Rating: 
Summary: Great clarity on Java - from the "ground up"
Review: I've been "in the trenches" going from COBOL to Java during the past few months, and I've finally found the book that I should have started with in the first place. I began with the Core Java Fundamentals book (Horstman - Cornell) and wasted a lot of time. The Core Java book spends an inordinate amount of effort trying to relate everything to C++ and VB programmers, and it IS supposed to be a beginners book. The Complete Reference is chock full of great code examples which are used as building blocks to some of the more difficult concepts, such as inner classes or inheritance. I'm getting ready to take the Java exam now and am using this book as my predominate study guide. As was noted by an earlier reviewer, I also had part of the binding come apart within about three days after purchasing the book. I'll return it and get a new copy. BTW, the O'Reilly Java in a Nutshell book works great as a quick reference.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent representation
Review: I bought a couple of java books but none of them explained ,java in simple terms.Kudos to the good work done by authors. I have two complaints with this book. 1. The binding is so poor and had to return the first copy and the second one was no better.Let Mc-Graw hill get noticed of this problem. 2.The authors could have included excercises at the end of each chapter so as put the grasping in to practice.hope they would include in their next revision. Other than this nothing else stops me to give five stars!
Rating:
Summary: This book has repaid itself.
Review: The scale of Java classes means this book can never cover everything, however it surpasses all java code reference books that I have seen (especially Java Unleashed). The book is crammed with code cheats you can pillage, many of which I have adapted for my own programs. For instance, an data-warehousing prog with a retrieval GUI/servlet with all the attendant classes involved. This is not a textbook for learners and does not go into depth like O'Reilly's. But it is a great book for both learners and programmers alike. Other Java book recommendations - Mughal&Rasmussen, Java in a Nutshell. Happy hacking!
Rating: 
Summary: Just as a FIRST Java book
Review: This book is a must for the person starting with Java. This book creates a solid base for Java programming, but you cannot create real-time projects with it. Topics like Applets,java.lang, java,util are explained quite in detail wheras topics like Packages,I/O,Swings,java networking are not so good. Advanced Java is also not good.JDBC is not even mentioned. Anyway, the book on the whole is nice for beginners.The concept of classes,methods,operators,control statements is also explained in the beginning of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent first course
Review: If you are a programmer looking for your first book of Java, look no further. I quickly went through the entire book and then started working on servlets (using the O'Reilly book). Only then I realised how valuable this book actually is. This book gives you a very good base on which you can build your specialization. True, it does not really cover Swing, it does not matter to me, as I specilize in servlets and JDBC.
Rating:
Summary: If you need one Java book - this is it!
Review: This book gives nice coverage of the Java language with particular focus on the new Collections. This book also has nice coverage of threads and several chapters devoted to user interface related matters - swing, servlets, applets, etc. What is particularly refreshing with this book is the large number of complete and reasonable examples (which was a major deciding factor for my purchase of this book). I have used several other Java books - including the O'Reilly series and feel they do not compare in ease of use to this book. Although the depth in some areas could be greater, (as evidenced by entire Java books devoted to Threads, I/O, etc.) as a language reference this book is unsurpassed. You can usually find enough information in the book to give you a reasonable idea how to use some element of the language. This book is definately a nice supplement to the Java docs. The author also does a nice job of pointing out important differences between Java 1.1 and Java 1.2.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent !
Review: This book is excellent for someone who is learning Java. Organised material, simplistic writing style, a nice font, and a good grasp on the language makes it very interesting reading material.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Great...wow...
Review: It is a good book for beginers who can also get a feel of some advanced topics like RMI,Beans,Swing & Graphics.JDBC has been completely left out.But then you can't have everything. The applet examples at the end are worthwhile to go through.After a careful consideration of the book it will not be wrong to say that it is a good starting point for people interested in creating and drinking more of Java.
Rating:
Summary: A very good book
Review: I agree with one of the reviewers of this book that some topics are not covered in absolute detail, but that's fine with me since this book is geared towards those trying to learn Java. Once you know the basics, you can find other books to give you focus in the areas you would like. Herbert Schildt is a great author. I have learned a great many things from his C/C++ books and Java books and would recommend his works to anyone interested in learning how to program in these languages.
Rating:
Summary: Java2: the Complete Reference
Review: This is an excellent book for someone who already knows C (or C++), but is not a genius. I think that one or both of the authors loves teaching and has taught Java many times. The examples are ingeniously constructed to illustrate the points being taught.
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