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Rating: 
Summary: Skinny and great!
Review: 2 years as a DBA... just switching from Microsoft to Oracle... know about databases but needed something to teach me how to see the world through Oracle eyes. Couldn't have picked a better book. Won't make you an expert in any area, but you'll be conversant in all of them-- gives you the framework you so desperately need in order to be able to hold all the other pieces you learn into place. And, unlike VIRTUALLY EVERY OTHER BOOK on this subject, skinny enough to carry in my backpack and read on the train to & from work every morning. A+.
Rating:
Summary: Oracle Essentials - Does What It Says
Review: If you're looking for an overview of Oracle and how it works - either because your DBA experienced on other products or know some areas of Oracle and want the big picture - this is an excellent starting point. The blurb describes it as 'an invaluable, all-in-one introduction' it lives up to that description The text style is lucid and brief - with useful diagrams and references to relevant views/tables throughout. The bibliography also provides lots of useful areas to follow up. This book doesn't pretend to be the last word on Oracle - it aims to be a starting point - if that's what you're after then you could do much worse than this. If you're already familiar with Oracle and looking for detailed answers to specific problems with your database you probably wont find them here - the clue was in the title!
Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointing
Review: Read the oracle documentation you can find at technet.oracle.com. It is far better. Or pick up any book on oracle database administration or pl/sql. The material here is too elementary. Also, too much time is spent on obscure and rarely used topics at the expense of the 'meat' or oracle.
Rating:
Summary: Dissapointing
Review: Read the oracle documentation you can find at technet.oracle.com. It is far better. Or pick up any book on oracle database administration or pl/sql. The material here is too elementary. Also, too much time is spent on obscure and rarely used topics at the expense of the 'meat' or oracle.
Rating: 
Summary: nothing special
Review: The book is fairly comprehensive, but truthfully, I use my Oracle Admin Guide more than I use 'Essentials.' In my opinion, the Admin Guide covers all the same stuff, is better organized and is actually written in a more readable/less dry manner. There's nothing wrong with 'Essentials,' but in retrospect I wouldn't buy it again. There's nothing new, and it's a bit of a yawner. I realize this is yawn material to begin with, but I'd still prefer more personality in the writing. Give the Admin Guide a shot, not all delivered docs are trash... just most of it.
Rating: 
Summary: don't waste your money
Review: This book has excellent "general concepts". As a DBA and consultant, something that separates you from everyone else is the ability to understand the 'what' and 'how' of Oracle. This book also has appendices that give you 6-7 books per chapter for the gritty details and the 'how-to'(ex: Oracle Parallel server, Oracle Application Server). I recommend this book to junior-midrange people and anyone going for a job interview!
Rating: 
Summary: Informative, but biased
Review: This book has some excellent sections, and was almost exactly what I needed. I came to Oracle via other RDBMSs (Sybase, PostgreSQL), so I cannot give a novice view, but the book does explain well how Oracle works. My big(!) complaint with the book is the gushing over the wonders of Oracle that are interjected throughout the book. For instance, page 65, has Oracle as the company that "pioneered client-server programming." After about 60 pages, I got to a point where I finally read the bios of the authors, and sure enough, a couple of Oracle employees. No wonder the sales pitch! So I *do* recommend this book, but you have to be prepared to grit your teeth on the occasions when the authors tell you that life itself wouldn't be worth living without the miracle of Oracle.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent overview
Review: This book provides an excellent explanation of the Oracle architecture (not only of Oracle 8 but also of previous releases). At the end I was able to understand what is the SGA, a redo log, a data buffer, RAID, a listener, a datawarehouse application, a star schema, a Java-language trigger, an Oracle Application Server ... and much more, all with the necessary details, not too few and not too much; indeed, I think that density is the main quality of this book. Everything is carefully and clearly explained, making this a valuable resource for everyone who wants to learn Oracle from scratch or simply to assemble the pieces learnt in years of practical experience (as it was my case). In short, for example, for the latest tricks on query optimization, go elsewhere, but if you want to grab a general detailed and clear idea of how Oracle processes your query (which is 70% of what is needed in everyday work), this book is for you. I was greatly satisfied of my purchase, and I think the 'return on investment' is vastly superior than the cheap price of this book!
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