Rating: 
Summary: I expected more ...
Review: First things, Keith Ballinger is extremely knowledgable when it comes to .NET web services. This book contains a lot of valuable information about designing and building web services using the .NET framework. So why only 3 stars?This book was published in 2003 (some specs from April 2003 are mentioned to confirm that), but it reads more like a 2001-2002 book. I was really looking for some information about how and when to use WSE instead of standard ASMX. Unlike most ... books I own, this book really needed more technical editing and some better graphics (check out figure 3.3 for a chuckle). Lastly, the website for this book contains no useful information and is often unavailable. I expected more from ... Keith Ballinger.
Rating: 
Summary: A First Look
Review: Having already read another book on Web Services, most of this was not new. However, that does not mean that I found the book to be a redundant addition to my collection. The author does an excellent job of drilling down to the core technologies, XML, SOAP, WSDL, and offers ground level explanations of the technology as well as how they contribute to Web Services. This is an Architecture and Implementation book not an Applied book, so don't expect detailed practical examples, that give you the details of a new widget to use in your next project. The examples provide a good look at the nuts and bolts of the various aspects that the author covers, but that's about all. The author does a good job of providing a comprehensive view of the technology. About the only thing I can say bad about the book is that the white cover gets dirty way too fast.
P-)
Rating: 
Summary: It is not a reference. It is only an overview.
Review: Hi,
In the first chapters, where the Keith describes the protocols and underlying technologies of the XML WebServices, the reader gets more question marks in his head only. The explanations are very short. Actually there is no explanation, the author recommends to see the specifications foreach topic. For many things even there isn't any information.
As you read the book, you get the feeling that the author knows everything about web services, but he is not willing to show everything. Maybe he didn't have much time for the book, or had other things to do.
Kaan Ozturk
Rating: 
Summary: A Breath of Fresh Air
Review: I feel this book is a lot different than most of the books on the market dealing with this subject. The author has a unique, well founded perspective on the subject, and is not afraid to share it with the reader. Definitely NOT a re-hash of the W3C specs or .Net SDK docs.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for in-depth knowledge of web services code
Review: If you're just consuming a web service, and you don't need any low level details regarding what Microsoft is doing with its generated code, then this book is overkill. But if you want to be able to build and consume web services without using generated code, or you need in-depth knowledge of how web services work at the code level, then this book is a winner. I've given it only 4 stars because it's a little out of date now. I wouldn't buy Ballinger's book just for WSE information since at least one newer book is available on using WSE 2.0. But to get a strong grasp on the specifics of web services and their implemention and extension, this title is an invaluable resource.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: It's hard to think of a writer that has better web service credentials that Keith Ballinger. Because of that, I expected a lot from this book. And though the book is good, it's unfortunately equivalent to almost every other .NET web service intro title. I didn't find any more low-level details or tips that weren't already in other books (other good choices are Yasser Shohoud's Real World XML Web Services for VB'ers and O'Reilly's Programming .NET Web Services for C#-coders). There was disappointingly little advice for enterprise architecture here (how web services should fit into a distributed application) although I got a better understanding of SOAP encodings. I haven't yet found any book that covers WSE... hopefully the second editions of these books will fill this area in.
Rating: 
Summary: Spread thin, lacking depth
Review: Keith covers a wide range of topics in this book. Unfortunately, the discussion is shallow, and you will find yourself seeking additional resources for all of the topics covered in the book. If you are looking for a high level overview of the technologies involved because you are new to web services, this book is for you. But if you are looking to fully understand the architectural and implementation details for the core web services technologies, be prepared to buy some more books.
Rating:
Summary: Good book
Review: Keith does a pretty good job of introducing the various peices of web services and how they fit into the .NET world, including things i haven't seen elsewhere such as WSDL's extension points, and some coverage of WSE/GXA. I'd recommend it to anyone looking to get started in web services on .NET (you should also check out Yasser Shohoud's book Real World XML Web Services)
Rating:
Summary: Real-life advice about web services
Review: Keith's book on web services does what a lot of books out there on web services right now don't - that is, gives real, pertinent advice about how to implement the damn things! My favorite part was about the interop. Anyway, worth the $$ and the time.
Rating:
Summary: No practical information to actually get you started
Review: The author jumps around various topics, and constantly refers to SOAP standard section 5 or 7 in his descriptions. It looks as if he expect the readers to be fully conversant with the nuts and bolts of SOAP spec, and we all know this is a tall order.
Worst of all, he failed to put together even a single real world app to illustrate the best way to make use of web services, TODAY.
He talks about Web service technology as if the tech is an end onto itself.
Don't buy it, you know you don't have time to toil thru a dorky tech spec discussion, esp. when the spec itself is getting out-of-date very fast.
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