Rating: 
Summary: A strange book for an official guide
Review: "The Official Guide" is a peculiar tag for this text. It doesn't teach the language nearly as comprehensively as the REBOL manual does. And for a language pegged as being for Internet messaging, it is odd to see the network aspects of REBOL shoved near the back of the book. What this book does is teach REBOL by a rather large example. While the example is a good one, and there is lots of good information throughout the book, I still find myself preferring the REBOL/Core manual.
Rating: 
Summary: It's a REBOL-ution. Carl Sassenrath has done it again!
Review: Forget Perl. Forget Java. This is it, guys! This book says it all. My worst programming nightmares are *over*. REBOL is what I have been waiting for. REBOL runs on 40 platforms with no modification needed and puts out complete functionality in less than 200KB. I'm continually amazed at how powerful this language is and the networking capabilities are amazing. This language is incredibly easy to learn because you can actually read it. The hard part? I am having a hard time getting my head around all of the great things it does. Incredibly robust. I cannot imagine an Engineer, worth his salt, not having this book.
Rating:
Summary: Eat your heart out, Perl!
Review: I did several working CGI scripts in less than a week after reading this book. If your server supports REBOL I bet you'll be switching from Perl to REBOL. The use of 'slashes' (or.../\/\/\/\/...abuse?) in the Perl language was giving me a headache even for simple tasks. Im also a fan of Carl Sassenrath's work, this guy wrote a TRULY multitasking operating system back in the 1984, that runs smoothly in a 7 mhz, 256k machine! (Amiga 1000). If this guy was able to accomplish that, Im very enthusiastic about what this revolutionary language can do for me! Im amazed by the way I can now manipulate my mail using easy, single line commands. And last, the engine takes around 300k and runs on more operating systems than you may be able to mention (including Linux and Windows of course)
Rating:
Summary: A review of the book, not the language
Review: I think those that gave this book a 5-star rating were rating the Rebol language, which I agree is unique and a force that could change modern computing entirely. However, I haven't used the book while programming as much as I've used the free manual from Rebol. The material jumps to complex applications much too rapidly. I prefer the style of books like the original C manual by K & R. I.E. Instead of showing the final, elaborate, coding product when a new concept is introduced, start with a simplistic approach to solving a problem and then cycically refine it. For example, the parse function, which is unbelievably powerful (you could probably duplicate lexx/yacc in a very small program), is illustrated by using it to create a script that validates Rebol scripts. Since one is trying to learn the language, and Rebol's structure is so dynamic, it's like *teaching* C by writing a C compiler in C, only worse. It's a nifty way to show Rebol's introspection capability, but it would have been much more helpful if it was used to parse something people are already used to (and would be using it for), like HTML or other domain-specific data. There's lots of information here, but I was disappointed. I apologize for being critical, Elan, your posts on the Rebol lists are great.
Rating:
Summary: A review of the book, not the language
Review: I think those that gave this book a 5-star rating were rating the Rebol language, which I agree is unique and a force that could change modern computing entirely. However, I haven't used the book while programming as much as I've used the free manual from Rebol. The material jumps to complex applications much too rapidly. I prefer the style of books like the original C manual by K & R. I.E. Instead of showing the final, elaborate, coding product when a new concept is introduced, start with a simplistic approach to solving a problem and then cycically refine it. For example, the parse function, which is unbelievably powerful (you could probably duplicate lexx/yacc in a very small program), is illustrated by using it to create a script that validates Rebol scripts. Since one is trying to learn the language, and Rebol's structure is so dynamic, it's like *teaching* C by writing a C compiler in C, only worse. It's a nifty way to show Rebol's introspection capability, but it would have been much more helpful if it was used to parse something people are already used to (and would be using it for), like HTML or other domain-specific data. There's lots of information here, but I was disappointed. I apologize for being critical, Elan, your posts on the Rebol lists are great.
Rating:
Summary: This book is sheer revolt. REBOL is sheer brilliance.
Review: If you're a Programmer, get this book asap. IMHO, REBOL is changing our industry. We no longer will have to pandy to the mediocre. Networking will never be the same; PDAs/handhelds will finally become a dynamic solution and not a fistfull of clumsy plastic. This language downloads free from [the REBOL web site] However, take a look at REBOL/View/Command/Express/Author/Link/Serve. I understand 'REBOL for Dummies' will be out very soon. Can't wait. Actually, any Dummy can learn REBOL - why? It's written in English; you can read what you script/code. The hard part is getting a grasp of REBOL's power, robustness. You'll find yourself saying, "Whoa, it does that too?...and that too?...etc.? Yep, this book is about a runaway train, a technical revolution. Java? Perl? (myroundfileverysoon).
