Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Introduction to UML
Review: This is, in my opinion, an excellent book. It's short and sweet; it includes enough information to be useful without going off the deep end into territory of interest primarily to academics. This book emphasizes a refreshing, low-ceremony approach to software development. All the major aspects of UML are discussed: Use cases, class diagrams, sequence diagrams, collaboration diagrams, stereotypes, packages and collaborations, state diagrams... I found the concise explanation of the differences between association, aggregation and composition to be especially useful. At the end of the book the author also goes through a simple example using Java to show how to get from modelling to an actual piece of code. If you are a solid intermediate-level developer, this book is an invaluable stepping stone on the path toward mastery of object-oriented design techniques. It would probably be somewhat useful for a beginner, and would probably be rather too trivial for a sophisticated software designer.
Rating:
Summary: A great book on UML and much more
Review: When I first read this book I thought, hmm, that's a really good first step to learning UML. I then read many other books including Larman's Applying UML and Patterns. After some time and achieving decent knowledge in OOAD, I took another look at UML Distilled. I realized that I missed out on about half the concepts because I really didn't have the background. This book is a goldmine of distilled information. The way the author seperates the perspectives is much better appreciated when the reader has some background. I would recommend reading this to get a start in UML, then reading some intro OOAD books and finally coming back to this and reading it again. The only complaint I have is that you need to read slowly because Fowler has something good to say just about everywhere.Definitly a classic.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, a Must have
Review: This is the best book about UML. Can not believe that Fowler can use a so easy way to describe a whole complicate subject. If there are some defects, only one I have is change the "string" in page 143 to "String".
Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: This book is fantastic for a green UML guy like me. It had opened my eyes to the use of UML and helps me to understand the diagrams that others around me use.
Rating: 
Summary: very good worthful book for money.....
Review: This is the second book which iam reading at present.where i found this book is very usuful for learning basics of uml.and my first bookm i had studied is uml user guide which is also very usuful book but in detailed book.if u have patience to read book u can go to user guide.but uml distilled is very short book but author covered every point ..overall this is very good book which u can buy .
Rating:
Summary: A Solid Consise UML Introduction
Review: This book was an excellent place to start learning UML. It quicly covers all the major aspects, and prehaps more importantly, points you to other books that delve into the topics in more depth. The book is written in a "mentor" style and you never feel you are being preached or talked down to -- Fowler's tone is peer to peer. The only complaint I have is that "Chapter 11: Moving to Code" was a bit terse and probably should be expanded to about twice it's current size (or just removed -- the book wouldn't be hurt much). But this is just a minor nit. I enjoyed reading this book and feel it has gotten me started along the road to using UML properly. I gave it 5 stars for being a good introduction book -- If you want all the gory details this is not a good book (but do give it a read to determine where the gory details you really need are documented!).
Rating:
Summary: More informative than more comprehensive UML books
Review: Martin Fowler's UML Distilled surprised me as being a better read than The UML Users Guide by the three amigos. Martin Fowler manages to provide an overview of UML in a short book that actually has information lacking in bigger, more complete UML books. The definition of the three main perspectives of UML diagramming: Conceptual, Specification, and Implementation; as well as the better coverage of Activity Diagrams and advanced concepts and techniques normally not thought to be covered in an overview book, make this book the quickest way to get an overall feel and understanding of the UML.
Rating:
Summary: Concise and well written overview of UML
Review: If you need to learn UML this is a great book. It is well written in that everything is concise and descriptive. Examples of what diagrams should have and look like are given throughout so with the help of some diagramming software anyone can produce UML diagrams. You might be disapointed though when you receive this book and see how small it is. Usually, when I pay $$ for a book, it is at least 4 times this size of this baby.
Rating: 
Summary: A decent summary of OOP and UML but pedagogically unsound
Review: For a book as short as this one, I expected a more well-written book. The chapter of use-case diagrams seemed USEless. He started off that chapter with a good written example, but then chose to display a diagram related to a different example that was never explained! It gave me the impression that he did not know how to draw these diagrams with a tool, so he decided to steal the diagrams of others, even if they were not representative of the book's examples. This book may be ok for the average programmer who wants something quick to read to give them the false impression that they "know" UML. But for a textbook, which was the purpose it served me and my students, I would have preferred a book that gave solid defintions and stuck to them.
Rating:
Summary: Great Concept -- Weak Execution
Review: I very much like the concept of a brief guide to the essentials of UML without unnecessary clutter. I think there is a great demand for this approach in many areas and that is why many people have given this book 5 stars. However, the author does a poor job of condensing the material effectively in the short space allotted. The first 38 pages are a dull and useless discussion of "process." It has virtually nothing to do with UML, yet it consumes 1/4 of the book! I expected this book to get right into UML and without a lot of fluff. So, I was disappointed that it took so long for a "distilled" book to get to the point. The 100 pages which actually cover UML are good, and cover most of the areas you will need to understand the UML notation. However, I felt there should have been more example UML diagrams to help solidify the concepts. Also, the author tends to stray into a lot of personal opinion about how he uses UML. This is not necessarily bad, given that he has a lot of real-world experience, but it is clear that he believes "his way is the best way," and I found that a little annoying. Overall, the book does fulfill its purpose, although not nearly as well as I expected.
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