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Title: Key Java: Advanced Tips and Techniques (Practitioner Series (Springer-Verlag)) by Alexander McManus, Alex McManus, J. E. Hunt ISBN: 3-540-76259-0 Publisher: Springer Verlag Pub. Date: July, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $59.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (4 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Incredibly Information-Dense but Clear
Comment: I picked this book up as an impulse buy the last time I went book browsing in the physical world. It was one of the better purchases I made that day; I've been so impressed that I came here to search for more books by the same author.

The content level of Key Java is head and shoulders above most java books. Those few books with comparable content usually fail in some other dimension (clarity, accessibility, brevity, completeness, non-trivial examples). The writing style is a bit dry and academic, but the author is obviously no stranger to serious programming.

Many java books are filled with either relentlessly detailed - but not informative - examination of the topic, or with smoothly written but empty prose. Key Java's chapters are excellently written for "I need it NOW" reading, and each one clearly explains the topic, both in concept and in practice. I won't say you'll be able to read through a chapter and become a master of the topic; some of these topics are seriously complex and take some measure of mulling over and contemplation. But invariably, in the past, when I've tackled a new concept in Java, I've had to read the same topic in five or more different books to get the complete picture. This is not the case with _Key Java_.

This book easily makes it into my top five favorite java books, and is contending with a few others (Bruce Eckel's _Thinking In Java_, etc) for the #1 position. However, Key Java's approach and nuts 'n bolts discussions of advanced-but-not-theoretical java topics make it much more of a complementary book than a competitor, a fine addition to any java bookshelf.

One thing I'm particularly happy about is the form factor of the book - too many java books are tomes that risk breaking your wrist (or your foot if you drop it). There's a prevailing mindset in technical book publishing that the thicker the book, the better (the thicker the spine, the more bookstore shelf real estate you get for your book to advertise itself). Key Java is concise and focused, and the form factor reflects that; I carried it around in my large coat pocket to read as the mood struck me for a couple of weeks.

Rating: 5
Summary: Just Buy It
Comment: This is one of the very, very few Java books on the market that will give you any new insight into using the language. In a very small space, it provides an amazing amount of detail - at both the low implementation level and the high architectural level. The chapters on memory and speed optimization alone make it worth the price. This book manages to say a lot with very few words. It runs completely against the grain of all the wordy, useless, and incorrect Java books out there, and every serious Java programmer should own it.

Rating: 4
Summary: Real Java for the real world - an all around good book.
Comment: I've read many books on Java, and they're all the same cr*p. For a small work, this book certainly packs some punch. It touches upon many interesting topics, such as MVC frameworks, Java for networking, and even Java3D! It is worded in a way which enables the reader to easily map what they read into a conceptual thought.