Rating: 
Summary: Great overview and how to get started
Review: Book covers how to start from zero and produce reports. He covers about every angle conceivable from that point.
If you are wanting a book digging into the guts and details of stickier reports then this is probably not the book for you. But, if you are wanting to learn this technology and have no experience then this is the book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: A good start, but a disappointment
Review: Brian Larsen made an excellent start to his book, SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services. Chapter 3, for example, may be the best concise explanation I've ever read of database fundamentals. But it goes downhill from there. The basics of the SQL Server Reporting Services program is fairly well covered, and the examples and exercises are excellent - but they come with only the barest explanations as to how the report works, or why the program works this way. From the standpoint of the SQL expert, this book may be enough - but for the person who wants to be able to design and use the reports drawn from that database, there's not enough. Microsoft hypes the Reporting Services program as being well-suited for the non-SQL expert. This book doesn't help much; for example, Larsen gives short shrift to the graphic query designer, preferring instead to write his own SQL queries. This is fine if you're an SQL expert - but the cover of the book says I don't need to know a lot about programming. Many features of the program are undescribed. Many others are referred to, but with minimal explanation as to how the feature works, or why we might want to use it. In many cases, I'm unable to fathom why certain features might be useful, or how to accomplish certain goals. For example, what do "details groups" do in a list data region? I _think_ this might be a useful feature - but this book doesn't cover it. When Brian covers SQL stored procedures, the author simply types one in - without ANY explanation as to what it does or why it does it. It's a nice magic trick - but what I need is a book that covers the secrets _behind_ the tricks. It's a good book, _IF_ you're an SQL expert. I'm not. This book doesn't really meet my needs.
Rating:
Summary: A good start, but a disappointment
Review: Brian Larsen made an excellent start to his book, SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services. Chapter 3, for example, may be the best concise explanation I've ever read of database fundamentals. But it goes downhill from there. The basics of the SQL Server Reporting Services program is fairly well covered, and the examples and exercises are excellent - but they come with only the barest explanations as to how the report works, or why the program works this way. From the standpoint of the SQL expert, this book may be enough - but for the person who wants to be able to design and use the reports drawn from that database, there's not enough. Microsoft hypes the Reporting Services program as being well-suited for the non-SQL expert. This book doesn't help much; for example, Larsen gives short shrift to the graphic query designer, preferring instead to write his own SQL queries. This is fine if you're an SQL expert - but the cover of the book says I don't need to know a lot about programming. Many features of the program are undescribed. Many others are referred to, but with minimal explanation as to how the feature works, or why we might want to use it. In many cases, I'm unable to fathom why certain features might be useful, or how to accomplish certain goals. For example, what do "details groups" do in a list data region? I _think_ this might be a useful feature - but this book doesn't cover it. When Brian covers SQL stored procedures, the author simply types one in - without ANY explanation as to what it does or why it does it. It's a nice magic trick - but what I need is a book that covers the secrets _behind_ the tricks. It's a good book, _IF_ you're an SQL expert. I'm not. This book doesn't really meet my needs.
Rating: 
Summary: Too lite for me, possibly good for others
Review: I browsed through this at a bookstore recently, and saw that many pages had lists like:
Click on File->Open
Choose this option
Choose that option
Press this button
Sigh, I don't like it when a book states what should be obvious.
This book is too low-level for my needs. Granted, I'm looking for a book that assumes that I know .NET and SQL Server already, so this may be appropriate for someone else. I just wanted to get a book that would give a good overview of the architecture, and then let me start using it ASAP. This is not quite it.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid Starter Book...
Review: I consider myself to be at a moderate knowledge base with regard to SQL Server, and I have worked with Crystal Reports and Microsoft Access reporting quite a bit. With this being my first interaction with Reporting Services, I felt Brian Larson's book was just the right pace for me. Numerous reporting examples are given, walking you through each step by step, resulting in some great reporting ideas (at least for me!) I found few if any errors in the text, and was able to zip through it cover to cover in a couple of days.
I did also purchase the Wrox text, which I will be delving into next.
