This is very much a text with no pretensions than to be anything other than a technical dictionary. It contains approximately 35,000 individual entries that are short, to the point, with light cross‐referencing to other entries in the book. As would be expected from the title the coverage is all aspects of electronics and electrical engineering, a very wide area to attempt to condense. However, this is managed well with individual entries being readable and concise and most lasting no more than a line or two. As a particular aid to the reader acronyms are expanded throughout with their own entries. This helps to make this text ideal for those new to the field, or non‐specialists wishing to gain a greater understanding of this topic.
The low price in no way reflects a skimping on quality, and page layout is clear, clean and accessible. Constants, standards, and units are briefly identified within their own entries. There are unfortunately no illustrations, nor any significant coverage given to equations, though simple ones do crop up from time to time within particular entries. This reviewer certainly found no difficulty in navigating through the text to find concepts both simple and specialist.
However, it is perhaps in the simplicity of its approach that the text could be considered slightly flawed. While there are some longer entries of a few paragraphs for significant concepts, at times some of the entries feel as though they have been pruned to the very barest of bones. Whether this is because of a desire to reduce page count or to avoid moving to a more encyclopedic format is unclear. In trying to cover such a spectrum of topics this is to be expected, but it does reduce the detail at which concepts can be explored.
This book would be a useful basic reference text for purchase in support of secondary or tertiary level education, but it would in no way be suitable for postgraduates or specialists. They would be better advised to seek a specialised encyclopedia or dictionary dealing with their particular area of interest.
