Rating: 
Summary: 5 star book
Review: This book ranges rather widely, covering a number of topics that are not included in other server side Java programming books. It is certainly not a rehash of the APIs, but rather full of useful information on how-to. The book serves better to readers who understand the basic concepts and need to solve real problems. It is well worth reading!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Perspective on Server Side Java
Review: This is the first book i've seen on server-side Java that does not focus exclusively on J2EE. While the J2EE API and application servers are a tremendous boon to quick development, a tremendous amount of simple, elegant solutions provided by the base JDK are overlooked as too low-level or complicated. As with all tools, EJB/Servlet/JSP should be applied where they fit into your problem, and not shoehorned into every application.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Perspective on Server Side Java
Review: This is the first book i've seen on server-side Java that does not focus exclusively on J2EE. While the J2EE API and application servers are a tremendous boon to quick development, a tremendous amount of simple, elegant solutions provided by the base JDK are overlooked as too low-level or complicated. As with all tools, EJB/Servlet/JSP should be applied where they fit into your problem, and not shoehorned into every application.
Rating:
Summary: The best server side java book I've ever read.
Review: Whether you're building your own Java application server, or evaluating your options when it comes to building an enterprise class application, there's an awful lot to consider. Everyone likes to throw around the adjective 'enterprise'; 'enterprise class,' 'enterprise information system,' 'enterprise solution' but what does this mean? What is an enterprise solution? And more importantly how do you build one? This book cuts through the J2EE hype and gives you the straight dope on desiging/implementing realistic java based distributed systems. As a Sun Certified Java 2 Developer, I've read more than my fare share of bad java books. The good thing is that they are very easy to spot: they are typically extremely thick books with trivial examples and a huge API reference (that you can download from Sun's website) for filler. This book is a voice of reason in Sun's flood of J2EE (especially EJB) hype. It's a wholly remarkable Java book. Ted Neward should be rewarded and congratualted for this book, it sets a new standard in content quality for Java books.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but of little real world use
Review: Would you believe that there is a Java Server book that has almost nothing to do with Servlets, JSPs, and Enterprise JavaBeans? If you are an advanced Java programmer and have felt a need to write your own application server then this may be the book for you. The author starts off with a well written discussion of class loaders and then goes on to show how to design your own application server using your own class loader. For most developers this may be interesting but of little real value. The thread chapters will provide little new information for anyone who has studied for the SCJP. The next few chapters discuss RMI, sockets, persistence, serialization and other issues that are required for the application server that the author is developing throughout the book. Servlets are briefly discussed but mostly on how they can be used to replace sockets and RMI within the application server framework. This is followed by a discussion of modeling business objects that seems somewhat out of place. The middleware section is very interesting and covers a wide array of topics from JMS to CORBA. The JNI section will probably not be used by many Java developers. Although the book is interesting I am left with the feeling that the author has missed the point. Why would a team of developers spend tens of thousands of dollars developing a service framework when inexpensive and robust application servers are readily available on the market?
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