Within my awareness, this is the best author on the physics of lightning (voltage, current, charge, speed, event sequence, frequency of occurrence, length/width of channel, temperature, etc). Related subjects such as injuries, death rate, damage, protection, thunderstorms, harnessing power, etc are also discussed. The book could use updating with data acquired in the last 16 years (1986-2002). An improvement to the book could be more info on lightning protection. Another book by Uman, 'Lightning', is less general and more technical about the physics of lightning.