Rating: 
Summary: A big waste of money
Review: This book is neither practical nor advanced, despite the claims on the cover. One thing that becomes crystal clear from reading through the book is that neither of the authors is a Transact-SQL expert. We have one giving us (what he must think are) funny analogies having to do with meeting people with the same first name. Oh, that's hilarious. And informative, too. I'm so glad you thought to include that paragraph in your book instead of something more technical. I felt enlightened after I read it. Not.I heard that some of blowhards on the newsgroups were recommending this book, so I got myself a copy. What a waste. I don't know where they get some of these authors. There isn't a bit of technical info in this book that you can't find elsewhere, mostly in the online documentation. For that alone, it gets a one star. I didn't buy the book to get a printed BOL. Another problem is with the coding examples. There must be an error on nearly every other page. I don't expect the code in a book to be perfect, but I do expect most of it to run. Unfortunately, it doesn't. A last problem is with the stuff they leave out. Where are the useful UDFs? Where's the coverage of query tuning? Why didn't you tell me about all the problems with Distributed Partitioned Views? I've had nothing but trouble with them. I put them in production because of books like this one only to discover that they have many prickly edges and really aren't ready for prime time. I guess my final verdict is this: I wouldn't recommend this book if it was the last technical book on the planet. It's a horrible mess that wasted my time.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother
Review: Having read a few other T-SQL books, I can honestly say this is the worst one of the bunch. It's poorly written and the techniques it shows are not advanced in the least. You get the impression that these guys do not actually work in the "trenches" they mention so often. This is in the top ten of the worst computer books I've ever had the misfortune to buy.
Rating:
Summary: Another lame tech book
Review: There's so much wrong with this book that I really don't know where to begin, but here's my top ten in no particular order: 1. It's written very, very poorly. Everything from silly, gradeschool analogies to terrible grammar, to convoluted explanations can be found in abundance. I literally laughed out loud at some of the horrendous prose the book serves up. 2. The book is loaded with errors. I've found so many I've quit counting. 3. The book is nowhere near advanced. Were that not in the title, I guess that would be permissible, but it is, so the book should live up to it. 4. Despite the subtitle on the back of the book, "Practical solutions to common T-SQL problems," the book is about as impractical as they come. Many of the techniques (when they work at all) are not practical in the real world. Handling complex numbers in T-SQL isn't practical, for example, because it's too slow and doesn't correct rounding errors. The authors never mention this. 5. The book is terribly uneven. You can tell multiple people wrote it. You find everything from differing code formatting styles, to different writing styles, to differing opinions on how to address a particular problem. These guys obviously don't know each other well and aren't yet on the same page. 6. Too much similarity to the BOL. There are far too many things that appear far to similar to the BOL. There are tables in the book, for example, that are virtually identical to their BOL counterparts. I didn't buy this book to get a printed version of the BOL. I get the BOL for free with the product and can print it if I want. 7. No originality. There's no technique in this book that I haven't seen in at least one other that predates it. 8. No deep insights. The book is nothing more than a hackneyed collection of code tricks that have appeared elsewhere. I want to know *how* the language works, not just see some code trick that some newsgrouper thought was neato. 9. Too much padding. There's far too much whitespace and padding in this book. Without the strangely formatted source code (which appears to be laid out to use as much page space as possible), the excessive whitespace, pictures, tables, etc., this book would be about half as long as it is. It brings to mind the old Wendy's commerical: "Where's the beef?!" 10. Horrendous organization. The book is all over the place in terms of topics. It makes no sense. It looks like a hodgepodge of things the authors thought might fill a book. It's a shame that such a mess was actually published. There are some "books" that should not see the light of day. This is one of them. Save your bucks and get a real book.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the money
Review: There is really nothing in this book that you can't get from other sources, most especially the Books Online. There is also nothing remotely advanced about it. I'd say its beginner level at best. I have decided to return my copy for a refund which is a first for me.
Rating: 
Summary: A Very Useful Intermediate Book
Review: In reading through the many reviews on this book, I notice that we have a bi-modal distribution. Intermediate users love it, and truly advanced users give it low marks. The sub-title on the back cover is a better clue to what this book is about than the title -- "Practical T-SQL Solutions to Common Problems." If you've sorted through your initial newbie issues about SQL and SQL Server and want to take your skills to the next level, you will find this book extremely worthwhile. If you're already an advanced T-SQL type looking for deeper insights, you'll probably be dissapointed.
Rating:
Summary: Stick with the Books Online
Review: Most of this book is little more than a rehash of the Books Online. If you need a print of the BOL, get this book. If instead you're looking for an advanced Transact-SQL book, don't get this book. It's not advanced in the least.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I bought this one after I heard that a couple guys from the forums wrote it. What a disappointment! Not only is it not a very good book, I'm not sure much of it would make for a good newsgroup posting! The examples are frought with errors and bad advice. The code is inane and often useless from a practical standpoint. This is another one of those books that should never have been published. A real disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: A little like reading the BOL, only not as well written
Review: Reading this book is like reading the BOL (many sections resemble the BOL far too closely), only it's not as well written as the BOL :-) I wish I could come up with something positive to say about the book, but there really isn't anything. It offers nothing more than what you might expect to find in the BOL, except that it's written really poorly. These guys should definitely keep their day jobs.
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre and not advanced in the least
Review: If this is advanced, I'm going to write my own book. Clearly I'm in the wrong business. This is a mediocre little book with nothing new to add to the body of knowledge out there on Tsql. The book does nothing to distinguish itself from the many other wanna-be's on the market. Theres no deep technical insight and no coding tricks that I haven't seen elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Decent for beginners, but not for experts
Review: I could see this book being helpful to the brand new beginner, but I don't think it's very useful for anyone else. I'm kind of in the middle somewhere between newbie and wizard (about 6 mos working with Sql Server) and didn't find much in the book to interest me. But it's been several months since I started with the product - maybe I've forgotten what it was really like. My advice: if you're a beginner, consider this book. If not, don't.
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