Rating: 
Summary: Badly In Need of an Update
Review: This is not a bad book, but it is long out of date. If you're getting it to learn how to use ADO to connect to SQL Server 2000, like me while not totally useless I found most of the book dated. I would say I found only a few chapters that were relevant and then again even those were dated. If you want Vaughn go with his "ADO Examples and Best Practices" which is more up to date and is beautifully written and organised. But this book will do the trick, particularly if you have other supplemental books. I probably wouldn't buy it though if I had to do it again.
Rating: 
Summary: A Must Have Book for Database Programmers
Review: This is one great book for database programming information, especially for ADO interfaces. I struggled unsuccessfully for months to implement the new ADO controls in Visual Basic 6.0. I finally decided my sql server just wouldn't support the ADO controls. This book saved the day. Within weeks of purchasing it, everything was set up and working better than I ever expected. I had previously purchased other "visual basic sql books" before this was available. This is the only book I've found that really does the job.
Rating: 
Summary: Adequate, but needs more code examples
Review: This is one of those books I'd like to complain about, but can't. The only thing lacking is more code examples. I would recommend getting Sussman's book ADO 2.0 to supplement this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Keep Looking - This is not worth reading - at any price!
Review: This is total nonsense from the start. I assume he knows what he is talking about I just wish he would share it with the readers without all the painful detours. I wish the author knew the difference between Explaining and Entertaining. I did not buy this book to be entertained but once you buy it, you are stuck with it. It is hard to know when the good stuff starts and the jokes end. I find myself trying to skip all the jokes and trying to find where the information about SQL Server starts. Ultimately you just give up with all the silliness. I am not sure what literary style this is but it kind of reminds me of a style I probably used in 6th grade. There are too many good books you can buy for any one to have to settle for this trash. I am going to buy the one from SAMS (Learn SQL Server in 21 Days). I was impressed by its reviews. It seems to be a no nonsense, direct approach to a great subject.
Rating:
Summary: Good, detailed overviews of ADO, RDO, DAO
Review: This SEEMS to be one of the better of the innumerable VB books out there, one which overviews medium to advanced database access concepts especially with relevance to SQL Server. I knew I was in good hands when I installed the test biblio database and saw it was not made up of garbage, but instead consisted of tables with real workable worldly data in it. A bunch of other books out there deal with ADO, RDO concepts but not with just the right level of detail that this book does. Explanations are "bite size", crisp, and to the point and the "content thread" overall progresses in a rationally hierarchical manner so the reader builds on, and is eventually equipped with sound methodology to implement the tools of SQL SERVER data access. A good measure of this book is in the discussion of RDO parameter queries to stored procedures, which the author scrupulously details with respect to output and input "placeholder" parameters, something that was rather sloppily described in the WAITE "how to" database access book. (But then it only gave 50 pages to RDO, and 77 to ADO!) I am tired of endless books that claim to discuss a topic in detail but which really give you 2-3 meager chapters on it with another 11 "kitchen sink" discombobulated chapters i.e. Crystal Reports thrown in. Attention all publishers out there: If I want to know topic, I need the detail on that topic and that alone, please - no more "salad bar" anthologies! This book mercifully, keeps to the straight and narrow on ADO,DAO,RDO with historical precedents thrown in which I always appreciate. I also appreciate that the book does not redundantly list source code that is already on disk! This to me is one of the dumbest things publishers do, why do I need endless pages of source code in the book AS WELL as on disk??? Also appreciated was the tone of the book, which treats the reader professionally, intelligently and never in a patronizing manner as opposed to the "idiot's guide to....." (I HATE THOSE BOOKS!) All in all, the book is an excellent reference/guide to what it professes. I would have liked a bit of overview on say, the normalization process because I feel these topics are of immense value. (But then the book does not really claim to explain database modelling anyway.) All in all, the 900 pages on everything in this book is really well presented and will be very useful to developers creating workable database access programs in a real world scenario. Good stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent coverage of ADO (and DAO, RDO) access MS SQL.
Review: Tons of well-written examples.Lots of practical applications and historical tips. . . very helpful if you weren't following the development of ADO, DAO, and RDO. Applies to not only SQL Server, but to any data source that you might to access. Written to teach you how to use VB with SQL Server; in addition to providing some reference material.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't get to the point
Review: With project deadlines, a stack of 1000-page books, and other interests, I just do not have time to wade through irrelevant information to find what I want. I will try to be objective. If you want a thorough reference, the author does a comprehensive survey. The work is thorough, but the information is hard to get at (see below). The author was one of the brains behind RDO (one of the six technologies covered in the book), so he is somewhat of an expert, and somewhat biased (toward RDO). Many of the readers apparently like a lot of jokes and sarcasm and historical information that can go on for paragraphs. If you have the time or patience for a lot of humorous or tangential reading while you are trying to find something out, then you might give this book five stars, but I wish it was reduced to a quarter of the present size so I could get what I want four times as fast. Because of the author's humor and sarcasm, many of the technical aspects do not come through clearly in explanation.
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