The text is easy to understand and to follow most of the times, thanks to the examples of a couple of case studies provided.
The book is full with helpful diagrams, graphs, flowcharts, questions, exercises etc, to help the reader make a quick progress. It is not technology biased towards any I.D.E., or framework, presenting both Sun/Oracle and Microsoft alternatives. Its indexes are valuable as a reference to the professional as well.
On the dark side, one could use more solutions to the exercises and answer pointers appendix instead of having to pay more for them(as of 2nd edition!). More use cases would be welcome as well!
All in all, the book is a success, a best seller,as of now at its fourth edition, valuable both as an introduction to the student and the professional as a reference.