This review is spot on. Code Complete (CC) is more thorough and detailed, but Pragmatic Programing (PP) is better written.
The cool thing about PP is how it packs its advice into easy to understand metaphors. CC tries too hard to make science in a subject (Software Engineering) that is not always very easy to handle scientifically. I don't buy a lot of the evidence CC provides (cone of uncertainty, 10x productivity difference in programmers). I even think CC becomes a better book after you read PP first.
[Edit] At the end the author comments about 2 other books: Clean Code and Refactoring as overlapping the stuff covered by Code Complete. I don't think so; to me they are much more a subset of it. [/Edit]
The cool thing about PP is how it packs its advice into easy to understand metaphors. CC tries too hard to make science in a subject (Software Engineering) that is not always very easy to handle scientifically. I don't buy a lot of the evidence CC provides (cone of uncertainty, 10x productivity difference in programmers). I even think CC becomes a better book after you read PP first.
[Edit] At the end the author comments about 2 other books: Clean Code and Refactoring as overlapping the stuff covered by Code Complete. I don't think so; to me they are much more a subset of it. [/Edit]