This is a great introductory book. Far from being overwhelming, it gives the technical reader a solid base on which to build. The best part about the book may just be the appendices, however. This is the only book where you can get a complete listing of the RMI and Personal Profiles, which is really useful to have around if you decide to go into the subject later on in more depth.A topic I found particularly useful and covered here better than other books is the chapter dealing with different Java Technology environments (ie: application servers, CRM, ERP, etc.). It seemed more real-world than some of the future applications and therefore more relative to what engineers may be working on today.While I wish the narrative by the author could have been a little more detailed in sections, I think the appendices alone make this book worth buying.