The organization of this textbook on the essentials (not foundations) of logic programming is unusual but highly effective. The book is divided into 60 short “themes”; between two and four themes can be covered in a class period. The themes include well-written and concise technical material, as well as cultural asides that place the various aspects of logic programming in perspective and make the book interesting to read.

This work can be read by anyone who has mastered a course in discrete mathematics; it would be appropriate as a second-semester text in discrete mathematics. The book covers many topics that every computer scientist should know something about, including mathematical logic,  theorem  proving, resolution, the semantics of definite programs, partial evaluation, and program verification. The book does an excellent job of introducing these ideas in the context of logic programming.

The exercises are good and answers are provided at the end of the text. A few references are listed in the theme titled “Supplementary Texts,” but a more comprehensive bibliography would make a nice addition to the text.