Rating:
Summary: A guide for newbies and veterans alike
Review: I found Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services by Brian Larson to be both entertaining and highly informative. The three main attributes that I like were the assumed knowledge level of the reader, the order in which Mr. Larson worked through the examples he provided, and the business need paradigm which frames the whole book. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services assumes very little knowledge on the part of the reader, but manages to provide explanations and detail procedures in a manner that doesn't belittle the novice nor frustrate the more advanced user. Mr. Larson avoids the trap into which many other technical writers have fallen: abandoning the novice as the book advances. As the complexity of the examples increases, so does the assumed knowledge base of the user, but there is always a well defined trail of bread crumbs leading the novice back to the appropriate spot in the book where the skill was originally explained. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services works through concepts in a way that I found effective. First, Mr. Larson tells us what Reporting Services features are to be explored. Next, the business/reporting need is explained, followed by an overview of how the reader will meet that need. We then work through a task list with detailed, step-by-step instructions including images and screenshots. This is accomplished both within the confines of the friendly Visual Studio wizards, and without the wizard so the reader is exposed to what's happening behind the scenes. Finally, Mr. Larson provides the reader with further context and explanations for why tasks were necessary or why they were performed in the manner and order in which they were performed. Finally, the entire book is framed by a desire to meet the business needs of a fictitious shipping company. Though the business and business model are highly entertaining, and I caught myself laughing aloud on several occasions, the needs of its employees are much the same as any terrestrial, real world company. Because of this, the reader stays grounded, and is led to think of ways to apply the examples, and the skills or features they illustrate, to their own business environment. In my opinion, it is this aspect of Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services that is the most valuable.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing special. Good Introduction to Sql Reporting Sevices
Review: Its basically for a non-programmer. and it says basically on the cover thats its for DBAs. so it was my fault. too simple and straightforward. but it was good for an introduction.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book spanning all aspects SQL Server Reporting
Review: Microsoft's recently released SQL Server reporting solution has many powerful capabilities such as matrices, charts and graphs, subscriptions and notifications. However, these extended features have until now been largely untapped due to a lack of proper documentation. Brian Larson's book finally fills many of the gaps by covering not only the essentials of the product, but also providing a thorough examination of the more advanced capabilities. His step-by-step approach is incredibly easy to follow. In addition,the frequent screenshots and detailed index allow you to quickly identify the information you are interested in. I highly recommend this book and give it a Five-Stars rating without hesitation.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but could have been better
Review: SQL Server reporting services are a relatively new feature of SQL Server 2000, so I was quite excited to pick up a copy of this book. While this is a good beginning book for learning SQL and the basics of SQL Server reporting services, I have to say that I was a bit disappointed in both the presentation and depth of content this book provides. Again, this book provides some good explanation, however, the reader should be prepared for an introductory book, certainly not an advanced text.
The first section of the book provides a very good introduction to SQL and SQL Server. However, this is still very introductory information, and will only be useful for very beginning readers. In fact, the author doesn't begin discussing the books topic until page 161. Again, this introductory information is quite necessary to understand the rest of the text, I was just hoping for a more abbreviated version of the introductory material.
The rest of the book is actually much better and much more met my expectations. The author then proceeds to discuss how to generate reports. While much of the work involved in creating reports with SQL reporting services involves the use of a wizard, the author does a good job demonstrating how to expand reports beyond the default. The last section of the book goes through many of the more advanced options found in reporting services. There is a good discussion on exporting reports to different formats (including PDF, TIFF, and CSV). The final two chapters of the book are excellent, which discuss such advanced options as configuring subscriptions for reporting services and ASP.NET Code Access Security (CAS).
This is really a good book, it's just not as advanced as I was hoping for. While it's certainly a valuable resource for anyone working on SQL Server reporting services, it would have been preferable if the introductory content wasn't quite as extensive. In spite of this complaint, I would still recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Reporting Services for Newbies
Review: There are 2 RS (Reporting Services) books out right now, this one, one by WROX. This book is good if you are a newbie to RS, but the examples he uses are very minimal.
How to Choose:
1. If you're moderately clueless but really want to learn; use Larson's book "Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services," {and maybe pick-up Murach's C# (.Net Developer)}
2. If you're a solid SQL Server user and are comfortable setting up RS and have a little C# or VB.NET experience; go with the WROX book.
You may have to do what I did and go through both RS books. I started out clueless and the WROX book would have been too much to start with. This book was a good starter for me, "an advanced newbie" but left me wanting much more.
This review will eventually be out of date, but I think I'll stand by the WROX book (though it has errors). Larson's book is going to get beat out as the entry level book pretty quickly. (as soon as someone publishes another one)
WARNING: If you have never installed SQL Server, this is not the place to start. Reporting Services is not Word. It takes a moderate level of Server knowledge to even get started.
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