Rating: 
Summary: Forced much rethinking
Review: Having just finished this book I can say that it forced us to rethink how we build applications on top of SQL. The internals and architectural info in this book is stunning in its volume and usefulness. I truly feel that our eyes have been opened insofar as building applications that take advantage of all SQL offers and use it in the best way possible.Particularly insightful was the exploration of Windows internals that precedes the discussion of SQL internals and frames the latter. I think I have finally found out why so many parts of SQL seemed mysterious to me: I did not understand the underlying OS services they were using or leveraging, so had no real understanding of them. Take scatter-gather I/O for example. I had read in MSDN that SQL uses scatter-gather I/O. But since I didn't understand what that really was, it didn't mean anything to me. Well, now I know. I really have it and I owe it all to this book.
Rating:
Summary: Best SQL Server book ever
Review: This the best SQL Server book ever written. It is my new bible and the only SQL Server book I take with me when I go to client sites. It is astonishing in the sheer topics it covers. It covers every aspect of SQL Server - both inside and outside the main engine. Topics like DTS, replicaton, FTS, etc. are covered in the same way that the base engine itself it - in astonishing detail. Practically every chapter could be its own book. Take the SQL-XML chapter for example. There are some 150 pages of XML discussion in this book - over 10% of the whole book! If you didn't know SQL-XML when you started this book you will when you finish! The other thing that makes this book the best ever is the quality of the writing. It is simply excellent. I found the book the hard to put down. The instruction is so clear and readable that it is actually kind of enjoyable to sit down with. This differs from other books I have where I use them more as a kind of reference and would never read them straight through or just for the enjoyment of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a first choice
Review: This book is maybe ok, but not a first choice on the topic.
The coverage, outside of all of book one and book two of the series reprinted for your convenience has average and often hard to follow language. Not due to the subject matter but the author's inability to write clearly. The chapters on win32 with code the author stresses not to actually use is an ok beginners guide if you are new to sql. If you look around the other topics in the book are all over bol and msdn and everywhere on microsoft.com for that matter. Many reviewers seemed surprised by some of the info and did not know of it, but any average Joe with an internet connection can get full versions of this material on msdn and other places in similar format, all text and not easy to use. No visual references along the way make you feel like you are reading about something that doesn't really exist and if it did how would you go about using it. I truely believe the author relies on his readership to not be professionals with access to technet and other areas that have all of this information, in some cases it almost seems like it was simply repeated from technet or msdn or vs.net help files.
The reviewers never mention anything outside of it's brilliance and how it's a complete XML book. I've studied xml since it came into the limelight compiling 5 books no the subject now and even then there is much more to learn. Those that say the few chapters here have it covered are not informed enough on the subject to be making those statements.
Do you work in a windows shop? If so you know win32 will be a thing of the past shortly, replaced by the .NET framwork. It's too bad none of this was mentioned and it was written like this is the future of sql when it's a book on sql as it stood around the turn of the century. Being 2004 this is fast becomeing outdated material. Most of it was included in early 90s books as well, the other from bol.
the author writes as though he likes to hear himself in his mind's eye. He will spend pages on how he feels about something before getting into it and then only repeats bol. Multiple times I've seen votes or reviews come out on these books in one day in numbers obviously fake. After that, I was upset. These books are being sold under false marketing and it can be proven. Just read the reviews however and you will see how they all seem to be very very similar in style and content, and each review less than five will get a treatment from reviewers to make it sound as though that person was not intelligent enough to make that observation, when you can easily tell that reviewer is twice that of anyone putting her down. Just read the reviews, or visit the authors website before buying and you'll see this and why this is not worthwhile to add to your shelf.
Rating:
Summary: The new king of the SQL SERVER hill
Review: I have practically every book published on SQL SERVER. This book is the best one of them all. It is even better than the previous Guru Guide books and that is saying something. What the book does that no other does is mix painstaking detail with unbelievable breadth of coverage. Some books are deep but narrow in scope. Some are broad in scope but not very deep. This book pulls of the seeming impossible: every chapter is mindboggling in it's depth but the book as a whole covers virtual every part of SQL SERVER. For ex., take the DTS chapter. This shoudl be studdied by any one workign with DTS. Its that good. No part of the technology is not covered. I knew DTS pretty well before I read this chapter. Now I think I know it twice as well as before. The same coudl be said for the entire book. The Sql Xml chapter is over a hundred pages long and contains hundreds of code examples. Every piece of the technology is covered in detail. The book takes no shortcuts. I admit I had my doubts about the book a couple of hundred pages into the OS fundamentals section but having perserveared I can tell you it was worth it. I at first thought the idea of covering OS fundamentals, COM, and XML in a SQL SERVER book was stretching a bit, but now I understand why and am so glad the book took that approach. Not only do I know a lot more about SQL, I know a whole heckofa lot more about the technologies it uses such as the OS and COM. This alone was invaluable and worth the time spent reading the book. Henderson seems to get better with each book and knows exactly what mix of theory and pragmatics to go for in each one. This is his best work yet and the best book available on SQL SERVER.
