This is a very interesting book for anyone who is interested in going to the 'next level' of JavaScript. It's not a book for absolute beginners, but everything is very well explained without wasting time on trivia.
The chapter on metaprogramming (self-modifying code) is my favourite. Not only because it presents some very useful ideas, but also because it finally made me understand how JavaScript does certain things under the bonnet.
James Edward's Maze game is nothing short of a-maze-ing. It's a fine example of what you can do if you have the ability to think outside the box. (Way outside, in this case!)
The only negative part is the first chapter. Not because it's not useful -- it is! -- and not because it's badly written -- it isn't. The reason is that the code samples use XHTML markup but the JavaScript code will not work if that markup is served as real XHTML. The JavaScript relies on the HTML DOM, e.g., that nodeName properties are returned in uppercase. The use of character entity references is also ill-advised for XHTML.
Unfortunately, there isn't any informtion about this in the text. Someone who isn't well-versed in the fundamental differences between HTML and XHTML would learn some harmful practices.
The sad part is that it would have been so easy to write the JavaScript in a way that would have worked in both the HTML DOM and the XML DOM.
The remainder of the book contains good code examples which don't sacrifice accessibility.
Having said that, I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn how to use JavaScript for something other than validating form input.
