You can download sql server from Microsoft for a trial edition which allows you to use all the function you want for a period. Maybe three months for free. I cannot remember correctly. You can also download free mssql books from http://www.ppurl.com/
I love mssql tsql. I wrote lots of stored procedure and I study and optimize each sql statement and feel proud to write faster sql statement. I usually run all the data on server and I am reluctant to bring the data to client to process.
I think if you are experienced pl/sql developer in oracle, you may not have any issue to pick up tsql in mssql.
You can download sql server from Microsoft for a trial edition which allows you to use all the function you want for a period. Maybe three months for free. I cannot remember correctly. You can als ...
I was developing database engine driver to translate sql into different database server i.e. oracle, mssql, sybase, interbase around 2000 using Delphi for my previous company I worked for. It took lots of the code to do some translation for the sql syntax. Now I can use entity framework in C#. :-)