Rating: 
Summary: VS developers: Stay FAR FAR away
Review: I rank this book among one of the worst computer books I have ever read. ... It is filled with redundant code, poor examples and plenty of bad jokes. This book was written for masochistic notepad coders who like command line compilers. For any Visual Studio developer looking for an excellent reference text, advice on proper coding strategies, and a book that is worth what you paid for it, stay FAR FAR away, as this book is none of the above and doesn't even acknowledge the existence of VS.NET.
Rating:
Summary: VS developers: Stay FAR FAR away
Review: I rank this book among one of the worst computer books I have ever read. ... It is filled with redundant code, poor examples and plenty of bad jokes. This book was written for masochistic notepad coders who like command line compilers. For any Visual Studio developer looking for an excellent reference text, advice on proper coding strategies, and a book that is worth what you paid for it, stay FAR FAR away, as this book is none of the above and doesn't even acknowledge the existence of VS.NET.
Rating: 
Summary: Great approach to learning asp.net
Review: I received the book about a month ago and I'm already done with it. The author approaches the subject in a totally different manner. Even though I am an experienced developer. I find the author's approach refreshing. I would especially recommend this book to web designers that are interested in learning asp.net quickly.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book to begin with learning ASP.NET
Review: I was not as familiar with New Riders books when I picked this up. However, I have been pleasantly surprised. This book shoots for a new area of the computer book fields. It is akin to crossing "For Dummies" with a Que or SAMS technical book. The humor, irreverence and relaxed teaching tone is there, but with a surprising level of depth. Ladka knows his stuff and can translate it to the beginning user. His examples cover both VB.NET and C#, so you not only can see ASP.NET grow in your preferred development language, but you also can get a practical view of the similarities, differences and syntax that each language uses. Another plus if you are getting your feet wet in the .NET development arena. Each chapter the author introduces you to the concept, shows you some of the technical aspects and syntax .NET uses, and then rolls up the sleeves and shows you basic examples of the concept in action. I found myself bookmarking several sections to use for reference as development continues. Who is this book's target audience? Someone who has some ASP background who is delving into ASP.NET. Someone looking for a chance to jump into some examples and see things in action to choose what you want to pursue in further depth. Most of the examples can be typed into live code should you wish, and downloadable code is available, though you have to search for it. There are so many examples, you are better off reading and following up with live versions of a few items that you wish to explore more. If you need more live handholding, try a "Step by Step" book, or possibly some of the excellent WROX books. Overall this is a very good book to start your journey with.
Rating:
Summary: A book not to be missed
Review: Let me first of all start of by saying that normally when I get any book on web development or programming etc it is normally for reference only and I usually go straight to the point of interest without actually reading the whole book. But this book is different, it is written in a manner, which is very easy reading and is written in a way that keeps you interested. It takes you on a gentle journey through the bits and bobs and ins and outs of object oriented programming and all the way through to the juicy bits of the .NET frame work in a chatty friendly humorous manner in which any one should be able to relate to. It's as if you are having a one on one chat with the author. The way the author describes things really wet my appetite and I mean literarily with the amount of references to food (LOL) it was fun to read but at the same time very informative and kept me interested all the way through.
This book doesn't get bogged down on the finer intricacies of nuclear physic it gets straight to the point in a way that us mere mortals can understand.
This book is a must for any one wanting to get into .NET whether they are new to web design or if they are already using ASP and want to make the transition.
All in all a great book well worth having
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of technical errors
Review: Maybe I'm a humorless fellow, so I will not hold the constant, distracting, adolescent-level, condescending patter of the author against him. I noticed that when he forgets himself and actually focuses on code, he offers us some excellent material. The problem may be the weak quality control and editing. In Chapter 6, for instance, there were problems in just about every code example. Sometimes the code in the book was correct, but the downloadable file was not. Sometimes the reverse. Sometimes examples worked as designed, even though it was interspersed with rogue or illegal code. As for the annoying patter, let me end with a direct quote. If you can stand 600 pages of that, I admire your fortitude. The author's own comment says it all for me. From p.193:
"And is there a method to this madness or an end to this grief? One can never tell, but we hope against hope that the gods in heaven or the mother of all mankind will be kind and have mercy on our fragile souls that we may once again see the sun rise and be glad that another day has been granted us. Huh?...whatever." Close quote. Indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book for Learning ASP.Net
Review: The author does a great job of explaining in simple language the basics of ASP.Net (and somewhat beyond). He has a pretty good writing style that is full of humor and easy to read (although it does border on corny at times). It covers more than ASP.Net for Dummies and has a lot of good insight for the tips and tricks of writing ASP.Net code. I also like that he provides both VB.Net and C# coding examples. And, I like the professionalism of the book. NewRiders did a great job of keeping out grammar errors and typos which is not the case for some of the WROX books. The one fault I see is bringing in discussion of object-oriented programming in the second chapter. I think for the newbie to ASP.Net, it can be a bit confusing. Finally, I think NewRiders should mention the word "beginner" in the title someplace so someone like me who is looking for a book like this to give them the basics of ASP.Net could find it without having to read through all the ASP.Net books' summary information (which is alot of books). Based upon the title, I was assuming a more advanced and techie book. So, why limit the audience to just Web Designers?
Rating:
Summary: Just Okay
Review: The book is okay in that it gives you a quick and dirty overview of ASP.NET. The code examples are okay but where the book falls short in that the author babbles a lot rather than actually discussing the subject.
Rating:
Summary: Decent, not the best...
Review: This book is good for anyone wanting to get their feet wet with asp.net. It's nice they presented both vb.net and C# code however, this book is riddled with syntax errors like the holes in swiss cheese.
Peter Ladka did a good job with the overall material of this book, but his "Technical Reviewers" must have not been paid for their efforts, otherwise they would have probably paid more attention to detail.
Rating:
Summary: This is the FIRST book to buy to learn asp.net
Review: this book is so good it's motivated me to write my first review. i am familiar with php, perl, let's just say open source languages but decided to finally learn microsoft's asp.net. this book really explains, in plain english with real world examples in both vb.net and c#.net (note: if you like php, you'll lean towards c#). i got my first asp.net pages up and running with this book and it's the one i turn to the other books start to talk over my head. you won't need visual studio.net , just notepad and a web server.
wait till you get to the part where the author explains html server controls... for those of you who wanted to see what asp.net was all about,*this* section will blow your mind wide open!
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