Rating: 
Summary: low quality
Review: When I picked up a copy of this book, I was quite disappointed since I was looking forward to its release. What you get is basically an ordinary book that sweeps across game programming related topics with not enough depth at all. Along the way, you get to read about personal opinions of the author which are less then interesting. The chapter titles seem to hit the heart of game programming, but the quality of the material is very low.
Unless you are an absolute beginner who knows absolutely nothing about game programming, you will get the feeling "I paid my hard earned money for this? I could have written this myself". That's the feeling I got. If you have your heart set on writing games, you can learn the material in this book on your own without needing to spend this much money.In short, if you are looking for anything deeper than an introductory to game programming kinda book, steer away from this one. Save yourself some time and money and look at other titles. There are plenty of other books out there with more in-depth information.
Rating: 
Summary: WARNING! Don't buy this book based upon its title!
Review: [Note: I have recently changed my rating for the book to ONE star.]
To sum this book up in one thought: Based upon the information in the book, I have serious doubts that the author has ever written a strategy game.
The Amazon book info reads: "Text covers everything needed to create a strategy game using C++ and DirectX 9.0," and the description tells us "Strategy Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 covers everything necessary for you to create a strategy game using C++ and DirectX 9.0." This is simply not true. While this book covers many subjects, it only barely touches upon any important aspects of strategy game (either real-time or turn-based) programming. I was appalled at the absence of information on selection boxes and "picking" units, specifically (and absolutely) necessary for RTS game programming!
The main faults with the book are poor organization, absence of essential information for creating a working strategy game, and lack of topic depth where it's needed most. The majority of the book is not relevant to the subject of the book (programming strategy games with DirectX 9.0), and is already covered by books particular to those subjects. Also, while there are code samples, none of them culminate into a working sample of a strategy game (although the map editor is commendable). Finally, at the listing price of $60 US, the book is simply not worth the money - in fact, I purchased the book used on Amazon for about $25, and it's not worth even $25! (...except maybe as a lesson in how not to write a book on programming strategy games.)
If you are looking to learn to creating strategy games, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! Spend your money on a different book. I seriously do not see how other reviewers could have given this book a high rating, but everyone is entitled to an opinion. (Although I seriously wonder how many readers found it possible to build a strategy game after reading this book.) I wish there were more out there on strategy game development, but unfortunately there isn't.
[I revised this review after reading the book a second time.]
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