According to the Foreword, this is the largest volume so far in the Patai series on The Chemistry of the Functional Groups. It is published in three parts and contains 43 chapters written by internationally recognized authorities on organosilicon chemistry. With 2758 pages and more than 8000 references, and weighing nearly 9.5 pounds (4.3 kg), it is clearly destined to be a major reference source for organosilicon chemists for some years to come.

In 1989 a volume with the same title was published in two parts, with 25 chapters. (Six of these chapters were updated in The Silicon-Heteroatom Bond, published in 1991.) About half of the 43 chapters in the current work represent updates of chapters in the 1989 volume. In most cases enough background material is included so the chapters stand on their own. Among the new chapter topics are crystalline silica, ceramics, electrochemistry, fullerenes, and silylenes (divalent silicon).

About half of the chapters deal with reactive intermediates involving silicon. Three chapters are concerned with compounds having multiple bonds to silicon, and related information can be found a dozen more, including matrix isolation, photochemistry, gas-phase ion chemistry, small-ring silacycles, sila-aromatic compounds, and siloles. In addition there are chapters on silyl cations, silyl-substituted carbocations, silylmetallic compounds, silylenes, and hypervalent silicon compounds.

Synthetic organic chemists will be interested in a number of chapters. In addition to a surprisingly short chapter on recent synthetic applications of organosilicon reagents, there are chapters on activating and directive effects of silicon, steric effects of silyl groups, acylsilanes, allyl and vinylsilanes, tris(trimethylsilyl)silane, electrochemistry, and hydrosilylation.

Inorganic chemists may be especially interested in the chapters on crystalline silica, transition-metal silyl complexes, cyclopentadienyl silicon compounds, silylmetallic compounds, and part of the chapter on siloles and other group 14 metalloles. Industrial chemists are likely to be interested in chapters on the direct process and on siloxane polymers. Two chapters will be of particular interest to ceramics chemists. A few general chapters (e.g., thermochemistry, structural chemistry, ²⁹Si NMR spectroscopy) will be of interest to a variety of organosilicon chemists. One chapter deals partly with bio-organosilicon chemistry. There are no chapters on silicon radicals or silicon-based electronic materials.

Most chapters do not give a cutoff date, but perusal of the references suggests that literature coverage is up through 1995 or 1996, with a few scattered references to 1997.

Each part contains a table of contents for the whole set, which unfortunately does not indicate which part to look in. Each chapter includes a detailed contents for the chapter. Author and subject indexes are included in Part 3. The author index is excellent. For each reference, the index includes the reference number, the page(s) where the chemistry is discussed, and the page where the reference is listed. The subject index is uneven; users will need persistence and creativity. For example, to find chlorosilanes, you also need to look under "chlorotrimethylsilane", "halosilanes", "silylation", "trialkylsilyl halides", and "triorganyl (sic) halides". There is nothing under "silyl halides".

Because of the price, few individual chemists are likely to purchase the set. The three parts are not organized by topic, so acquisition of only one part is not practical. If the chapters had been grouped differently, two or three chemists (such as a synthetic organic chemist, an inorganic chemist, and a polymer chemist) could split the cost of the set and each take one part.

In all, this is an outstanding addition to the organosilicon chemistry literature. Silicon chemists of all types will want a copy in their library.