This work claims to be a geoecological approach to glacier forelands and primary plant succession on these. In its contents it is essentially eminently successful. It presents the results of a great deal of field research by the author, mainly in Norway, and draws on evidence from most researched glacial forelands in the world. author's aims were to review thoroughly a great deal of information on the ecology of recently deglaciated appraise critically the current methodology employed in this kind of research, and develop a new approach, namely the geoecological approach, in this field. In chap. 2, The nature of the time scale, a brief review of dating methods is undertaken, and one is impressed that with even a small number of control points age estimates with an accuracy of t-5-10 years may be approached for surfaces deglaciated within the last 250 years. Some comments are made on the relative merits of dating techniques based on physicochemical or nonbiological dating techniques, tephra, radiocarbon, and soil organic matter. One is surprised to learn that radiocarbon datings may document the Little Ice in Norway from 1670 to 1750. Chapter 3, The physical landscape, describes in some detail the processes obtaining in the formation of the glacier forelands and emphasizes the importance of comprehending these so that one may realize how a landscape feature has been formed. Wisely, considerable significance is placed on heterogeneity of source materials, although in this reviewer's opinion insufficient stress is placed on the role of lithological diversity in ecological development. In ecological studies, a prime need is to be able to accurately assess the start phase. Topics considered include consolidation and slope stabilization, glaciofluvial activity, pervection, cryogenic processes, solifluction, nivation, and the role of climate. Chapter 4, Soil development, is enlightening and well presented. However, it suffers from the same defects as many chapters written on soils by well wishers without pedogenetic training. Use is made of certain soil parameters to show rates of soil formation or relationships between soil on different sites without anv consideration o f the heterogeneity of parent materials. Considerable priority is given to dithionite-extracted aluminum (Ald), which in the experience of this reviewer is one of the least consistent, least reproducible, and least meaningful of soil parameters. However, the strong point of this chapter is the estimations of the short time required to form recognizable soil horizons. Many years ago, Swedish workers pointed out marked Ae horizons that had formed when Lake Tana had been catastrophically drained in Sweden about 1790. This corresponds well with several estimations of time of soil formation given in this chapter. There is also a mass of trivia of little import but some warning ought to have been given against misinterpreting the age of soil parent materials in such glacial regions. Glaciers retreat and advance so alarmingly that one may be considering a soil that is really much older than its position would suggest. Chapter 5, Plant succession: patterns and environmental factors, takes up to 100 of the book's 326 pages. It is a fascinating assessment of plant successions and chronosequences from the sites of most recently deglaciated terrains in the world. There is a generous variety of comparisons of sites and processes. chapter concludes with a considerable discussion on the environmental controls on successional sequences. In chap. 6, Plant successions: processes and models, an explanation is offered of the mechanisms of change. This is a worthy objective and quite elegantly examines models already presented and proposed but concludes that a geoecological model produces a more complete explanation of successions in an evolving landscape. author is always seeking a steady-state position, but can this already be attained in such young landscapes? At the conclusion of the chapter it is admitted that gradual allogenic changes are the culprit preventing utopia. In the final chapter, The ecological significance of recently deglaciated terrain, brief reviews are made of the analysis of chronosequences and of the author's geoecological approach and some broader implications for the continuing study of these terrains. There is a truly magnificent and complete list of references covering some 40 pages. What is in it for geotechnicians? For those working in such terrains, and their numbers are likely on the increase, this is an elegantly written treatise on the processes obtaining and most of the physical and plant features to be found there. This book will put the engineers working in recently glaciated terrains in touch with and in sympathy for the physical and plant features to be seen and experienced around them.