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Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive, easy to read, great book!
Review: As an experienced developer I found this book very useful.I was looking for a book to dive into the topic of databases, especially relational databases. I found this book as a good comprehensive introductory book. It covers a lot of different topics, Entity-Relation, Normalization, indexing, hashing, transactions and even some notes on object-oriented databases and recent trends. Prior to this book, I had read several books on relational-databases, though they were mostly product-specific books and I needed a general book like this one. This book is not a modeling book, so you have find some other book on the topic.
Rating: 
Summary: Information Lost Among Words
Review: I honestly do not see how this book could be useful to anyone. If you are a beginner, you will soon get lost among the endless, and pointless words, searching for the rare important information. I read paragraph after paragraph that had no real point, or would begin to describe a subject, and then just drop it, stating "but this is beyond the scope of this book." Then why spend two pages talking about it and refer to the concept later?? If you're someone looking for a good reference, look elsewhere as well. Most subjects do not get explained to the fullest, except for the database design model. I'd talk about this more, but it's beyond the scope of this review.
Rating: 
Summary: zzzzzzzzzz
Review: this book gives me a major headache. unfortunately, it's assigned material for an intro database class i'm taking. as a business, not computer science major, I find this book to be overly complicated with too much verbiage. this is an intro book, it should be simple, yet it reads like a math book. just explain the simple concepts and not go into elaborate detail with terminology and database mathematical concepts. this book is geared toward hard-core techies. if at all possible, save your money for an easier and more entertaining book, not a dry, boring, incomprehensible one. alright, now that i've let out my frustrations, i'll get back to studying this book now for the upcoming final. wish me luck. i'll need it!
Rating:
Summary: I hate this book
Review: This book is also one of my reference in database systems. Why? Because this book was written in a very informative way, it covers most of modern databases topic, e.g. RDBMS SQL3 ORDBMS OODBMS etc. Also it is easy to understand, lot of examples, etc. It is worth buying this book. I think it is suitable for any beginner or student or experienced guys who need a clearer understandable way. Although this book is not enough, but it is a great starting point.
Rating: 
Summary: A Solid Introduction to Database Theory and Implementation
Review: This book is an excellent, comprehensive, INTRODUCTION to relational database theory. The book clearly explains what are usually the most frustrating, yet critical, concepts for those new to database design and implementation - entity-relationship modeling, normalization, and transaction management - through the use of illustrated examples, diagrams, and comprehensible text. Of course, the book also thoroughly covers the essential concepts of SQL, ODBC, security, and data integrity. Database Systems also offers some treatment of more advanced database topics like Web connectivity (JDBC, ASP, XML), OLAP, data warehousing, object-oriented databases, and object-relational databases. The book is well organized and logical in sequence, and thus makes a good reference book as well. Notes: This is NOT A "COMPLETE REFERENCE" for all database systems. The book does not offer "complete" coverage of specialized database concepts/issues like database performance tuning, OLAP, or data warehousing, though these subjects are examined in the book to some extent. These subjects are complex enough to warrant separate texts. Also, the book does not exclusively embrace any relational database software title (Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, etc.) Since any one of these products is extremely complex, do not buy this book in expectation of becoming a vendor-specific DBA. Again, separate texts would be required to realize such an achievement.
Rating:
Summary: Open the doors to RDBMS
Review: This book opened the doors of relational database management systems to me. Prior to reading it I had some general experience with MySQL but an incomplete understanding of the subject. Much to my surprise I found I really liked working with a RDBMS's so I began searching for a book that would give me a solid introdcution to the theory and practice. I think this book fit the bill. After reading it I was ready to tackle a data migration project from Unify to Informix. Now I work as a database programmer. I have since purchased and read other RDBMS books about Informix (the RDBMS I have worked most with) but I find that I still refer to this text from time to time to clear up some minor points of confusion. This book will not make you an expert with RDBMS's but it will give you the background necessary to build up your confidence so you can tackle other tasks. At times the prose can be a bit drawn out but those sections are few and far between. Be advised though that this book uses conceptual/practical approach to database design. While it provide some examples using MS Access and Oracle I find the conceptual discussions more interesting and indeed more useful. With this foundation I was able to begin working with Informix Dynamic Server-an RDBMS that is clearly not the focus of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Wrong Book
Review: This book was very well written in the general sense. It covers all the aspects used to design a relational database from beginning to end. I found the chapter on query optimization quite interesting. It really explained what makes a query more efficient and faster. This book does not explain how to use such database tools as Oracle 8i, and MS Access although they are mentioned briefly. A number of chapters in the text were a little repetitive, they helped to illustrate the theory involved by working through a real world example. All in all this is an excellent text for an introduction to database design course however, this text should not be bought if you are looking to learn a specific database management tool.
Rating:
Summary: Massive scope, well written, Great book!
Review: This book will take you from the basics to advanced. Covers tons of stuff (actual page count is over 1000 pp): basic and adv SQL, query tuning, database design, security, ODBC, object oriented databases, distributed systems, relational algebra, security, OLAP and datawarehousing. Its coverage is not skimpy or superficial either. The design chapters are excellent - especially if you're a professional and don't just hack together databases. Also, I found this book easy to read. You won't have to reread stuff because it's poorly written.
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Summary: Too Generalized & Padded
Review: This was a required text for a graduate course in database programming. Let me just tell you it is WAY too generic. Also, its way too big. It tries to cover everything, but does it in such a boring way. In terms of writing style, it seems to me as if the author is trying to pad as many words as possible to each chapter. He always starts and ends with what he is going to discuss or what he has already discussed instead of just either starting or ending. I wanted to tell him, "Don't tell me what you are going to talk about just do it already." I highly disliked the writing style. However, on a few chapters it was just marginal. All in all I can't wait to sell it back at the end of the semester as it was entirely useless to me in almost every conceivable way. In fact, I found Ben Forta's $12 book on sql far better and more useful than this huge worthless paperback. Throughout the duration of the course, I found myself going to the university library checking out other books in order to find out what I needed rather than this one. Bottomline: I am very upset that my instructor chose this book as it was a total waste of my time and more importantly my money.
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