Rating: 
Summary: Can't get rid of it.
Review: I have used so many java books but at the end, I always end up looking for answers in this book. The book is organized systematically focussing on the introduction and moving on to more advanced topics on volume 2. If you have a little background in java or C++, you won't have any problems understanding the concepts presented. If you are a novice in java, you can still use this book but it will take some time to get accustomed to. But once you do, you will find that you can't get rid of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Same great content, bad new packaging
Review: I just got the new 6th edition of this book and while the content seems to be up to par with the previous editions, the packaging of the book has changed for the worse. The print is much smaller and the paper is much cheaper. While this makes for a book that is much thinner and is environmentally friendly, it is not eye friendly. Of course there was no reduction in the ...list price of the book. What is worse, previous editions included the samples and the JDK on CD, NO CD with this edition. My recommendation, try to find the previous (5th) edition, it has almost everything in the 6th and has much better packaging.
Rating:
Summary: Use in an Advanced CS Course - it's great
Review: I use this book (and its Volume II) for a course I teach at the University of Delaware. It's wonderul. It's definatly written with the experienced programmer with lots of experience but none in Java in mind. You can really pick Java up quickly with this book and it makes a good reference material as well. If you already know how to program and want to learn Java and experience the powerful features of the language and the APIs and class libraries that come with the Java 2 SDK, then this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Great book... Enough to get you up to speed !!
Review: I was a bit reluctant to buying the book, principally because I had bought many Java books already with very little success. After reading all the reviews for its new edition and the previous edition I was even more confused, specially when you read very positive reviews and a few practically destroying the book, so you really don't know what to expect. Anyways I finally made the decision to buy it and all I can say is that I am pleased I made that decision, I finally got the main concepts of Java and I can code, maybe not as well as a Java programmer, but being a newcomer in the Java world I feel very happy that I was able to overcome the frustration of feeling that I was in the middle of nowhere without understanding what I was supposed to code.This book is very well written and its examples are of a great help, moreover the explanation of the examples are simply outstanding. Some other books are great and they might be great for other readers, example Thinking in Java, but in my particular case it was hard to get up to speed as quickly as I am doing it with Core Java 2, I am sure that later on I will be using more advanced books, but for now Core Java 2 is doing a great job teaching me the basics. I look forward to buying Volume II, even though I have read some negative comments about it. As a final point I think I should say that although the book specified that it is aimed at a more advanced audience, it certainly provides the information in a way that beginners can benefit from the book by understanding the concepts quickly without struggling with advanced technical jargon and complex explanations that can take a long time to digest. Cay Hortsmann did an excellent job with this book, I say Core Java 2 should be a "should have" for anyone that wants to become familiar with Java, for other advanced users it might not be sufficient, but for people struggling with getting a solid understanding of the language this book is definitely the way to go. Bottom line, I was finally able to like, enjoy and particularly overcome the frustration from reading other titles that were killing me to point that I was totally disliking Java. ! Great Book !
Rating:
Summary: Buy with confidence
Review: If Java has became a must for your career, as it was for me, and your ignorance about it is absolute, as was mine, and you are tired to waste weeks or even months reading tutorial books which lead you to nowhere, as I did, then these two books (my advice is to buy both Vol.1 and 2) are for you. They are extremely well written and full of useful examples and will introduce you to the language smootly. With them I succeded to write some Java code at last.
Pay attention that they are dealing of what the title honestly declare: Core Java only. In Java there is a lot more but these two are a very good point to start.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT!!
Review: If you code in Java, you MUST get this book.
Very beneficial.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for experts, not so good for everyone else
Review: If you're an experienced C++ programmer, this book might be right for you. However, this book starts too quickly for someone who doesn't have experience with this language or an equivalent language. For example, the "Welcome to Java" program in chapter 1 uses an array and a loop without explaining the details of this syntax works. If you're an experienced programmer, you can probably follow along. Otherwise, you might want to opt for another book. I think Murach's Beginning Java 2 is one of the best for people new to object-oriented programming. One problem with Core Java is that the topics aren't presented in an effective order. Often, skills that are critical to most Java applications are presented after skills that aren't usually necessary. For example, handling exceptions (a skill that's critical to all types of Java applications) isn't covered until after chapters on graphics programming and Swing components (which aren't necessary for many types of Java applications). Another problem is that topics aren't broken down into manageable chunks. For example, Swing components are presented in a single chapter and that chapter is a monster -- over 100 pages long. Although there's some good material in this chapter, it's hard to digest due to its sheer size. To be fair, there are some good things about this book. The author is obviously an expert programmer, and some of the code examples are useful and illuminating. But if you don't have a lot of experience with other object-oriented languages, you might want to start with another book.
Rating:
Summary: Great for C++ developers learning Java
Review: If you're an experienced programmer with a solid C++ background and need to learn and master Java, this book and Core Java 2, Volume II are must-haves. These books cut to the essentials quickly and concisely. The C++ NOTEs are excellent -- pointing out how similiar language tasks are done in Java in relation to C++. The authors definitely have been there, and know that experienced programmers will constantly be thinking in terms of their language of experience.
The books do a great job of covering the core Java language and much of Java's broad class libraries. I wish there was more complete coverage of Collections but this is a minor drawback. Overall the books will give you excellent exposure to the core areas of Java.
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Summary: The best general reference
Review: My department is changing from teaching C++ to Java in the intro CS courses. I have been learning Java over the past few years and have amassed quite a large library of Java texts and references. As with other areas of CS, in which I accumulate many texts, I find that I eventually gravitate toward a select few, key, references. With C++, it was the Lippman text. For Java, I frequently find myself returning to Core Java, Vol 1 after giving up on other texts. I've even used this book as one of the two course texts in a topics course (Design Patterns with Java). My students seem to agree with me in that this book serves as a good in-depth reference for core Java questions. It's not a tutorial, not a textbook full of exercises and testing material, and not a GUI reference (but does include swing and AWT material). It's just the best general reference I've found. I have two copies - one for home and one at the office.
Rating:
Summary: Good language introduction, uneven after that
Review: The first section of this book, which explores the Java language and object orientation in depth is excellent. After that the book goes into Swing, applets (is anyone doing them anymore?), and then into debugging and file I/O. Funny, I would have thought that both of the final chapters would have been pushed forward. Certainly file I/O should go before Swing, right?
Frankly, I think too much time was spent on Swing. The book turned into a reasonably in-depth introduction to Swing and event oriented programming. When it probably should have gone into threading, regular expressions, file I/O and other fundamentals. The quality of the language discussion saved this book for me.
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