts). Some of the questions are rather basic, recall-type or almost evident true/false, but there are also many useful ones that actually apply to the concepts in the chapter.
The book has only one page of references, including several textbooks from the 1980s and 1990s. A half-page index includes just a few entries that could not already be found in the table of contents.
For a reader interested in thermal engineering, there are quite a few other books on this topic. True to the sentiments in the acknowledgements, the authors or editors of this book should take the time to review the feedback from readers, correct the errors and omissions, and publish a new edition that could more reliably compete with the other books on the topic.
Review by Bogdan Hoanca, University of Alaska Anchorage, USA.
The opinions expressed in the book review section are those of the reviewer and do not necessarily reflect those of OPN or its publisher, Optica