Rating: 
Summary: Asp Net Review By Brad
Review: This book is well written and supported by the author at the books site (see CD that comes with book for details) on various web sites(eg. ASPGNVS). It has a fairly even mix of code and explanation. Used in conjunction with "Visual Studio.Net ASP Quick Start Tutorial" (assuming you have them) you will be pleasantly surprised at how they compliment each other. This also assumes you prefer to use a methodical approach to learning ASP.NET. I can see why this is a Microsoft Press Book as they are generally better at getting the important details out. If you come away disappointed with this book then it could mean that you did not work hard enough to see what points the author was trying to convey in each chapter or you tried to consume the book in one or three days. My recommendation is to go with this book if you are new to ASP.NET (or the net framework) and you want to get up to speed on ASP.NET without getting overwhelmed.
The reason why I did not rate it 5 Stars is because of a few typo's(corrections are available at the web site) and the example in chapter 11 regarding accessing and binding data with SQL could have had more information on using the UPDATE command by including it in code(perhaps as a scrolling text bar) rather than adding it in as a comment(Page 309 of the book). But perhaps the intention was to get the reader to apply their own skills at it and get them motivated to code rather than be led by the hand and remain oblivious to how it really works...
Rating: 
Summary: The very opposite of "step by step"
Review: This book is written extremely poorly. Unlike most computer books which start out with a short high-level overview and then proceed to a "hello world" style example, this book waits approximately 200 pages before it begins talking about web forms, which is all most programmers care about anyway. There is an entire chapter devoted to declarative security before we have the foggiest notion how to write a simple ASPX page. We also get long lists describing every attribute allowed by the "page" and "control" applications, and every element permitted in the configuration files, before we are shown how ASPX works. When this book finally does start talking about web forms, it does an awful job as well: it hand-waves when in describing "postbacks" which is the mechanism that allows ASP.NET to be "event-drive". The connection between the code-behinds and the ASPX files is explained badly. This is a truly dreadful book. The fact that it is it titled "step by step" when it organized more like a reference book is laughable.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the Steps I was Looking For
Review: You would think that, with a title that includes the phrase 'step by step,' this book would help you learn ASP.NET in a step-wise approach including examples and maybe even exercises. Unfortunately, this is not the case. I found this book disappointing. "ASP.NET Step by Step" contains articles that give a good theoretical understanding of ASP.NET. Had I been looking for this sort of information, I would have found this book more useful. The content of the book is good. It just isn't right for me. Recommend: Questionable
Keep for Reference: No
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