Reader reviews

Genuinely excellent — I finished it in a week and immediately started again.

I was looking for something that would bridge the gap between tutorials and proper reference material, and this does that well. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. I appreciated the honesty about what the book does not cover — it saved me from expecting things that were not there. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.

I have read a lot of books on this subject and this is the clearest.

I bought this on a whim after seeing it mentioned in a forum thread, and I am glad I did. I found myself making notes in the margins, which is always a good sign. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. One of those books that pays for itself within the first few chapters. Highly recommended.

Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

I bought this on a whim after seeing it mentioned in a forum thread, and I am glad I did. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. The author is unusually honest about where the simplifications break down, which I appreciated. Good value for the price and worth the time it takes to work through properly.

Not for me. The pacing did not work and I struggled to finish it.

I picked this up after getting stuck on a project and it turned out to be exactly the right book at the right time. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. The book rewards careful reading. Skimming it would be a mistake. I would look elsewhere unless you have a specific reason to need this particular title.

A useful guide. The examples assume a particular environment, but that is fixable.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. The writing is direct and does not waste space on filler, which I value in a technical book. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. Worth picking up if you already have the basics. Set realistic expectations and you will get a lot out of it.

A worthwhile addition to my shelf, with realistic expectations.

I bought this on a whim after seeing it mentioned in a forum thread, and I am glad I did. The author is unusually honest about where the simplifications break down, which I appreciated. The code samples assume a particular environment, which took a bit of fiddling to get running properly. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. Four stars, and I suspect a second edition could easily push it to five.