Rating: 
Summary: confused
Review: After an hour or so of reading various topics in this book, I finally broke through months of dead-end leads and half-answers. Here is the info you will be looking for when developing and deploying web apps in ASP.NET. This refers to the VB version, but I am sure the C# version is the same except for the code examples. Some really great topics include setting up IIS, security, subapps, deployment, database usage, etc. The topics are succinctly explained, then you get the walk-through with any necessary code clearly shown. Buy it, read it, keep it around as a great reference.
Rating: 
Summary: So this is where the answers are hidden...
Review: After an hour or so of reading various topics in this book, I finally broke through months of dead-end leads and half-answers. Here is the info you will be looking for when developing and deploying web apps in ASP.NET. This refers to the VB version, but I am sure the C# version is the same except for the code examples. Some really great topics include setting up IIS, security, subapps, deployment, database usage, etc. The topics are succinctly explained, then you get the walk-through with any necessary code clearly shown. Buy it, read it, keep it around as a great reference.
Rating:
Summary: Hello? Can Amazon fix this?
Review: All the reviews are for another book, not this one. This is VB, not C#. Amazon must have a bad database pointer or something.
Rating: 
Summary: poorly written. But?
Review: I bought this book from the bookstore to teach my students or i would say to use it as a class text for an intro to ASP.net programming using C# but to my surprise the author took this fine language and ASP.net product and did not know how to present it in writing for someone that is not expereinced to understand what he meant and as such could not recommend it to my students but if you do have some knowledge already about C# and Asp.net then maybe it will be worth it.
The author is a good author but he missed this one.Because true kowledge comes when you can take something and explain it in simple terms to someone so that they can learn something.
Rating:
Summary: It is just darn fun!
Review: I have found this title very informative and easy to follow. Not only that, but unlike many other titles on the subject of ASP.NET, C#, and .Net programming, this title assumes nothing and supplies all the appropriate directions to complete the exercises included in each chapter. I have also found that G. Andrew Duthie explains the usefulness of what he inroduces in his book in a manner that leaves me confident enough to study other ASP.NET programs with clarity. I place this book on my top ten ASP.Net must have list for anyone who wishes to develop a solid understanding of programming ASP.NET with VC#. Plus, this book is just darn fun! Best,
Jerry
Rating: 
Summary: This book is just bad
Review: I started this book with a background in both VB and classic ASP, with the goal of upgrading my knowledge to ASP.NET. I'll state that I think this book is just bad.
It seems that half the book presupposes that you have extensive knowledge of classic ASP, and the other half assumes that you've never used any sort of scripting language before. The examples are horribly simplistic to the point that they have absolutely no relation to modern web applications. But, you won't understand large parts of the book unless you have a background in programming.
The first two parts (six chapters) could actually be somewhat useful to a true beginner. They start slow and build up some very basic skills.
Part 2 is a little different. Chapter 7 on web forms is fairly decent, but could use to be longer. Chapter 8 on server controls is just poorly written. Chapter 9 on accessing date is AWFUL. It presupposes you have a fairly good background in traditional database access with something like ADO, so it's definitely not for beginners. For instance it compares the DataReader object to a read-only forward-only cursor, but if you don't have a background in data access you aren't going to understand how cursors work. This is right next to where he explains that the password key "Specifies the password to use to log into the SQL Server database." Yeah, DUH. Also, a bulk of the chapter is devoted to working with XML data but the chapter sets out to work with databases. For a 68 page chapter it conveys surprisingly little actual new information. No time is given to explaining how databases have traditionally been accessed and used in actual working applications. I just wanted to scream as I read it.
Chapter 10 on creating custom server controls and chapter 11 on creating web services are very brief introductions to some fairly advanced and complicated topics. They provide simplistic examples and then expect you might be able to actually use the knowledge you gained in the chapters. Yeah right.
Chapter 13 is aimed at beginners on deploying ASP.NET applications. Chapter 14 on tracing and debugging is actually not bad. (Not good either.)
Also the book is based on using Visual Studio .NET. I'll state that I have a bias against using IDEs for simple scripting, so I won't comment on appropriateness here. But be forewarned that three-quarters or more of the examples involve VS.NET.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: My overall impression of the book is that whilst at first glance it is organised into logical chapters (the reason I purchased the book), the contents within the chapters is presented haphazardly. The author jumps from one topic to another without fully explaining whats going on and presents some confusing examples, some of which do not work. Not impressed at all
Rating:
Summary: Confused about who its aimed at.
Review: Sorry I bought this book. Have to agree with the previous reviewer, the author Mr Duthie just isn't good at teaching. The book its very badly structured, he just fires way too much at people in the one go. Note I say that as someone who has been writing ASP for years and has done a course on ASP.NET with VB already.... If you were hoping, as I was, to use this book to learn C# you'll be very disappointed...There is no a lot of c# in it. There is a chapter called Understanding Programming Basics...which is "intended for readers who have little or no direct programming experience".. (which I thought was completely inappropriate for a book on a subject at this level)but then hilariously in the next paragraph it chickens out and encourages beginners to go read a whole load of other books and websites... the remainder of the chapter is a brief and useless dash through some aspects of c#. My feeling is its a redundant chapter only put in there so beginners might be fooled into buying the book. The ordering of the book is worthy of criticism too... we end up wading through mounds of info on 'Managing State', 'Configuring the App' and Security.. before we even find out about creating web forms or using the controls... And I do mean Wading, you need a lot of stamina for this one and you get pulled around all over the place before getting to a goal... But the biggest problem with this book is that it has no clear idea of what level of programmer its aimed at and is very confused as to what it wants to achieve.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe for a beginner
Review: This book is a bit hard to follow. If you are a beginner it may be good for you but otherwise it lacks substance. I used it mostly as a reference and even that was hard as the examples could have pertained more to real world applications.
All said the author could definitely have put a bit more work in the book to bring it up from its mediocrity and closer to its $ value.
Rating:
Summary: ok for beginners,,,
Review: This book is okay for beginners...I finished this book in 4 days...nothing for professionals and experts..
If you are new to c# ,,,go for it...otherwise try something else...like MCAD..etc
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