Book excerpt: Translated from the Russian original (1981, Leningrad U. Press). The purpose of this work is not only to derive rigorous and stable analytic algorithms for calculating the fields in linear multilayer media, but to demonstrate the need for a very cautious approach to the monograph, that any process in a layered media is unique, due to the complexity of its dependence on the geometrical and material properties of the elements of the medium. Book club price $59. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR