Rating: 
Summary: Pathetic
Review: The entire book comes directly from the VS.NET online documentation. Though this is disappointing, what makes the book an embarassment is the poor editing. The authors' attempt to condense the material renders much of it inadequate for explaining the concept at hand. Many, many topics feel incomplete, as if little thought went into the editing process. Important explanations (from the online doc) are excised. Others are sloppily paraphrased. I've had to constantly refer elsewhere for clarification. I wish I would have simply studied the online documentation, using the exam requirements as a guideline. This book is a waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: Incomplete Information
Review: The Good:
Frist chapter on Windows Service has been explained very well with adequate examples. Writer knew his stuff. You don't need any supplementary sources for windows serviceThe Bad:
All the chapters other than the first one are terrible. Incomplete information. The chapter on remoting is a total chaos, it will leave big holes in your understanding. I had to read through MSDN and other books to really learn the materials. It was waste of money, but more valuably waste of my time.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book!
Review: The subject matter is well explained and the book prepares you for the exam very well. The labs for the chapters and the chapter review are very good. To pass the exam, you may need some additional reading though, as the exam is tough. The practice exam that ships with the book has a different format then the real exam but it does help. After reading the book I feel like I really know XML Web Services & Server Components.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful
Review: This book may help you pass the exam (it worked for me there), but the book has some flaws. In particular, the exam covers quite a bit more than Web Services. Windows Services, COM, and COM+ are all "Server Components" covered by the exam, but the book fails to explain much about them adequately. On the plus side, it does present Web Services pretty well. The bottom line is this book will help you pass the exam, but leave you with some holes in your knowledge and understanding.
Rating:
Summary: Useful
Review: This book may help you pass the exam (it worked for me there), but the book has some flaws. In particular, the exam covers quite a bit more than Web Services. Windows Services, COM, and COM+ are all "Server Components" covered by the exam, but the book fails to explain much about them adequately. On the plus side, it does present Web Services pretty well. The bottom line is this book will help you pass the exam, but leave you with some holes in your knowledge and understanding.
Rating:
Summary: Growing pains
Review: This is the third book in Microsoft's MCAD/MCSD series that I bought and the only thing persistent with these series is the degrading quality of the material. Errors, though not as abundant as in 'Developing Web Applications...', are still present, and unfortunately in several key areas, including the practice test. I would not recommend this book as the primary reading material to anyone. Use it along with other books or MSDN Online only, or just to get acquainted with what sections the Microsoft's exam might be covering.
Rating: 
Summary: Who edits these books?
Review: While I have not found many technical errors with this book, I am left wondering if Microsoft actually reads their own study guides. This book flows about as well as a bad high school term paper. The wording is very awkward and the author doesn't seem to have a college-level command of the English language. For example, one passage in the first chapter reads: "The managed execution process involves managed code and managed data. Managed code is self-describing code that provides information for the common language runtime for providing various run-time services." Is this correct? Yes. Is it well written - NO! If nothing else the use of a thesaurus would have made the book much more readable. Until more study guides appear on the market we are stuck with mediocre tomes like this. I am reminded of the old adage about one million monkeys with one million typewriters...
Rating:
Summary: Very Poor
Review: While some chapters are readable, others are very poor (remoting) and some examples just do not work.
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