Information on the web about Spring can be found if you searched enough. The problem is that there was never any kind of clear guide and process by which you could either learn or make good use of the features in Spring.
I spent the better part of 2 hours last weekend at the bookstore reading through some chapters of Spring in Action and Spring PRO. I had already looked at Spring Live and was just too fond of it. Spring PRO turned out to be as dry a reading as the paper it's printed on. Sure it's got a lot of information, but geez, who needs that much, and who can read all of it when it's so hard to stay awake during the reading?
Spring Live offered something the other books didn't:
1- It's easy to read. The Authors, Craig Walls and Ryan Breidenbach, have a pretty good sense of humor, and has obviously put great effort in using good examples which everyone can understand. If you don't know how a student class registration works, you probably didn't go to school. I could have done without the Knight and singing what ever examples, but hey, they didn't hurt anything and got the message through.
2- The book flows in the natural way one would expect to work with Spring. I like the sequence of chapters, as Craig and Ryan layed them out. They start with a quick yet fairly thorough Spring startup, and run from there into wiring, AOP, dao and on down to complete the project. it just works and makes sense, and I don't feel like I'm left wondering about something. They always seem to get to what you need to know as you think about it.
While SiA didn't have the depth of Spring Pro, it still covered everything and then some, with accuracy with what you need to know. It's written from the standpoint, at least in my opinion, that you're a smart engineer, this is not your first time looking at Java or a framework, so they tell you what's going on, and let you figure out things further if you want to and when you need to. You're not plastered with a bazillion pages of details, leaving you skimming page after page for what you want to know. Spring Live just lacks in details, and seems more driven towards those who want to integrate Spring with other frameworks like Struts, and just seems a little too happy on self promoting the author's own tools.
I don't know what these stupid low rated reviews are talking about, it seems they were posted before the book was even published. Sad.
If you want to get going with Spring the right way, get this book and don't waste your money and time on anything else.
Hope this helps.
R