Rating: 
Summary: Average and a little late
Review: This book has average material on writing stored procs, in some cases studies into the levels that are more geared toward someone wanting to excel in query writing only. I hoped for more comprehensive coverage. The XML coverage is average. It has the few 2 or 3 column output examples with a few methods and the standard setup of a virtual directory for sqlxml. This can be found anywhere and with the importance of it, it's a waste of space here since it is now time any professional needs complete XML coverage. Anyone here that claims this has complete XML coverage is simply not aware of the technology. It is the crux of .NET, so don't buy it for XML. As usual, the book, like all others is coming out when a major technology shift is occurring. The .NET framework is taking the place of win32 so this is now officially legacy code. Except for one chapter using vb.net there is no real discussion of using sql with the framework. I'm not sure why all the other reviewers are celebrating the book so much when it's really only for reference of legacy code and systems. .NET and it's counterparts are not only here to stay as te author himself tells you, but it's picking up momentum faster than any other technology in years. This book is not going to be of any value within a year, except again as a legacy reference. my suggestion is getting good material on XML, SQLXML and .NET if you are a microsoft person. You don't have any time to lose. This will slow you down as it has no remoteing, .NET or any type of .NET framework. Any modern microsoft book would explain the .NET framework, not win32. Microsoft is quicly sunsetting the win32 family of operating systems. that is the simple truth. It's your money, but I found I knew the sql info in here from books dating back 4 to 6 years. The many high reviewers are a mystery to me. There is nothing special about this book, nor lasting technologies.
Rating:
Summary: The new reference for Sql Server administrators everywhere
Review: The book is really two books in one. It is the most comprehensive yet concise guide I have seen to Windows fundamentals in a long time. That's right - Windows fundamentals. The book teaches that you have to know the environment in which Sql Server runs to really understand it and having gone through it I can add a hearty "Amen!" The first few chapters of the book are dedicated to explaining how Windows works and how applications can use its many services. I have read the other two Guru's books and this one picks up effectively where they leave off. It is very different from them in the sense that it focuses much more on how things work than on how to use this or that feature of Sql Server pragmatically. OTOH it is the same deep treatment that all three books are and well deserves the Guru distinction. The majority of the book is spent investigating one component of Sql Server after another all the while leveraging the OS fundamentals shared earlier in the book. This is an extremely innovative and effective teaching technique. It beats having to refer to lots of other books while you read this one in order to understand it and it beats having the book gloss over important details because the fundamental concepts haven't yet been established that would make a detailed discussion possible. I get what the author is trying to do here and think it's brilliant. The specific topics run the gamit of Sql Server technologies: DTS, snapshot, transactional, and merge replication, Sql Xml, Notification Server, UMS, Memory Managers, ODS-OLE, Full Text, etc. The entire Sql Server platform is touched on in one place or another in this book. Given the other books currently available I think this book will open your eyes if you work with Sql Server for your job as I do. It certainly gave me a huge wealth of insight into how this wonderful product works. I feel several steps closer to actually mastering it than I used to.
Rating:
Summary: Mucho code! Regular expressions! At long last!
Review: A lot of the other reviewers have praised this book because of its great info on Sql internals. For my money, the best part is all the code --> there are >1000 sample files on the CD! And I finally have regular expressions in T-Sql! And arrays! GREAT stuff --> its worth the cost of the book just to get the code!!
Rating:
Summary: The book to get if you really want to know how it all works
Review: I have over ten years of experience building database applications. I bought Hendersons' Guru Guide books a few months ago and have been studying them since. I would say this is my favorite of the three books. I think it is Henderson's best work yet. Each of the books suprised me by being able to top its predecessors. This one is really the crown jewel of the three. To be fair each book has its own unique focus. The first one is about learning the Transact-Sql language inside out. The second is about taking that to the next level and creating procedureal objects with it. It is also about learning Sql-Xml inside out. This current book is about the design and architectural of Sql Server as explored by an expert developer. The first Guru Guide is the book to have if you are wanting to master the Transact-Sql language and all of it's nitty gritty. For example, you won't find anything about statistical functions and set operations in either of the other two books. The second is the one to have if you want to master stored procedure development, extended procedures, and Sql-Xml. Neither of the other books have multiple chapters on Sql-Xml or show how to build extended procedures. This book is the one to get if you want to know how all the pieces fit together, how they all work. Neither of the other books focus on the architecture of Sql Server or cover it in any great detail. The focus on this book is about what happens under the hood. I learned about the User Mode Scheduler (a piece I had never even heard of before), the memory manager, the way the server interacts with the network and the operating system, how full text search works under the covers, and many other things. And I learned a ton about Windows. About a fourth of the book is about how Windows itself works, the point being that you can't understand how Sql Server works and why it works the way it does without knowing something about it's host operating System. The money I spent for this is the best money I have spent on a computer book in a long time. It not only enlightens about Sql Server but about many other topics as well.
Rating:
Summary: Must Have for SQL Server developers & DBA's
Review: I have been working RDBMS for more than 10 years and with SQL Server for more than 5 years. I have not seen a book in SQL server which explains exactly how internals of SQL Server is implemented. There are lots of SQL books out there which are nothing but the repeat of SQL books online. This books stand out from the crowd. First 400 pages of the book talks about the windows OS, which crucial to understand SQL Server internals since the database engine lot of OS features. I like this author's straightforward style and the sample programs are excellent in demonstrating the concepts. I would strongly recommend this book for anybody interested in understanding SQL Server beyond its syntax. I wish I had an opportunity to study this kind of book few years back.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Balanced Content
Review: This is one of the best books that I have read so far on Windows and SQL Server. It gives the user a good understanding of some of the basic windows concept that are so fundamental to SQL Server internal workings.
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