This was my first book on Java. I had previous experience mainly with C++, Python and Ruby.
I think it is very well written (although the Bulgarian translation was ****).
The book explains about the most important concepts in object oriented programming and at the same time provides details about Java mechanisms that handle classes and objects.
I think this must be the best intro Java book out there.
I recommend The Java Programming Language book as the next step, although some of the material covered in the latter is the same, but from a different angle and with additional information.