Rating: 
Summary: No way 5 stars
Review: This book is at best average. There is nothing here that isn't already on MSDN and nothing earth-shatering.The .NET samples by far are the best way to .NET. The writing in the book on top of that is amateurish.
Rating: 
Summary: IF you are serious? This book is too ..
Review: This is not the book for a light superficial reader. This is a book for a serious learner. I have been dancing around the idea of database programming in VB.net for several months now. But this is the book that has really got me started. I admit I threw away this book after reading 6 pages in the first chapter. It has got me confused and overwhelmed by all the new glossary and high detail level. But a couple of weeks later I have decided to give it another try. And I thank God I did so. Skipping the first two (basic science) chapters you can start rightaway by the third (visual database tools) chapter and still keep up. Beleive me if I said that each single word from there on is an essential piece of information. Although I haven't finished reading it but I thought it's quite fair to clarify the above points about this great and serious book. I am really enjoying reading it, I take it with me everywhere. And I have started already practically verifying examples to help me through the course of learning which is by the way "Amazing"...
Rating: 
Summary: Just barely worth the cost of its paper
Review: This is the worst VB book I've read in all of my life, I needed to get to speed with ADO .Net, and as this book's title says "Mastering" I thought this could be the one I needed, especially after reading some of the other reviews. If you are an absolute and complete beginner in database programming this book might help you, but if you already know your basics, step away from it and get David Sceppa's book instead. Half of this book is about the basics of Transact-SQL, but the really basics, not the advanced stuff, and after that you get a bunch of really dumb examples of the database objects that will rise too much doubts in your head, instead of helping you, you'll just get more confused. I gave it two stars, because I was able to use a couple of examples in one of my applications, but that was after I had read Sceppa's book. What a dissapointment.
Rating:
Summary: Just barely worth the cost of its paper
Review: This is the worst VB book I've read in all of my life, I needed to get to speed with ADO .Net, and as this book's title says "Mastering" I thought this could be the one I needed, especially after reading some of the other reviews. If you are an absolute and complete beginner in database programming this book might help you, but if you already know your basics, step away from it and get David Sceppa's book instead. Half of this book is about the basics of Transact-SQL, but the really basics, not the advanced stuff, and after that you get a bunch of really dumb examples of the database objects that will rise too much doubts in your head, instead of helping you, you'll just get more confused. I gave it two stars, because I was able to use a couple of examples in one of my applications, but that was after I had read Sceppa's book. What a dissapointment.
Rating: 
Summary: Buy this book!
Review: What a great book - there are so many insightful chapters covering such a wealth of information that you would think that it wouldn't cover it deep enough. But no - you discover things that you can't find online - clearly the authors have contacts within Microsoft - it's obvious from the foreword. Even from only reading a few chapters, I was able to put together a robust database system with a VB.net and ASP.net front end using web services.
Rating:
Summary: Buy it for the XML chapters alone
Review: When I picked up the book, I thought I would just be learning about how to design a database. As a seasoned programmer, I am not interested in information I can grab off the web. I was delighted to find so much un-documented information in this book. Instead of a dry, design your database manual, you get an around the world tour of almost every flavor of technology that surrounds data access. Chapters 10 and 12 are my all-around favorites - X/Path, XSL/T XML and the related technologies. I would like the authors to write a book just on XML alone. Another favorite topic of mine (which was again, very clearly explained): SQL Server access over HTTP. This was great information that I can definitely use in my systems today. A terrific book overall.
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