Rating: 
Summary: A good overview of the subject for intermediate programmers
Review: This isn't the best O'Reilly book in the Java series, but it will provide a reasonably good overview of the subject. I wouldn't recommend this book to beginning programmers, because the topic of threading is overly complex for beginners. Look for a general Java book that gives you some simple templates for using threads, if you need them for something. I also wouldn't recommend this for advanced programmers who have special needs in the area of threading. A more advanced book would survey how real JVMs actually perform thread scheduling, comparing them and provide tips for programmers who ned really precise timing or scheduling optimization. Likewise, if you know most of the ins and outs of preventing deadlocks off the top of your head, this book isn't going to teach you very much.Who this book is good for is experienced programmers who need to understand the ins and outs of making their applications threadsafe. If you don't have much (or any) background in threading or you've forgotten some things, this book will cover the topic thoroughly, and demonstrate common pitfalls. It's ideal for people who need to code up things like database connection pools, complex synchronized-access data structures, and statically-accessed resources. As others have mentioned, some of the examples are kind of synthetic and fake, but the book is still extremely usable, and it's an easy read. This book is also effective at covering timed and recurring tasks in Java 1.1 and 1.2, though Java 1.3 now has new helper classes (Timer and TimedTask) that this book doesn't cover. Then again, if you understand how to do it in 1.1 and 1.2 (and really, even if you don't), understanding the new 1.3 classes is dead easy.
Rating:
Summary: shows advantages of Java 1.5
Review: [A review of the 3RD EDITION 2004].
The promise of this book over its earlier editions is the inclusion of the new threading classes under Java 1.5, which is now renamed J2SE 5.0. Personally I think the new acronym is forbidding to newcomers. Just like the HP snake workstations which it called [eg] HP9000/720.
If you are migrating to 1.5, then it is at least worth your time to see the new threading and what you can do with it. Like the thread pooling and task scheduling. The intent is to free you from having to hand craft what Sun regards as often needed threading utility functions. And so each developer does not need to waste her time independently recoding. Sun has performed a little refactoring, at the language level.
But if you are happy sitting on 1.4, and already have the 2nd edition of this book, then I can't say you really need this edition. Unless you want to see possible advantages in threading if you move.
By the way, the book may say threading in Java is easier than in other languages. But that does not mean that threading is easy. The book can give you some appreciation of the nuances involved. In many ways, the issues in the book are far harder than [say] some book on building a UI with Java.
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