Rating: 
Summary: After You've Bought The Others ...
Review: After the initial $200.00 worth of Microsoft Press "Let's Print Help and Sell it". I bought this book along with it's companion "Mastering C# Database Programming".I've had both of them for about a week and they've paid for themselves. The Best C# books out there; trust me, I've just about bought them all.
Rating:
Summary: After You've Bought The Others ...
Review: After the initial $200.00 worth of Microsoft Press "Let's Print Help and Sell it". I bought this book along with it's companion "Mastering C# Database Programming". I've had both of them for about a week and they've paid for themselves. The Best C# books out there; trust me, I've just about bought them all.
Rating: 
Summary: A solid introduction to the language
Review: As a beginners book this is a solid introduction to C#. The book starts right at the basics with variables and expressions and moves into loops and control structures. By the end of the book you are into some more advanced topics such as multi-threading and database access. One problem I have with the text is that while in some cases it explains that some things can be done in C#, it doesn't always tell you why you would do it or, if it does, the explanations seem contrived. In the discussion on inheritance and overridden methods the book explains using the new keyword for member hiding but the actual explanation focuses on a very specific case and does little to explain to the reader why you would use it in a more general sense. Unfortunately, this makes it seem as if some of the language features have a limited or only a very narrow scope in the real world. In my opinion you can build a better programmer if they understand why you would or should do something as opposed to just knowing that it can be done. The size of the text is not overly large although it could have been slimmed down somewhat without a lot of redundant code examples. In most cases the topic being explained used complete methods or, in some cases, complete classes as illustrations of various points. However, at the end of the section, almost all of the code that was used earlier is duplicated in a full, compilable program. Often the only change being the addition of a main method or a driver class. Beginners would have been served better with different examples of doing the same thing rather than an almost exact duplicate of the same code. Although, having actual compilable code examples is very informative and a great learning tool. The section on debugging I thought was a little too limited in its coverage. More time could have been spent on this fundamental skill. If you are already an experienced programmer then this is not the book for you. The authors intended this book for beginning programmers and they do an excellent job of covering the basics of programming. The majority of the first section could be quickly skimmed to find the differences that C# has from whatever language you are already proficient in and the more advanced topics are not covered in enough detail to warrant purchasing the book for that knowledge when a more narrowly aimed text would be better. The authors do an excellent job of writing to their audience. The majority of the explanations are clear and well described. And contain well-documented and clear code samples. As well as being well thought out and meaningful. Despite its lack of elaboration in places this would be an excellent introduction to the C# language. As with any language to become proficient you need more than one text anyway so that after learning the basics from this book any gaps can be filled in latter with a more advanced text.
Rating:
Summary: great as a general overview; deficient in certain areas
Review: as a general overview of C#, this is an excellent book. It starts at the beginning and effectively takes the reader through the usual twists and turns of a new programming language. It is also good in treating some advanced topics (e.g. threads, remoting, assemblies, etc).
However, this book pays little attention to certain important areas:
1. there is only 1 chapter on ASP.net. and that chapter could not even begin to scratch the subject on the surface!
2. web services also received a cursory treatment.
Thses two areas are of vital importance to me as an ecommerce developer. I expected a more detailed treatment in a book that claims to "Master C#"
3. lastly, this book is also deficient where most programming books do: it lacks a full example of an application, where all the concepts taught in the book are brought together to build one application. Of what use is it to learn the syntax of a language and not know how to use it? Those code snipets that often appear on several pages of these books are not enough. There ought to be a running application, or a seperate section of the book where a good application is developed and the reader is walked through it.
O yes, this is ok to ask. Some great books have done this in the past. A few of them is listed:
a)Professional VB6 Databases by Charles Williams, Wrox Press)
b)Starting Out With C++ by Tony Gaddis (Scott Jones publishers)
c) Visual Basic 6 Application Development (Boutkin, et al, Wrox Press).
I hope our authors would consider this when they sit down to write that next book.
Overall, this is a great book. I would have given it 4.5 stars but there is no way to do that. It does not deserve 5 stars from me because of those things I highlighted above.
Rating: 
Summary: Worst of all the books that I bought
Review: I bought the book based on the reviews that I read here. I was very dissappointed when I got the book. I've bought the MCAD books and the Que exam prep books and felt that both provided more indepth information than this book. This book basically lies on the floor collection dust. Don't waste your money!
Rating:
Summary: This is the only C# book worth buying
Review: I bought this book and some of the MS, Wrox and O'Reilly books on C#. This one is the only one worth buying, and I read all the other ones bought. This book really stands out above the rest because it covers the C# language as well as ADO.NET and ASP.NET, along with web services. I really liked the no nonsense approach taken by the authors, and the coverage of advanced C# and .NET programming like threads, remoting and security. The book even introduces you to using and programming with SQL Server! The other C# I own stay at home on the bookshelf. Like I said at the start of this review, this is the only book I _actually_ use at my job.
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Summary: Only book you'll need on C#
Review: I bought this book on the advice of a collegue at work. It is by far the best C# on the market. It takes you from no knowledge to expert in less than 1,000 pages.
Rating:
Summary: Get this book if you want to learn C#
Review: I got this book about a month ago and found it to be the best book on C# currently available. It teaches the C# language from scratch, and also teaches Active Server Pages .NET and VS .NET. Highly recommended if you want to learn C# and .NET together.
Rating:
Summary: The only C# book I actually use
Review: I have four books on C#, and this one is the only one I actually use. This book uses clear examples that I understood, and was able to use them to model my own classes. I also found the advanced sections of the book easy to follow. The book even covers ASP.NET and Visual Studio .NET, which really makes this book stand out as being useful.
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Summary: The only book I need for a transition from C++ to C#
Review: I learned C++ from the Deitel & Deitel book "C++ How to Program" and swore by it for years. When it came time to tackle C#, I was leaning toward their C# book offerings. However, I skimmed through them in the local bookstore and the arrangement of the books seemed cluttered. That is, they looked like a good reference, but not necessarily the best learning tool. I turned to Amazon.com and read through the reviews. I bought this book, Mastering Visual C#.NET, based on reviews here. I'm amazed at how easy it is to read through. The charts throughout the book will come in handy as a reference later as well. This is the only book I needed for a transition from C++ to C#. This book is for learning the fundamentals of C# programming, including how to handle file and network I/O. It also covers the more advanced features of C#. But if you're looking for a book that focuses on programming GUIs in Windows, then I would recommend Windows Forms Programming in C# by Erik Brown. Combining these two books (for about the same total price as a single Deitel book) has taught me everything I need to know in order to develop complete Windows applications in C#. The Amazon reviews are right. This is the only C# programming book I've purchased, and I have no need to look for another. Combining it with a good book on programming Windows forms will give you everything you need to know to develop Windows applications, at a comparable price to standalone books that may not deliver as well.
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