Simon and McQuarrie have succeeded in upbraiding the traditional approach to introductory physical chemistry (thermodynamics first, quantum chemistry second) and explaining chemistry the way it ought to be taught, with the fundamentals of quantum theory and molecular dynamics first. The prose and conceptual progression are accessible to the average undergraduate, yet the book covers, in detail, a spectrum of contemporary topics that almost challenge the scope of a physcial chemistry text. It seems that the precedent for future physical chemistry texts has been set and the drab, awkward Atkins text can be abandoned

One of the most emerging fear of P-Chem students is the rigid dificulty and obscureness of the mathematical background. Many textbooks have unfortunately overseen the importance of treating the mathematics and establishing link between the mathematics and the physical interpretation of chemical phenomenon. McQuarrie's text addresses and amends this problem in a brilliant. Difficult mathematical concepts are integrated along with the appropriate topics and are presented in a concise fashion. The first half of the text discusses topics in quantum chemistry while the rest deals with thermodynamics, statistical mechanics,and kinetics. All the equations are backed by clear explanation and mathematical derivation. When I took quantum chemistry (the first course of the P-Chem sequence), we used McQuarrie and it worked just fine in explaining all the topics covered in lecture.s (such as spectroscopy, perturbation theory, etc). Unfortunately professor from the second semester (thermodynamics) decided to abandon McQuarrie and used instead Atkins' Physical Chemistry, which is absolutely not worth the money and very confusing and difficult to follow. I kept the McQuarrie book and used that as study aids and reference, whereas I trashed Atkins as soon as the semester was over (well, I immediately sold it back). McQuarrie is the only P-Chem book you'll find useful and clear.

Excelent book bringing the subject of Phys Chem to the state of art of last years of the XX century. While chem text books are still 40 year behind the phisics one (e.g. Callen, Reif) McQuarrie first try seems succesful on bringing Phys Chem to what is really done on the universities labs. It is one of the best texts on Quantum theory and spectroscopy for chemists I've read since Pauling & Wilson but it fails when it moves to thermodynamics in a discontinuous way, had McQuarrie followed Callen, for example, this book would be a revolutionary text and not an evolutionary one on thermodynamics. I hope a second edition will sane this and, also, bring a, may be, two volume paperback student edition. From this perspective I'm sure this will be the text book for the next decade, replacing other like Atkins that choosed, in the last editions, to replace content by figures.