Rating: 
Summary: Great text, but only if you're fully prepared
Review: This is one of the better calculus books I have read. Most are written from a prespective so far removed from students that it is totally inaccessible, it assumes you ALREADY know the subject matter. Stewart does make a major mistake in using fewer examples than I would like to see. Plus, some of the examples are too simple to be useful. I know students will glare at an example, TRYING to derive some rule from it, staring at the explanation forever. Clearly, you will need a companion book like REA's "Calculus Problem Solver" book (and "Algebra/Trig" for review if needed). People learn from different types of explanations, and Stewart uses multiple types to his credit.
Stewart also includes applications for calculus, although not enough financial and economic for my taste.
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed feelings
Review: I took two consecutive 1st year 1-semester calculus courses and I used this book for both. I have mixed feelings about it, because I have been lucky to be taught by good professors who gave good lectures, so I used my class notes. However, I inevitably missed a few lectures, and had to study from the book. A terrifying experience. Was it my fault, being not used to the author's style ? Anyway, I think that one example per case is not enough, and stuying the series chapter was difficult. The author definitely and absolutely fails to emphasise what is important, he writes just as much about some obscure application than about the main points of the principle. There are simply not enough examples for the important concepts. Also, there is some theory, confusing most students, without being enough for a mathematics major. I just started using Calculus: One and Several Variables by Salas/ Hille/ Etgen. I wish I had it in 1st year. Anyway, even 2 stars is generous for Stewart's.
Rating: 
Summary: So-So
Review: I really wanted to like this textbook after reading through all the reviews on here, I hoped that all those who disliked it simply did not want to learn calculus.Overall the book is not horrible but it does not stand on its own. Only on limits I am already forced to go through the library to find better textbooks to explain concepts. Working through on my own also I was only able to make little progress in it. The biggest flaw I have noticed is that there simply are not enough problems; the application problems are interesting but they do not help in learning how to master a subject. Often a very difficult type of problem will only have three or four problems with answers on it. One learns calculus (and for that matter any mathematics) by doing as many problems as possible.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed
Review: This Calculas book is lacking for several reasons. 1. The author(s) focus in on only a few types of problems and then go deeply into levels of abstraction on types of that set. The thin verticle approach will go against may better teachers trying to cover the topics more broadly if not deeply. An example of this problem is typlified in 5.5 on Integration where the author hits the same type of problem 50 different ways from easy to impossible. Their are way more ways to show integration then the way it is done here. Unfortuantly this short sightedness is reapated throught the book 2. The examples seem to be more exceptions to the rules then explaining the rules. More typical examples are neeeded for successful self study. 3. The author claims he will show real world applications of the calculs. He falls very short on these claims and his explanatiosns remain abstruse and confusing. 4. The included CD-Rom is junk and should have been left out. This attempt at updating this ageing tomb with "new fangles media" for the kids is nugatory at best. 5. The problems in the book nclude an overres-presntation of Trig functions and natural logs. Also this book is more difficult then 90% of the other books out their.
Rating:
Summary: everything looks good but has little applications
Review: this sh..is helpfull if one's wanna major on math...enginering majors must consider its' little application. mastering in math doesn't mean to know lots details but cause and effect,,..got this book and apply your own study system..
Rating:
Summary: this a sophisticated approach to calculus
Review: i used this book in class and found this book to be, what some people call a harvard level textbook, the explanations require much investigation on the part of the student, if someone is really into math then this is a good book because you will spend many hours pondering over what the heck he is trying to say, i.e. chap. 3
Rating: 
Summary: Exemplary
Review: I wholeheartedly concur with Stan VerNooy's review. All introductory texts in all fields should be patterned after this book. It has clear explanations and several worked examples. Most ostensible "beginner" texts are actually written an intermediate or advanced level. Perhaps professors with 20 years or more experience believe clear explanations are unnecessary or maybe it has been so long for them that they no longer remember what it was like to be a beginner. Whatever the reason they assume that you know material that you are reading the book to gain. Stewart is not like that. He takes the time to illuminate his topics and he doesn't just give results he shows how they were reached. I only wish that I could have found a linear algebra book like this. Doesn't matter now...I've already graduated.
Rating:
Summary: Not to my taste
Review: This book explained basic calculus very clearly. However, I found that Stewart spells out the concepts a little too s-l-o-w-l-y, and his book is full of un-necessary information. Perhaps my preferred method of learning a concept is strange, but I like having each concept's mathematical representation set out in the context of previous material, followed by a few examples designed to overcome common misunderstandings; and following this, I like to be faced with a large number of exercises which make use of the concept. I understand that the author has tried to include a number of examples (accompanied by lengthy explanations) with a view to making the subject "interesting" to students, and this may work for some. However, my preference (a preference shared by most of the maths and engineering students I know) is for a textbook which just gives facts and exercises, without flourish. This textbook fails on the last point.
Rating:
Summary: Too complicated.........
Review: This book is not that suitable for guy like me who is still a beginner in the calculas. There is not enough example in the book. Besides, the worst is that most of the exercises given at the back of each chapter don't have the example as reference.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Helpful
Review: If you are required to buy this book for class, like I was, then there is nothing you can do. If you don't have to buy this book, then don't bother. It is not user friendly. I finally went and bought another calculus book that was easier to understand.
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