Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable thus far
Review: I really enjoy this reference manual so far. I am fairly new to Oracle and I find this book to be very readable and useful. It spares the reader from all the geek-speak. Of course I've just scratched the surface of this gigantic manual.
Rating: 
Summary: Bible
Review: This contains most of what you need to know to use Oracle8. It does not flow like a tutorial, but it isn't one (it is a reference). This is one of only a few Oracle books that I felt necessary to buy myself.
Rating:
Summary: LET'S BE CLEAR ON WHAT THIS BOOK IS AND WHAT IT ISN'T...
Review: ...First of all, this is NOT the book to use if you want to learn Oracle, or SQL. This is NOT the way to get your feet wet in database programming. However, if you are already a database professional, who needs a detailed, COMPREHENSIVE reference of Oracle's many features, functions, and capabilities, this is well worth the asking price. The CD documentation is not all that great, but the book's index is pretty thorough, so I'm willing to forgive that. Remember - this book is designed for the PROFESSIONAL.
Rating:
Summary: A must have reference on an Oracle DBA's bookshelf
Review: I loved this book back in its 7.0 version days. The first few chapters use an example from the 1700's, a business ledger. They use this example to explain how relational databases relate to a real world example. Great idea. But I agree with other reviewers that other books are needed to suppliment a beginner such as CJ Date's. Personally, I like Joe Celko's stuff.My problem with this book is my problem with Oracle in general. The book vomits features but many of the features discussed I can think of little practical use or I wonder why the RDBMS does do it automatically or why there is no GUI. The book makes no mention of Oracles lack of some SQL92 syntax such as OUTER JOIN syntax. This would lead a beginner to think *= is the standard. But its not. A beginner needs to understand the ambiguous results such syntax can lead to but the book doesn't mention this. See Microsoft Press' "Inside SQL Server 6.5" (or greater )for a nice disussion of this issue and solutions for working with *= syntax. Also much of the book is the same from versions published 5 years ago. But if you look at Oracle's software that's not too surpising since Oracle software looks like its about 5 years behind with its clumsy GUI's and rediculous on-line help. Half of the difficulty in using Oracle stems from its dated interfaces. Perhaps Oracle should just fix its DBA tools and then we wouldn't need such huge books. But if you think humans should serve machines or you don't feel like fighting the windmill buy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: I was dissapointed
Review: This book covers several things extremely well: Oracle 8 and relational databasing. It is not the book you want to get if you are looking for in-depth help with the SQL query language. The authors use the example of old, paper records back in the 1800's and how they could have improved storage of these records by using an Oracle database today. I liked the example throughout because once you understand the thinking behind these paper records, it was much easier to understand the complex database concepts. There are several parts to the book. This is how they are broken up: Critical Databse concepts, SQL From Beginner to Expert (I think this section is a little over-inflated, I don't think it really makes you a SQL expert), the Hitchhiker's Guide to Oracle8 Data Dictionary, Designing for Productivity and an alphabetical reference (I like this section!) Basic database concepts are covered extremely well: triggers, stored queries, stored procedures, SQLPLUS, etc. For advanced database gurus, there are sections on object-oriented concepts, snapshots, and other advanced topics such as large objects and ConText. I can't give it four stars-- even though it's a reference, it's still way to dry of a read and if it's missing one thing, it's solid, in-depth examples. However, it's big and pretty comprehensive for the price you're gonna pay.
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