Rating: 
Summary: This book is simply a work of a genuis!!!
Review: This book is really the bibel of java programming. Eventhough I was not a newcomer to java and programming as well it amazed me how easy Mr. Horton manages to explain complex programming example through an easy understood language. I can say it is simply the buy I have ever when it comes to computerbooks. This book gets all my recommendations to newcomers and more exsperienced programmers who want to see that some terms of programming can really be done in an easier and more proper way than they've ever dreamed about.The best regards from Daniel Mersebak.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid - Probably not for absolute beginners
Review: This is a good book. It gave me a solid understanding of Java fundamentals. Of course, I've been doing programming for several years and was already familiar with object oriented topics. If you've never programmed or have never been introduced to object oriented programming, this book will probably be confusing (there is only about one chapter on basic OO concepts and much of the rest of the book builds on this). However, if you are familiar with OO, I think you will find this book quite useful. (Unfortunately most of what I just learned about Java has probably already been made obsolete by the release of Java 2 ;-)
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: No competition! Well-paced, explanations are appropriate, well edited, insightful. An epic. Took me 6 months (approx 30 hrs/week).
Rating: 
Summary: No pain, no gain...
Review: This book suffers from a phenomena that seems to pervade the "instructional" programming books that flood the market. Specifically, there are many errors and omissions. Catch 22: If you know the language, these errors and omissions would be obvious, but I assume you bought the book to learn the language, so... New languages are difficult enough to learn, especially ones as complex as java, without having to figure out things the author left out or incorrectly stated. At least the code examples should be checked for accuracy and correctness! The final blow is that the site where you are supposed to be able to download the code examples returned a 404 Not Found error message - what happened to www.wrox.com? If you do struggle through all this, you will have a better understanding of java, but the cost is high!
Rating: 
Summary: Horton may know his Java, but he's no teacher!
Review: Although I think Horton's book is excellent for somebody with a firm background in C++, he attempts to teach abstract content with more abstracts, yet only to pile more abstrats on later! For example, he uses math too often in his logic, when other content will do. Other authors do a much better job at teaching the Java language by example, rather than boring the reader with meaningless math operations. (If you are hung up on math, why not use something that is "real world" since Java is a real world computer language.) I just can't recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Good book but needs to provide some basic info first.
Review: I bought Beginning Java about four months ago and have not been able to set up the JDK on a Pentium 266mhz PC. After looking through the book I have come to the conclusion that is is quite good. The only thing I would add would be a detailed section on setting up the 1.1 JDK. If anyone reading this can render some assistance, I would greatly appreciate it. The problem I am having is setting up the PATH and the CLASSPATH variables. Thanks.
Rating:
Summary: Generally a good guide
Review: I liked the book a lot, even though I didn't care much for some of examples that Mr. Horton seeed to be interested in. I also found Chapter 5 to be somewhat busy. However, despite it's flaws it is a great book. I suggest you buy it for a beginning book. I have also recently seen Second Edition and my guess is that it would be an even better buy. You decide.
Rating:
Summary: Great!!!!
Review: I have found the book to be very helpful. No programing experience is really required. OO parts are a bit skimpy but even VB experience will help you a lot. The book is genreally easy to follow and I recommend it to everyone who wants to learn the beuty of java.
Rating: 
Summary: Ugghh!
Review: WROX? Box of rocks maybe! In fact, a box of rocks may be more useful if you are trying to learn Java. Horton may know Java, but he can't teach it. Find another book or stick with the tutorials, but whatever you do, stay away from this book!
Rating:
Summary: Well written, good introduction to java
Review: I've bought 2 WROX books and have been very pleased with both (also bought the Professional ASP book). The layout of this book is nice: clear explanations combined with highlighted code. I like Horton's writing style: conversational. Since I'm primarily interested in Web development, would like to have seen more on applets.
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