I'm a seasoned ColdFusion and Java developer who wanted to learn JSP. I found this book to be fast moving, with many examples and solid explanations of the topics at hand. You'll find coverage on using JavaBeans, EJBs, and J2EE containers with JSP to prime you for books dedicated to each of those subjects, along with great explanation on when to use what, and how JSP fits into the J2EE framework. Chapters are around 30-40 pages each, with enough detail to get you started whilst wheting your appetite for your own experimentation on Tomcat. I read the book in less than 2 weeks and felt comfortable with all the material covered.
I would not recommend this book to an inexperienced developer. There are a handful of minor code and example errors (such as an OS X screen shot for no reason!) which might confuse somebody new to Java and web development in general. Also, the coverage for configuring Tomcat, taglibs, etc. is probably not comprehensive enough for a newbie - you'll have to read the Jakarta docs to get some of the examples working. Of course, this is also a great way to learn how to configure the platform, since you're going to have to learn these things sooner or later anyway.
If you are already in web development and need a fast paced, comprehensive resource for learning JSP, I recommend this book wholeheartedly. This is a great starting point for learning J2EE as a framework.
