Rating:  - One of the best web development books ever!
I am not attempting to exaggerate to make a point when i say this book is thusfar not only the best book on ASP.NET but it is the best and most comprehensive book I've ever read on a web development topic (and I've read many from many different publishers on php, coldfusion, asp, SQL, etc...)
This book is just too too comprehensive. The author covers nearly every topic you can think of. And what really makes this book so good is that no time is wasted in long drawn out explanations. Out of all the 1500 pages, there is code and examples on each. This is the way to make a computer book since its not a iterary topic.
The book is like topic, examples; topic, examples, topic examples one after the other. The author explains just enough for the reader to understand the code which makes the book so useful and an efficient read.
I am an experienced web developer that wanted to get into ASP.NET. This was my first ASP.NET book. Since it, I've purchased and read 2 other asp.net books to see if I needed any more. After finishing this book, other books seriously look like jokes compared to this one. Looking at other asp.net books, they don't contain 1/15th of the information covered in this book and that is an understatement.
If you are pretty good at any web programming language this will be the ONLY book you need to learn ASP.NET. Only if you have no experience would I say that this may be too much for you.
Lastly, I wanted to thank the author. It is very rare to see an author dedicate so much of his time and knowledge to one book. A lot of people just want to get their books published. Any web developer or author will know that this book must've taken really long to complete. On top of it all, there arent many inconsistencies for a book this large.
Everything you care to know about ASP.NET is in this book (basics, ado.net, data binding, web services, xml issues, mobile issues, custom controls, graphics on the fly, validation,...more) plus an e-commerce and job site. The only thing missing that you may want is a little primer on VB.NET syntax.
Rating: - A great book
This book has a lot of information and would be a great addition to anyone's .Net library.
Rating: - Great ASP.NET and VB.NET book.
Great book to learn how to create ASP.NET pages using VB.NET. I have bought Stephen Walther's classic ASP books a few years ago and staying true to his style he introduces you to new concepts and then shows several implementations of it. It's great to see not only an idea talked about and the properties/methods listed, but then see at least one example of how to do it (unlike O'Reilly books). I've been programming in classic ASP for over four years and switched to ASP.NET about 6 months ago and must say anyone on fence thinking about switching - I say do it!! ASP.NET is a hundred times more powerful and, while it may take a few months to get totally comfortable, I guarantee you'll be glad you invested the time in learning it. This book covered all the key concepts, allowing me to create several grade A online application using the .NET framework. I'm hoping the author comes out with a "next step" book like he did with the classic ASP series. While this book does cover lots of the advanced topics in the later chapters (caching, dynamic graphics, transactions), I know with the depth of the .NET framework (32,000 objects) there is more out there. I'd say if your a newbie to intermediate level this is the book for you. And even though I've moved on to C# for my ASP.NET programming, I still use this book as a reference to implement the .NET framework. The book is also great in that it doesn't relay on Visual Studio to teach you - actually I don't remember one VS example. Anyone can point and click in VS - this book shows you how to actually do it.
Rating:  - Comprehensive overview of ASP.net
This book is an extremely helpful overview of what you can do using ASP.net. I found it easy as a beginner to grasp the concepts and get started developing. Now that I have more experience, I still refer to it often as a reference. The main shortcoming was that it does not discuss in-depth some of the performance optimization issues, such as how to code using the strict compilation option. (But there are plenty of newsgroups out there with that kind of information.) This is the most comprehensive and readable overview of ASP.net that I have come across.
Rating: - Good book for beginners
This book would be a good reference for people looking for a first introduction to ASP.NET... Examples are clear, this book covers most of the important topics you must know to develop you first project using .NET for the Web. After you read it, ASP.NET and .NET framework will be more comprehensible, even if you don't know a specific language
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