The book says that it is aimed at experienced programmers, and that was the category I fell into when I first picked up the 1st edition of this book. This is the book that pretty much taught me Java and this is the one "basic" java book that I still keep at my desk and recommend to folks in my office transitioning to Java from another language.
I really like the layout and find the writing style interesting and easy to follow. All the examples are easy to understand. If you are coming from C++, there are sidebars strewn throughout the book that highlight particular differences between Java and C++. Most of the other "beginning" Jav abooks I've seen waste too much time on basic programming fundamentals to be of much interest to an experienced programmer, but this book gets right to the point and contains all the info you need to know to get going with the language.
This is a great book and I highly recommend it. It is also useful as a companion for those studying for the
SCJP.