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre book
Review: It's unfortunate that one of the first printed books on Rebol isn't a better introduction to the language. The organization is very strange -- I found myself well into a chapter wondering why I was where I was -- it seemed that the authors only wanted to show some very interesting features of the language with convoluted examples. I wish the examples were more "universal" or "routine" rather than building a whole system with Rebol. I would seriously consider waiting for another book to come along. It's too bad that this book weren't more like other introductory books, like Learning Perl (O'Reilly) or Programming Ruby (AW), both of which are excellent first-texts for learning a language.
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Summary: A manifesto for radical change disguised as a computer book
Review: Most famous for his work on the Amiga, computer pioneer Carl Sassenrath has striven to give people the ability to unleash the power of computers. The REBOL internet messaging language is the result of 20 years of radically rethinking the assumptions behind computer languages. He has absorbed what what was useful from the disciplines of Structural Programming, Functional Programming, List Processing, and Object-Oriented Programming, pared away the unnecessary. In this time when commercial computer languages come on 2 or more CD's, the REBOL language, a full powered language that fits on a floppy disk. The user interface is spare and elegant like the language. In contrast, Goldman and Blanton's excellent book is massive, a 700-page tome filled with many examples and practical applications. REBOL is designed to facilitate communication, and will not allow differing operating systems to hinder its mission. The CD comes with versions of REBOL for many operating systems, including Windows, Macintosh, Linux, BeOS, and of course the Amiga. You'll be required to reach into unfamiliar territory, but that's what happens when you follow the path of a pioneer.
Rating:
Summary: A strange book for an official guide
Review: REBOL could be a fantastic language. It could be the answer to all of my programming headaches and prayers. Or maybe REBOL doesn't offer me anything new to learn. It's just not possible to tell from this book because it so poorly written and completely disorganized. Most of the time my nose was in this book, I felt like I was being told how great rebol is instead of learning how to use rebol creatively. All langauge advocacy issues aside, this best example I can find of a technical reference that actually tries to use foreshadowing as a learning tool. "Don't worry about what this means now, but ..." "We'll have to save that important discussion for another chapter because we haven't discussed topic X." etc, etc, etc. Unless you read the book cover-to-cover, you end up with a collection of vague notions and incorrect definitions of the language's syntax elements and logical structure, making it difficult to sit down and solve problems with the language. I love learning new programming languages, and rebol is certainly on my list. But in my opinion this book isn't the way to go. I opted for a two-star rating because at least the book contains some task-specific examples you can work from.
Rating:
Summary: First-Rate Language/Marginal Book
Review: Rebol The Official Guide succeeds on many Levels: First and foremost, this is a thorough and mature tutorial for Rebol - which is probably the most significant advance in programming languages since LISP. Secondly the Authors illustrate the reflective, introspective, and self-composing attributes of Rebol, which are likely to advance the development of artificial intelligence to a new generation. And thirdly, this is a case study of Database Design, modernized to accommodate distributed processing between remote computers. The forward by Rebol's developer Carl Sassenrath, sets the tone here. The experienced programmer should abandon the procedural and architectural paradigms of older programming languages and be prepared for the experience of learning a true computer language. A new programmer should have a experience much more enlightening and rewarding than a comparable first experience in Basic. The reader who is serious about learning and applying Rebol professionally is urged to study this book sequentially, and to test the code examples interactively as is illustrated. The software engineer who values thoughtful design and strives to leave clients with a robust and flexible product will be be rewarded amply. This will be achieved through the revolutionary and productive design of Rebol itself, and also from the Author's lucid writings. Regardless of one's specialty or special objectives all functionality of Rebol can be learned here from the design of an on-line Video Database Management System. The tools that Elan Goldman develops with the reader's participation will prove invaluable in any application of Rebol. Beneath the surface of code and prose of the book is the revelation of a potential: Rebol's uniquely dynamic features allow an organic growth in productivity that is much different than the addition of code libraries and shared objects. As the pool of Rebol programmers grows - and this book should effectively contribute to that growth - the nature of computer programming itself will be changed for the good of all. Just one example: As a database programmer, I have often been confronted by the constraints enforced by the row/column paradigm that has evolved from Accounting principles and has not only influenced database development itself, but the nature of programming languages in general. Rebol's "human language" approach allows the programmer to leave that all behind and embrace true Artificial Intelligence. The book concludes with instructions on Dialecting. Another unique feature that allows the programmer to finish a project with maximum extendibility for both developer and client. This book get 5 stars and two thumbs up from me. Definitely a book that I intend to grow old with.
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