I borrowed this one from a friend, and I am hesitant to return it. The sections on optimization have been reread often.

I would not say the book is advanced. A college degree and one semester of LISP instruction, (and maybe access to an "old timer") should be sufficient if you patiently work your way through. The latter chapters are relatively independent of each other, so don't worry if a section seems too hard.

The chapter on GPS is of historical interest, but so obviously dated that I did not work any of the examples in this chapter - but that's the strength of the book - different people will find different chapters interesting.

This is an extremely advanced book on AI techniques. The examples are the best that I have seen in thirty years of Lisp involvment. The author treats many of the classical AI programs and implements them with Common Lisp. Sophisticated search strategies are discussed with example code being given for all of them. A very strong chapter on program optimization is included, a subject often omitted by Lisp writers. Included is complete code for Eliza as well as a treatment of EMYCIN. The author also treats the implementation of embedded languages and gives PROLOG and SCHEME as examples. The book is addressed to production level programmers. This book is definately not for beginners in the Lisp language.