Breadth of scope is unique
Author is a widely-known and successful textbook author
Unlike many recent textbooks on chaotic systems that have superficial treatment, this book provides explanations of the deep underlying mathematical ideas
No technical proofs, but an introduction to the whole field that is based on the specific analysis of carefully selected examples
Includes a section on cellular automata
This book provides a survey of various topics of dynamical systems. Applications of both the concepts and the results are presented.
The author takes the opportunity to explain the underlying fundamental mathematical concepts involved in the results, for example the Conley-Floer theory, which is a topic that is not commonly studied in introductory texts on dynamical systems. The book studies entropy and related concepts within topological, metric, measure theoretic and smooth settings, giving connections with information theory, cellular automata and Boolean networks.
The book is written in a careful style. Most of the results are given without proof, though the necessary references for them are included. Many of the results are illustrated through carefully chosen examples. (Sergio Plaza, Mathematical Reviews)