Rating: 

For me, this book had two key parts: A syntax overview portion in the front of the book and a very large reference to the Java API farther in. I was able to very quickly learn the essentials of programming in Java using the syntax chapters early (it should be noted that I had a lot of previous programming experience in other object oriented language). It gave me exactly what I needed without a lot of extra verbosity, and it used concise, well commented examples to help me see the basics. Once I started programming, the API reference was really helpful. It was faster to use than Sun's documentation, and it was selective in how much it would list for a class, which tended to make it much easier to find relevant information. I used this book constantly, and I know it saved me many hours of frustration. In short, if you are going to program in Java, this is the book you must have.