This book gives a nice insight into the history of the concept of soliton. After a long (but interesting) historical introduction, the author goes deeper into the physical and mathematical concepts related to waves and (nonlinear) dynamics. Although the treatment always stays at an elementary level , the author always try to enlight the physical meaning of the results. From this point of view it will please the beginner already having some notions of these concepts.

All the areas of science where the concept of soliton has been proved to be useful are mentionned, which makes the books quite complete on the subject.

I dont give 5 stars because of a lake of clarity of the last chapter on particle physics (but I must admit that this is subjective and that this area of physics is not my speciality) and because of the price (this book is quite expensive). Needless to say that this book remains an original and quite pedagogical introduction on the subject. You will need some other books to get skilled with all the notions relative to soliton (the book by Dauxois and Peyrard will be a good choice to pursue your personnal reading). A good starting point nevertheless !