This book is an introductory presentation to the theory of local zeta functions. As distributions, and mostly in the archimedian case, local zeta functions are called complex powers.

The volume contains major results on complex powers by Atiyah, Bernstein, I. M. Gelfand, and S. I. Gelfand. Also included are related results by Sato. The section on $p$-adic local zeta functions presents Serre's structure theorem, a rationality theorem and many examples by the author. It concludes with theorems by Denef and Meuser.

Prerequisites for understanding the text include basic courses in algebra, calculus, complex analysis, and general topology. The book follows the usual pattern of progress in mathematics: examples are given, conjectures follow, conjectures are developed into theorems.

This book is accessible and self-contained. Results illustrate the unity of mathematics by gathering important theorems from algebraic geometry and singularity theory, number theory, algebra, topology, and analysis. The ideas are then employed in essential ways to prove the theorems.