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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent - top notch
Review: I first read this book after getting a copy from my local library. I liked so much I bought a copy. The first thing to realize is this book is a management book about Software Agents. It does a great job of explaining the various aspects of agents. It could also be used for as a college textbook. There aren't sets of problems, but there is a whole lot of basic knowledge. I don't have a lot of agent experience, but I have more now after reading this book, but I was never lost reading this book. The book is a great starting point to learn the field. When you finish the book you will have a basic understanding of the different branches of the field, and the whole book is truly top notch.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best on the Market
Review: This book cover a lot of ground in a short space of time and gives one a detailed taste for how agents are created from current technologies, and more importantly, what they might be. That is, if all the suggestions in this book were followed, we might soon have really 'intelligent agent ' software- which as the authors state - "agents live in a barren wilderness" - I agree with that statement. Being the broad-scope and wide-ranging work that it is, this book has hit the target in terms of coverage. While there have been other agent books recently, this one covers all aspects of agent technology. In doing so, I found it very positive, but of course this depends on whether you want an overview of the field, or a programming reference manual. This is not a programming book and do not buy it if you want code examples Finally, this book is much more than what has appeared on the market thus far. Its depth and breadth is actually pretty amazing considering its length of only 200 pages. I would recommend it to anyone who wanted to either gain a good grounding in agent issues, or to expand your understanding of the subject.
Rating: 
Summary: useless mumbo jumbo!
Review: This is a useless book. Their definition of software agents is vague and seemingly includes 90% of all software out there today. Technical details of any kind are not given. The book fails to discuss agent technology within its proper context of artificial intelligence, distributed computing, and communications. Terms and concepts are brought up as nothing more than buzzwords. This book is all hype and salemanship with no substance whatsoever. It reminds me of the many terrible books written 10 years ago on artificial intelligence applications that failed to convey to the reader a deeper understanding of artificial intelligence itself. For those interested in really learning about agent technology, I recommend titles such as Multiagent Systems from MIT Press.
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