Non-Human Intelligence (Coffee Book Series)

Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

I have been working with science fiction & fantasy for a few years now and I still found plenty here that was new to me. It is denser than the page count suggests, and I found myself slowing down around the middle. I found myself making notes in the margins, which is always a good sign. Good value for the price and worth the time it takes to work through properly.

Three stars feels about right. Useful, but not essential.

I bought this on a whim after seeing it mentioned in a forum thread, and I am glad I did. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. The balance between theory and practice is well judged; neither side dominates. Useful as a reference, less so as a straight read from cover to cover.

Mixed feelings. The good parts are genuinely good; the rest is forgettable.

This is the third book I have read on science fiction & fantasy this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. Fine, but there are stronger books on the same subject if you look around.