Rating: 
Summary: Great for intermediate to advanced programmers
Review: Unlike some of the other reviewers here, I found this book to be very approachable. Those of you who may've purchased Petzold's definitive work on winapi, this book is much like that. I wouldn't recommend either one to a newbie, but in the right hands this book is a great tool.
First, I found the reading very easy to follow. Some of the other reviewers felt that Mr. Esposito's writing was sub-par, even flaunting, but I've yet to run into anything that seemed intentionally archaic or cryptic, everything seemed to fit quite nicely.
In particular, some of the words brought up by other reviewers that they didn't like are fairly common terms in mathematics that anyone who has been exposed to lower division calculus classes should know already.
Second, I like the wealth of knowledge in this book. Most programming books aren't meant to be read from cover to cover (at least, none of the ones that cover topics in-depth), and this book is no different. If you're learning asp.net, you'll want other resources to get you started. Once you get started, use this book as a reference.
The reason I'm giving this book 4 stars is the sheer lack of examples. As one of the other reviewers mentioned, Mr. Esposito gives a wealth of information, but the examples provided are painfully short, under-documented, cryptic, and in many cases useless. Especially with the database related stuff I was forced to find examples elsewhere. Other than perhaps the first chapter or two, which have 5-10 line aspx examples, I saw no fully working examples. At the very least Mr. Esposito could have provided a CD with example sourcecode & referenced it from the book, but the book doesn't come with that luxury either.
As a companion to this book, I would recommend getting Jeffrey Richter's Applied .NET programming book, which covers the .net framework mainly from a C# standpoint. This asp.net book doesn't go into detail on a lot of the .net topics that are fairly essential in my book, especially exception handling, and Richter's book covers it nicely.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of info, but doesn't separate practical info
Review: Although he does a good job of providing a lot of information about ASP.NET, Esposito neglects to separate details of the .NET framework's internal workings from the practical information that developers need to know to build real apps with ASP.NET. This makes for some very dry reading and it can be difficult at times to figure out how to accomplish the day-to-day tasks needed in web application development.
Rating: 
Summary: another great Dino Book
Review: Although I still think Dino' english is a problem somhow,but actually I got all Dino's Book.This one is very complete reference and technical guide for asp.net development.Dino's book actually contain perfect practical code sample.That help me a lot.
Rating:
Summary: A very good book
Review: As always, Dino's book is insightful. If you are looking for basic how to program asp.net, this book is not for you. If you become an asp.net expert, read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Have
Review: Did you ever have this problem with your datagrid, in the edit mode, the width of the Boundcolumn textbox automatically became so big that made your table or even your page changed size just to satisfy the stupid textbox. All right, this book even has answers for this kind of questions.
Rating: 
Summary: The real gems in this book are few and far between
Review: Dino has a knack of making simple things complex, and I strongly believe the 1000+ pages can be reduced to less than 250 without losing any real value.
This is partially due to his poor command of the English language, but what's so irritating is his frequent use of uncommon terms and phrases to show off his "mastery" of the language (especially the word "orthogonal"). The editor must have slept on the job as well.
The whole book tastes like sand, but there are occassional insights that can help recover the cost of it, and that's where the 2 stars come from.
Another bigger complaint against this title is that it doesn't show you how to build a real world application; just snippets of code here and there, with no clue at all about how to piece them together.
It seems that Dino is far more keen on impressing his readers than delivery of value.
Rating:
Summary: A perfect ready for the geek who wants to know-it-all!
Review: Excellent writing by Dino Esposito, yet again. He starts our light - moves to some intense technical insight into IIS and the .NET framework - and continues on into the most authoritative learning tool / reference, ever written on the subject.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive, my new ASP.NET bible
Review: First off, I think Hari Thummalapalli's review nails it on the head. My review is not intended for beginners. In my job, I've come across some aggravating issues in .NET. This book breaks down ASP.NET to its nuts and bolts, and that is crucial knowledge when you have to design new objects.
Personally I think you get the most out of this book if you read as much as possible rather than treat it like the dictionary. Not an easy task, for this is the biggest book I own. However, the book is very readable and the author is good at taking you from Point A to Point B. Some Wrox .NET books have plenty of good pointers, but it becomes an Easter egg hunt, for it's tucked amongst pages of beginner material.
I'm going into a C# shop and I'm still going to use this because it covers .NET so thoroughly, language differences shouldn't matter as much. Moreover, the author points out differences between VB.NET and C# I haven't seen covered anywhere else.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good, but I prefer the o'reilly
Review: I found the book to be generally decent all round. But find myself picking up the o'reilly more often.I guess I'd like the book if I hadn't seen another. I bought the book because I assumed that a MS Press book should have a lot of detail. However I found that it went over the basics well but didn't offer a lot of detail. I feels like the book expects you'll be looking up MSDN for detail. Also, even though there is a "real life" section in the book, I found that the examples, while decent, didn't offer as much insight into the practical use of things like controls. I'm not a very creative person and examples that go a little beyond the literal use of a feature helps a lot in giving me insight into the many ways I can use it. Like I said, decent book. I'd like it if I didn't have something to compare it against.
Rating:
Summary: An in-depth learning experience.
Review: I had stumbled across this book at the time Wrox sold out. I was hooked on the publisher (about 20 books) The editorial staff wasn't below the 3rd grade level of English, like Addison-Wesley. (Hated everyone one of their books I bought. I read some of the books twice to make sure I hated them, despite the reviews.) I had liked some of the Microsoft Press books, in particular, the Resource Guides because of their "deep" content. So I gave their programming books a try. This book is nothing short of phenomenal. It is well written. The reader is lead thru the concepts as they unfold and expand. The theory of the code presented makes it an excellent source of knowledge. It is not for the beginner at heart. I had to read this book 2 times because there is NO fluff - just excellent, concise writing that flows. This book rates as one of the best with me. The others are "Beginning Java Programming" from Wrox by Ivor Horton or the automotive engineering books by Author W. Judge, published by Bentley Press in 1966. (This dates my years of reading reference books.) I subscribed to MSDN magazine because of his writing skills, his knowledge, his ability to develop concepts and ability to aid the reader in developing an understanding of the material presented. Dino Esposito is a deep thinker so get ready to bury your mind! This book is good for the intermediate ASP.NET programmer before they go on to tackle the tough stuff i.e. Component Controls. Don't get this book if you are not willing to invest the time or do not want to really understand ASP.NET. (P.S. this is the first review I have written.)
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