From the reviews:
This volume's 27 papers offer some systematic methods and rigorous theorems that exhibit the study of Conway's game and its variations, emerging out of the realm of merely recreational mathematics. ... this unique book will have great value as both a state-of-the-art summary and a collection of proposals for new directions to explore. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. (D. V. Feldman, Choice, Vol. 48 (4), December, 2010)
Andrew Adamatzky has assembled a superb collection of papers on Life that encompass work going back more than 20 years. ... maintains a good balance between interconnectedness and recognition of the papers as independent contributions. ... This book is a treasure trove of history, concepts, and models. It is a good starting place for a newcomer to the study of Conway's Game of Life, an opening of vistas for the amateur hobbyist, and a serious handbook for the professional researcher. (Anthony J. Duben, ACM Computing Reviews, February, 2011)