Rating: 
Summary: Adequate in some ways, dreadful in others
Review: This Modern Physics textbook has a bit of an identity crisis. One the one hand, you have a complete textbook, covering the basics of modern physics ideas such as: Special Relativity and Introductory Quantum Theory, plus chapters on the various specializations in physics, such as nuclear physics, particle physics, Statistical Mechanics, Condensed Matter, etc. On the other hand, this textbook is terribly boring! It is a wonder to me how authors can make some of the most exciting subject matter in the scientific world seem so drab and benign. Part of the problem is the lack of depth in some of the chapters, another is just a very dry writing style. The exercises are okay, though can be a bit on the easy side. As a reference, it is fairly complete and useful for looking up important facts and equations. It can be integrated well within a modern physics course sequence. The examples are clear and decent as well... however, its bundled "Physics visualization software" does not even work in windows, and is completely useless anyway... (To imagine... it only works on old DOS based machines!) Although not a terrible book by any means, it is pretty unspectacular. I would reccomend Tipler's Modern Physics book, although a bit more difficult, it definitely the better book.
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