The best thing about Hoffman and Kunz's book is its beautiful exposition of Jordan Forms. If a course is planning to get to Jordan Forms as a target then I can't think of any better approach than that in Hoffman and Kunz.

Sections on linear algebra in Artin and Herstein's book's are also very good but then Hoffman and Kunz win hands down if the objective is Jordan Form.

Explanation of concepts like conductors and annihilators, invariant polynomials and variations/equivalence between notions of semi-simplicity and myriad of different ways to test diagonalizability of a linear transformation are I would say the claim to fame for Hoffman and Kunz's book. And all this merges beautifully in their writing of Jordan forms, as if everything else was written just to make this concept clear.

Very importantly this books gives instructive numerical examples after every bunch of concepts.

The best thing about Hoffman and Kunze's book is its beautiful exposition of Jordan Forms. If a course is planning to get to Jordan Forms as a target then I can't think of any better approach than that in Hoffman and Kunze.

Sections on linear algebra in Artin and Herstein's book's are also very good but then Hoffman and Kunze win hands down if the objective is Jordan Form.

Explanation of concepts like conductors and annihilators, invariant polynomials and variations/equivalence between notions of semi-simplicity and myriad of different ways to test diagonalizability of a linear transformation are I would say the claim to fame for Hoffman and Kunze's book. And all this merges beautifully in their writing of Jordan forms, as if everything else was written just to make this concept clear.

Very importantly this books gives instructive numerical examples after every bunch of concepts.