Rating: 
Summary: Not worth the (very thick) paper it's printed on
Review: This book was a complete waste of my time. There's nothing here that you couldn't get from the BOL - nothing. It's a badly written rehash of the BOL - nothing more.
Rating:
Summary: Awfully bad
Review: This is very easily the worst SQL Server book around. It's absolutely loaded with rubbish. A full listing of all the junk in this book would take a book itself, but I'll give you one that really takes the cake. It's a tip on page 358:"Rules are made to be broken, but only if the solution is thereby improved." No, rules are _not_ made to be broken. They're _made_ to be followed, hence the term "rules." _Sometimes_ rules _are_ broken, but that is not their innate purpose. The rest of the world knows this. These guys apparently do not. The book is full of cliched, trite stuff like this. What it's not full of is useful technical info. You get lots of nice pictures of Query Analyzer and Visual Source Safe, but very little real technical help. If you buy the book expecting to learn how to write stored procedures, you will be sadly mistaken.
Rating: 
Summary: Not too much value
Review: Book is pretty worthless. It's poorly written, doesn't cover important topics and contains loads of errors. Wasn't what I was expecting at all.
Rating:
Summary: A real rip-off
Review: The first problem here is all the errors. Gosh, there must be one on nearly every other page. They're not major ones, but they shouldn't be there nonetheless. The second problem is the shallow coverage. Many important topics are not mentioned at all or glossed over. You *won't* learn to write SQL Server 2000 procedures by reading this book. The third problem is the SS2K coverage - it's barely there. Many workarounds are shown for things that SS2K makes obsolete anyway. Obviously the book was written for SQL 7.0, then reworked for SS2K. Sorry guys, you missed the mark. The book does not do what it claims to and is the worst computing book I've bought in a long, long time. I'm returning this rip-off to get my money back.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty disappointing
Review: I really wish a true expert in the field would write a book on T-SQL stored procedure programming. These guys obviously don't know what the heck they're doing. The code here is some of the worst I've ever seen. I'd never, ever hand code out like this myself, let alone try to get it published. It's arcane, banal, and demonstrates poor techniques, techniques that don't perform well, and bad habits by the authors. I can't really think of any redeeming qualities - basically seems like a real waste of print.
Rating:
Summary: Complete waste
Review: I can't think of anything good to say about this book. It's dull, lacks any code worth talking about, contains numerous errors and leaves out important topics. It's a sloppily put together joke of a book that I wish I hadn't spent money on.
Rating:
Summary: Returning mine
Review: Five problems: 1. Code is stupid and unhelpful. Either theexamples are too kludgy to be useful or too simplistic to teach youanything 2. Code formatting is impossible to read. I'd beembarrassed to circulate anything I'd written formatted likethis. 3. Writing is terribly dull. There's a way to keep thereader engaged in a technical book. These guys haven't found it. 4.Far too many screen pictures. Ken Henderson's Guru's Guide toTransact-SQL laments this trend and rightfully so. We don't need ahalf page shot of Query Analyzer to see the results of a small query....5. SQL 2K coverage is lacking. There are several deviations(timestamp and @@identity being two examples) into things that areeither obsolete or moot points in SQL 2K. The authors appear not toknow SQL 2K very well. It looks like the book was written for SQL 7,then retitled when it ran late. What does all this mean? I'msending my copy back, that's what.
Rating:
Summary: Errors, errors, errors
Review: Worst coding book I've ever made the mistake of buying. Code is silly, simplistic and arcane. Formatting is even worse. Knowledge of TransactSQL is obviously lacking. These guys should have a look a Henderson's Guru's Guide to TransactSQL book. Now THAT'S a well-written coding book. They could learn a thing or two from it. Note to authors: we aren't fooled by thick paper and printouts of Query Analyzer. Don't waste trees or our time with this kind of stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Better than Itzik Ben-Gan's book, not as good as others
Review: While I'd say this book is better than the Itzik Ben-Gan/Tom Moreau book, that isn't saying a whole lot since that book is such a poor book. This book is similarly lacking in depth and generally poorly written, so I can't recommend it. They spend page after page talking about workarounds for things that have been fixed or made obsolete by SS 2000. If they don't know about these very basic things, you have to wonder what else they don't know about. The book is better than the Ben-Gan/Moreau book (heck, anything would be, including the BOL), but still not worth buying, IMHO.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible, just terrible
Review: This book is beneath publication. They have used heavy paper to lengthen what is essential a reprint of the Books Online. There's nothing here that you can't get in SQL Server's BOL. There are also numerous errors. There's also a real absence of SQL Server 2000 coverage. The book looks like a printed version of the SQL Server 7.0 BOL with all the 7.0 references changed to 2000. For example, there's no mention of the new identity scoping variables and no mention of the new rowversion data type -- things that definitely ought to be in a book like this.
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