OVERALL ASSESSMENT:
Overall, this is a very fine book, and very deserving of its name. Being targeted at the experienced developer, its focus is not regurgitation of coding principles involved in building .NET-based applications, but rather takes an overall look at the operations and ways of manipulating, managing and presenting data for a better understanding of the .NET Framework as a whole. The ordering of the chapters is a bit unorthodox from the norm with what other .NET titles follow, but it is of value to the developer in being both a quick reference, and a practical guide. The logical flow of the book deviates from what many other titles go with.

The chapters are explained well and are succinct, not verbose over-amplifications of what should be simple concepts. The reader can get what he wants and move on. I was able to read easily and quickly. Each major property, method, and parameter or major objects is listed in tabular format, which is great for future lookups when I need a bit of code.

The chapters on MSMQ, ADSI, and state management support/integration were explained better and in more general detail than most books, in very simple to understand dialogue. In my experience, this is the section that throws most people off…or that they wind up skipping because no matter how good the ability of the author to analogize the concepts, they get lost in the complexity of it all. Worley did an excellent job describing why such features are of use to the developer, and although admittedly not diving into each technology in gross detail, but quickly enough to get a developer started.

However, my one gripe (and it should be considered as a major one) is the apparent lack of quality control that was used in the proofreading of the book. The book is riddled with editorial mistakes, especially in the first 20 pages. It left me thinking that the book went to press with only a single passover for proofreading. This unfortunately looks bad on the author, as well as the publishing company - which is tragic, given the fact that I enjoyed Worley's work.

On the whole, I enjoyed the writing, had fun with the experience and was pleased with the outcome. The lack of proofreading leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but overall I'd say this was a success.

I would recommend this book as an excellent addition to an ASP.NET developer's library. Hopefully the 2nd edition will patch and suture the bleeding left by the editorial mistakes.


WHAT I DO LIKE: 

• The book did a better job than most explaining the importance of .NET's configuration and state management features, using global.asax and web.config.
• Properties and methods of major objects and namespaces within the .NET Framework are laid out in tabular format, making for an easy-to-read and very quick, searchable listing, not forcing the read to go sifting through pages of editorial rhetoric just to get a bit of syntax. Too many books lose sight of the fact that people want to know as many method and properties as they can, and the authors too quickly refer to the "consult the Microsoft documentation" excuse. Worley also compiled a very useful listing of Appendices Many books do not go to the length of listing all of the given properties and methods for an object, but this is a great job of providing this for the reader.
• The physical dimensions and paper used for the book make it easy to hold and read (an important factor to me, typically lying the book on my stomach…I've nearly broken ribs with other publisher titles). The fact that the book is uses a softbound-yet-sturdy binding and cover makes this durable and rugged…this is a good thing in my mind, and something to capitalize on.

WHAT I DON'T LIKE:

• Too many spelling errors, grammatical snafus, oversights in punctuation, missed or otherwise erroneous capitalization, unnecessary whitespace between words, and other such editorial mistakes. This is especially evident in the first 20 pages of the text, although the mistakes taper off and are very rare throughout the rest of the book. The text could have used a couple more runs through the proofreaders prior to publication. 
• Some of the code is wrong. When I think of errata in technical reference books, I mainly concern myself with code. Everyone is human, and everyone makes mistakes, so minor grammatical mistakes are no big thing. But as a technical book, I expect that the main draw of any book I buy (the code) is thoroughly tested, debugged, and revised to be 100% operable. Some minor snags were found.
• The documented errata found on NEWRIDERS.COM was not current, or effective.
• Although all coding examples were presented in VB.NET, and the source code available from the site was likewise also only available in that language, without regard for C#. Having both would have been nice (and largely expected).
• I did not care for how the source code was provided when downloading from the New Riders Web site…all of the coding examples listed in separate.DOC files, organized by chapter. It makes it more work to find what you're looking for and test.