Rating: 
Summary: Full coverage
Review: I expected this book to be about getting to SQL Server from .NET. It certainly is but it also goes so much further. Thomsen gives his main examples using SQL Server but also includes Oracle, MySQL and other databases in his coverage. He also goes into depth about Active Directory (and other LDAP) access, interfacing to Exchange Server etc. There's even a handy reference to the Normal Forms, which I always need to look up somewhere. A real database book!Thomsen does, of course, cover ADO.NET, splitting it thoroughly into two camps, connected and disconnected. This is a good approach because with pure .NET you really want to keep away from connected but you may be willing to 'compromise'. There's a useful chapter on Message Queuing, which I haven't seen covered anywhere else so well. Even though I code with VB.NET as well as C#, this book had a useful chapter on making full use of Visual Studio for database development and will certainly speed up my future developments. He uses a simple application of his own (software isn't provided but can be downloaded) to illustrate his points throughout. I like this approach and also find it refreshing to get away from the Publishing world for the examples. If you don't know C# at all, get another book as well as this one. If you need to do any kind of data access, including even designing your own database, get this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Decide before write
Review: I found this book unstructured and out of flow. How about author first decide before write. Putting things here and there don't make a book. Book has more unrelated topics than real database programming. I found how book discusses basic DB concepts and targets advanced readers. Look at ADO.NET Essentials.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: I have to say that this book is an awesome book and I'm very happy I bought it. It's not the cheapest ADO.NET book around, but with all the non ADO.NET coverage, like msmq this book is worth every coin I paid.
Rating:
Summary: Very competent
Review: I love this book and even if there are a few things to be improved, this is an excellent book with lots of of details. Most impressive is the SQLXML chapter although 3.0 coverage would be better. I think that chapter 8 is great and I really enojyed the detailed coverage of message queues. The writing is very competent and I will definately look out for other books from this author. Just one thing, drop the tables. They are good as reference but they shouldn't be in the chapters.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reading
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book, because the authors writing style makes it real easy to pick up the information in the book. Speaking of information, it looks like it has taken quite a while to write the book, as the book is literally packed with detailed information. My favorite chapter is the message queues one, which I'm fairly new to. Like the other chapters, it starts at beginner's level and then gradually adds more and more information to the pile and by the end of the chapter I felt rather comfortable with message queues. That's how a book should be! Oh, and the concurrency bit was execellent.
Rating: 
Summary: Poorly organized
Review: I wanted to give it a 1. It has less database programming and other miscellenous topics are every where.
Rating:
Summary: Another great job by a talented writer
Review: I'm pretty fanatical over anything relating to database technology as well as .NET. So I'm probably quite biased but I think this book is really great. It's written such that a total beginner could pick it up and get going, but there's a lot of great material intertwined that I think intermediate developers would enjoy it too. My number one criteria for a book is that it's interesting. I read the whole thing and never got bored even though I was already familiar with much of the material. That's a big plus in my book. The content is good and the examples are practical and well discussed. On the other hand, I think he does a great job of discussing things in proportion to how important they are. Let's face it, twenty examples of using the DataAdapter Configuration wizard is silly and there's a title or two out there that goes down that road. This is what I really enjoyed because he shows you both ways of doing just about everything (using code or doing it with UI tools) and explains the what's and hows. I've liked every book he's written and this is no exception.
Rating:
Summary: Another great job by a talented writer
Review: I'm pretty fanatical over anything relating to database technology as well as .NET. So I'm probably quite biased but I think this book is really great. It's written such that a total beginner could pick it up and get going, but there's a lot of great material intertwined that I think intermediate developers would enjoy it too. My number one criteria for a book is that it's interesting. I read the whole thing and never got bored even though I was already familiar with much of the material. That's a big plus in my book. The content is good and the examples are practical and well discussed. On the other hand, I think he does a great job of discussing things in proportion to how important they are. Let's face it, twenty examples of using the DataAdapter Configuration wizard is silly and there's a title or two out there that goes down that road. This is what I really enjoyed because he shows you both ways of doing just about everything (using code or doing it with UI tools) and explains the what's and hows. I've liked every book he's written and this is no exception.
Rating:
Summary: Waste material
Review: If you care about your $$, look for something else. Addison wesley's ADO.net is a good one or go for MS Press.
Rating: 
Summary: Superior ADO.NET for Intermediates and Above
Review: In these days when all publishers rush to press with their 800+ page offerings on the new .NET technology, it is quite refreshing to find an author that truly knows the subject matter, and knows how to communicate the information without simply rewriting the online product documentation. While reading this book I had the feeling that the author, like me, made his living doing database programming with C#. The author, Carsten Thomsen, says that this offering is based on his earlier book Database Programming with VB.NET. It seems clear that both his prior experience in writing about this topic, and his prior experience with database programming in general have been combined to produce both a great tutorial, but also a good reference. My stack of .NET books is well over 3-feet high by now, and I've found this book more useful than most.
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