Rating: 
Summary: Too many distractions
Review: This book is low on my list of recommended books for students. Although the technical material and the coding examples are fine, the presentation is flawed by being peppered with truly distracting, if not silly, attempts to aid a learner. The effect is to overwhelm a student with information.
Rating:
Summary: Repetitive and overdosage!
Review: I was throughly confused after reading the chapter on Exception Handling. There was so much repetitive usage of the phrases and words and concepts to explain a simple thing of the propogating of exception up the "call stack". Its taken me a full two days to unlearn what I read from this book and to relearn it on my own from various sources on the net and from the Java Tutorial. Ooff! what a pain. The one great thing about Deitel books is the similarity of structure and approach across all the programming languages that they have books on, but I believe that its this "similarity" that can become confusing!!
Rating:
Summary: To much into detail right away
Review: Like the title says... this book goes into the details of how to build a GUI way too early I thought. Instead of just focusing on the basics of the programming in JAVA first and later have one or many chapters dedicated to building a GUI, this book throws you in it right away, and I do not think it was a good idea.
Coming from C, it was very confusing for me at first.
Although the rest isn't badly done.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for beginners!
Review: This was the text assigned for a beginning course in Java programming. The book constantly introduces more complex concepts in code examples of elementary topics. There is so much flipping back and forth, as another review noted, that my copy turned yellow with Post-its. It is frequently used as a text because the publishers provide PowerPoint lecture slides for the examples in the book. It might well be an excellent refresher for intermediate or advanced programmers, but beginners would be better off with Sun's well-organized and free on-line tutorial.
Rating:
Summary: Could be better
Review: The strength of this book is that it includes many examples and line-by-line explanations of the code.The weakness of this text is that the information is delivered in such small pieces that students have a difficult time assembling the big picture. For example, a complete list of variable types (including arrays) is not developed until completing Chpt 7. Also, some methods are not covered in the text except in the exercises. This confuses students and leaves the instructor in a catch-up situation. If you have experience in other Object Oriented programming languages, the weakness of this book will go unnoticed. However, novices will need supplemental information throughout the text such as an early list of datatypes and the associated parsing commands, a more detailed explanation of creating variables as copies of objects (i.e. greater focus on inheritance) and even inter-related items such as using the parameter name command to make web applets work correctly. A supplemental lab manual is available. It is a great addition to classroom lectures or in a guided lab environment. The lab manual includes reading exercises as well as programming exercises. The programming exercises are directly from the text HOWEVER the lab manual includes detailed programming templates to give beginners that initial help developing good logic.
Rating: 
Summary: Deitel Does it Again!
Review: I've been using Deitel's books for my university studies for some time now, and of all of them, this book is probably one of their better publications. Don't be fooled; this is not a book for the casual reader. If you can't absorb a lot of material, or prefer skimming through the book to learn, this probably isn't your java book. However, if you have patience and some time to read some fairly detailed information, you will learn a lot from this book. It includes a CD packed full of useful code examples, websites etc, and code examples on the CD are reviewed in the book, providing an excellent learning experience. Not only that, but examples and subject materials are explained in great detail, and CLAIRITY (imagine that!). It's a steep price, but if you want to learn some Java, give it a shot.
Rating:
Summary: Good book - way overpriced.
Review: I got this book as a gift and I already had the Wrox java book by Ivor Horton. They are both very good books, comparable in material covered and in clarity of instruction and explanation. However, this book is over twice the amount of the Wrox book with no advantage. I recommend the Wrox book hands down, unless you just have money to burn.
Rating: 
Summary: The Java Book!!!
Review: After passing my programming certification I spent alot of money and time on other books to help me pass the developer certification with little help. Then I picked up the Deitel book. What a breath of fresh air. Everything is covered in this book in clear wording with excellent examples that are fun to complete. This book has the reputation in the Java community as "The Book to Read to learn to program Java"! It is expensive, it is very large but it will help you learn Java and gain a high paying job.
Rating:
Summary: junk review
Review: Writing this review to read others. Very thick book.
Rating:
Summary: Much too dense for a beginner
Review: I chose this book as a text, on the recommendation of a colleague, for an Intro to Java course that I was teaching . After three weeks of using it, I regretted my choice. It is much too dense for a beginner. It also doesn't seem to have a good step-by-step method for learning the parts of the language, preferring to jump ahead into more advanced concepts that are mentioned in an offhand manner far too often. I found myself flipping back and forth constantly. Having said that, I feel that it is a good book to use if you have a decent programming background and a lot of time available. The examples are comprehensive (again, as long as you don't mind flipping back and forth), which would make this book a good auxiliary text.
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