Rating: 
Summary: Clear, Precise, Enjoyable reading. Great Stuff!
Review: One thing I really enjoy is how Sipser motivates every topic with real life examples, connects new topics with the already covered ones, in other words, makes it very easy to read and understand what is going on. This is in contrast to the Hopcroft and Ulman book which is very dry and dense, and in which a reader is not guided from topic to topic; topics are just covered, and the reader has a question ``why?'' (I may be wrong about this...) In any case, I think this is the only book to use both for a class and self-reading.
Rating:
Summary: readable and concise
Review: Prof. Sipser gives a fabulous introduction to theoretical computer science. His clear and concise proofs and preceding by "Proof Ideas" that give a non-technical overview of the proof to follow. This makes the proofs far easier to follow. He strikes a perfect balance between concise mathematics and eloquent exposition, so the book neither intimidates the novice student nor bores the seasonsed mathematician. This is a model computer science/mathematics textbook!
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable
Review: Reading this book changed my entire set of beliefs regarding the importance and usefulness of computational theory (and math) in computer science. I have been programming since grade 7, yet only after reading this book do I feel like I really have a grasp of it on a fundamental level. Its like there was this whole other world under my nose that I caught passing glimpses of yet was never able to put together. Like in DOS: c:>dir *, why use a star character? Why is XML the way it is? The list goes on and on. This book tied *alot* of 'loose ends' for me.I always felt that being a cs-tist was about programming, object oriented design/analysis, design patterns, UML, etc.. And there is no doubt that mastery of these technologies are required of any good cs-tist. However, if you want to understand where all these technologies you use come from, how they connect, and to get a glimpse of where its all going, you must combine your current programming and trend following expertise with knowledge of the underlying theories of computation. This book should be required reading for all first year CS students so that they may get the 'big picture' right from the start and be able to see CS as a whole rather than a bunch of 'kinda related' courses. I see this book inspiring a whole generation of cs-tists - many of whom may have gone into other professions after reading books like 'Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation' by Ullman, Hopcroft (a great, rigorous treatment of cs, but *not* a good book to learn from or be inspired by). Again, great book!
Rating:
Summary: Theory with no fear
Review: Sipser did a surprising and didactical synthesis on classic TC topics. And with wit, too! His work is not a boring opus. After years of strugle against texts by honorables like Hopcroft, Lewis & Papadimitriou etc., all important and fundamental but criptic authors, finally someone (that seems had been student someday) writes an understandable book. On library, it is the most looked for. (Obs.: I'm writing here not to add anithing to all that was already well said by other reviewers: it is just for a tribute to the author.)
Rating:
Summary: Excellent...
Review: Sipser explains a difficult subject with remarkable clarity and conciseness. Echoing another reviewer's sentiments, the "Proof Idea" is wonderful and really helps by stripping down a proof into its essentials. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Makes the study of Formal Langs amenable to bedtime reading!
Review: Summary of this review: You'll find yourself getting interested in, and understanding, concepts, very easily, but if you're an advanced reader you'll often find (at the end of the chapters) that the more advanced topics/problems have been glossed over. If this is your assigned course textbook, you're lucky. If this is NOT your assigned textbook, USE it as your guide. It makes topics simpler and more intuitive. The way Sipser ropes down exotic theorems into straightforward, understandable logic is almost magical. The book scores in most areas: smoothness of flow, ease of understanding, order of presentation, motivational cues, and thoroughness in the areas covered. The problem with the book is in the number of topics covered, and in the number of examples. There are not sufficient examples in some cases, and not sufficient material in some cases. This is a small textbook. At the end of each chapter, Sipser often glosses over the more advanced issues. If doing a thorough study, one will frequently need a more complete reference. This will, of course, not be a problem if your course does not go beyond what is covered here: Finite Automata, Turing Machines, the relationship between the classes of languages, reducibility, and complexity theory.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully clear
Review: Taking Sipser's class with this text was fantastic. The book is so well-written and clear, I wouldn't have gone to lecture at all had it not been so interesting and fun. This book is a great introduction to complexity, and quickly gets up to more advanced topics and discussion of unsolved problems.
Rating:
Summary: THE best book on Automata, Complexity and Computability
Review: The interesting viewport and explicit explanation shows author's understanding in this area. The author is also quite clear what readers are thinking when they are reading this book. If you want to learn something about theoretical computer science, it's just for you. But don't feel scared by the word "theoretical" if you are a novice. It's very interesting and step by step. Try it and you will like it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to computer science theory
Review: This book is aimed as an introductory text book on computer science theory. The book is suited for both undergraduate and graduate studies. The first three chapters of the book, regular expressions, context free languages and the church-turing thesis are apt for an introductory class for the undergraduate level. The remaining 7 chapters provide more than enough content for advanced undergraduate or graduate studies. This is the first book on computer science theory that I have seen, which is actually written in understandable English. As compared to the previous introductory texts by Hopcroft or Papadimitriou, Sipser shuns writting the entire book using just symbols of formal mathematics. This is not to say that there is no formalism in the book. There is adequate use of formal mathematics in the proofs of the book, but not so much as to scare even in most intrepid readers like in previous books on this subject.The fact I liked most about this book is that every proof in the book is accompanied by a "Proof Idea" which explains using diagrams and plain english how exactly the proof works. This followed by the formal proof. The problems at the end of each chapter are fairly interesting, and some of the * marked problems can be fairly challenging for a first time student. Another amazing thing about this book is the amount of content it covers. I would have never expected a book of only 400 pages to cover computer science theory all the way from introductory undergraduate to advanced graduate levels. This is because, the author focusses only on core concepts and strives to make them as clear as possible. For example, this book has only one chapter on regular expressions, while every other book that I have seen has at least 3-4 chapters full of gory details. This is because Sipser does not go into the gory mechanical details of converting DFAs to NFAs, or writing Turing machines and so on, but instead explains just the important concepts and gives a few examples. Also a wealth of information is to be found in the problems at the end of the chapter. Many of these problems like the Myhill-Nerode theorem are of the kind you will find actually proved in other texts, but left as an excercise here. This is because they are relatively simple to prove once all the concepts are understood. Moreover an educator has the option of which of these problems they want to delve deeper into. Any student who studies or wishes to study computer science theory should definately get their hands on this book, irrespective of whether they have already used a different book.
Rating:
Summary: BEST Computer Theory book
Review: This book is by far the best book that I read!!! It presents topics in a very interesting and readable way. My advice is read this book if you an undergrad student, even though instructor might be using a different book. If you are a grad student this books makes an excellent reference for refreshing your knowledge of Computer Theory. Computer Theory is not my area of interest, but this book makes it very interesting and fun area; which is quiet unusual for Computer Theory books. I am a grad student taking advanced "Computer Theory" class. I have bought couple books including this one, and checked out from library another 6. This book in an introductory book and it has excellent coverage of the basics, and it has some brief but very good coverage of advanced topics as well. I read this book every time to refresh my knowledge before I go on to more in depth topics. The only thing that I wish, is that the undergrad course that I have taken a number years ago was using this book; and/or I read this book when I was an undergrad.
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