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Mastering Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (Mastering)

Format: Paperback
Author: Mike Gunderloy
ReleaseDate: 20 March, 2006
Publisher: Sybex
Rating:

Hardly
It serves as a decent overview of major features but does not go into any significant depth. It is inconceivable that anyone could come close to "mastering" SQL Server using this book. The title is completely misrepresentative. For instance, it devotes a single page to CLR Stored Procedures and 2/3s of it is a screenshot and code example. If you can "master" CLR Stored Procedures from that, you probably don't need to buy a book called "Mastering Microsoft SQL Server" anyhow. This book is a bird's-eye view that can be useful if used along with Google, but there must be better books on the subject out there.

Comprehensive, but lacks enterprise coverage.
The SQL Server 2000 version of "Mastering" book was great. Firstly, I hold the authors with utmost respect. That said, I expected the same, but I'm not sure it was worth the price with this iteration. There is a fair amount of carry-over contents, such as how to normalize a table, what a view is, etc.

It is great for someone just starting and need comprehensive coverage of the product. However, if you have read the previous version, you may benefit more by seeking publications that are specifically about new features of SQL Server 2005, bypassing what you already know. My recommendation in that area remains to be "A First Look at SQL Server 2005 for Developers" by Beauchemin, Berglund and Sullivan by Addison Wesley, although many books were published since then.

My slight disappointment comes from the lack of coverage in Enterprise-level features. Mirroring, partitioning (finally!) etc are not even touched, and it doesn't talk much in the way of scalability.

Suggestions to authors: Change the title to Mastering SQL Server 2005 STANDARD EDITION - which is what this book appears to be mostly. Most people without the luxury of Enterprise Edition read this type of book, and then go to google or BOL to find out if it's available in the edition at hand, or worst yet, keep using Developer Edition and find out about edition requirement at deployment time. A edition-specific reference might prove to be a time-saver.

In sum, no doubt this book is a result of hard work - all 1028 pages of it - but check if you are the intended target audience before you buy: If you know SQL Server 2000 fairly well, then go with some publication that specifically discuss the new features. On the other hand, if SQL Server 2005 is your first database and need a comprehensive guide to various concepts, then this is great.

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Good book marred by hard to view "screenshots"
(I use a magnifying glass (no joke) to enlarge the images). I like everything I have read in this book but the screenshots the authors want you to see are too small to be seen clearly. I'm sure Sybex reduced them to make them fit the page. I contacted Sybex to see if the book came in a pdf version or if the images were available in a seperate format. They have not gotten back to me and I take this to mean the answer is "no".

I particularly like the chapter on Analysis Services. It took me a long time on my own to learn what they lay out in that chapter. I wish I had their book before I started down my path.

Summary: good text, hard to view images. .