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Rating: 
Summary: What is new? Where is the emphasis?
Review: Here we go again. Another edition of the same book, without any significant additions or more emphasis. Yariv mostly puts together parts of what he had published decades ago in this book. He pays little attention to pedagogy and does not care to put connections between concepts in different chapters. I could not find a spirit in the book that ties concepts together. Yariv jumps from one notation or symbol set to another without giving you any notice, which makes me think that he was more concerned with putting together his notes in a book format than trying actually teach you the subject. Publishing essentially the same book as another edition just adds insult to the injury. Do yourself a favor and check out some other book on the same subject, such as Verdeyen's Laser Electronics. Or if you have to buy it, save yourself a buck or two and buy an older edition used.
Rating: 
Summary: Rehashed mediocrity.
Review: Same old, same old. This is more or less Qauntum Electronics in (yet) another cover. Yariv is a lousy presenter. The materials in this book are never really difficult. The reader, however, may have trouble following it from time to time just because it's poorly organized and presented. Make no mistake, optical electronics is no quantum field theory, and you should be able to pick it up over the time you spend over the commode. Rather than impeding your learning by battling the style of this book, do yourself a favor and get one of the several better alternatives already out there.
Rating: 
Summary: best advanced optics book.
Review: This book is one of the best investments you can do, it is worth every penny and then some. This text has the perfect mix of mathematics and amusement. It gives outstanding overview of all optics, photonics and fiber optic communication basics.The figures are good, as are the problems at the end of each chapter. As an optical graduate, I recommend this text highly to graduates and optical engineers. Yariv has a clear style and is a very good writer. The format is also great!
Rating:
Summary: Has all the things a good textbook should have!
Review: This book is outstanding. Yariv is very clear, he motivates topics very well, and he is very thourough in what he covers. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in fiber optics, lasers, non-linear optics, or waveguides.
Rating:
Summary: Incoherent
Review: Yariv lacks the ability to put concepts before equations. Half the time is spent understanding what stuff means rather than learning the physics. He never really explains what quantities mean physically. I feel Yariv has serious problems with using the letter to describe several quantities (as another reviewer wrote). I wish he would write in words what he is trying to say rather than describing everything with equations. He leaves many important concepts as homework problems to be derived. He also has a very arrogent tone in the book, when he says stuff can be easily derived and it can't.
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