I read this earlier today and I was highly disappointed with it. It seemed to be more about Gordon and his battle with the corruption in the police department. Plus I don't feel like I really learned much about Batman.
I will say the big positive is if you read Year One, Long Halloween and then Dark Victory you get a good extended look at the early days of Batman.
It's not one of my favorites, either. It received alot of acclaim at the time for the reasons you mentioned-- Gordon and the corruption. Considering Gotham City had been super-peachy keen up until that point, it was a new take. The artwork was praised for being more like the original depictions of Batman from the late 30's. If nothing else, it wiped away the "happy Scoutmaster" image of Batman that had existed since the 60's show and continued with SuperFriends.
The warehouse scene in "Year One" has been aped several times. Most notably in the debut episode of the Animated Series and in last year's "Batman Begins".
There was a somewhat annoying habit in the mid 80's to focus on more "non-traditional" villains-- guys who didn't walk around in a costume, but were just as rotten. Which they did with the gangsters and what not.
Rucka seemed to be into that non-traditional villain crap during his run too. How I hated that run.
You've probably heard me say it before, but I believe Rucka was the worst Batman writer of my lifetime. He used Mad Hatter (in a shitty trendy coffee story that came to him while hanging out at Starbucks. Fag.) and Ra's al Ghul... but I'll be cornholed if I can remember any others. Who could forget the "classic" Officer Down crapfest? Then the whole Sasha/Fugitive/Prison Bitch bullshit. Guess who the culprit was?? David Cain. How exciting.
Rucka was more concerned about the GCPD and ripping off NYPD Blue. He got his wish when they gave him "Gotham Central". I mean, replacing Jim Gordon for a shitty second-rate version of NYPD's Detective Fancy? It's amazing he wrote out Bullock, considering his Andy Sipowitz resemblance.
Some other "non-traditional" villains of the mid-80's:
-Sin-Eater (killer with a ski mask and shotgun)
-"new" Lex Luthor
-Cap's Scourge (debateable. But when he was rampant, he didn't use that skull costume)
-Anybody Who Faced Punisher
What was worse in your opinion. That or the shitty reimagined villains Spider-Man had during the Clone Saga.