Others say...

"Best Reference book I've ever read"
This is an amazing book. Language is clear and to the point. A lot of code samples, which makes the reading through the concepts a lot easier. The book also has a wonderful eBook on supplemented CD. It's in PDF format, hence searchable. I am keeping it always open and no longer wander to web - everything I can ever dream of (yet) can be found there.
***Warning: This book is not for the beginners. Author assumes the reader already has a basic level of VB understanding.


"deserves 5 stars"
Everyone else here has covered the technical aspects about this great book, but I just want to emphasize the writing style. This author, Francesco Balena, is absolutely a brilliant writer. His conversion of thoughts into words is truly incredible. And so is the organization. If you have the earlier edition of his first book by the same name, you would benefit from the upgrade. Definitely worth the money.

"A Jewel"
The intro says there's an electronic book on the CD. Huh? No electronic book. Apart from this, the book is outstanding. But beware: it's not for the faint-hearted neither for the beginner. If you don't belong to either of these categories, get the book - you won't regret it.

"Just what I was looking for"
First off, let me say that this is not a beginner's book. It does touch a bit on the basics of each topic, but it is not a tutorial. There are plenty of those out there anyway. This book is for the programmer that has had enough of the basics and is ready to advance. I have read some reviews claiming this book talks too much about VB6. I do not agree. I started out learning VB.NET and never had much exposure at all to VB6. As a real world programmer trying to do more advanced things, such as interface with the WIN32 API, the VB6 content is required. When trying to make some of these API calls work, I have had to search out solutions on the internet. Most of these VB solutions are written in VB6 or earlier. While I don't think it is required to know everything about VB6, it is very useful (required in my opinion) to know how to read it. In addition, the explaination of how data is marshalled between the managed and unmanaged environment is very easy to understand.
To sum up, I have been long searching for a book to bring me to the next level in VB.NET. I believe I have found it.


"A note for prospective buyers"
I suspect most people who have reviewed this book are experienced developers, and I imagine this book is great for them. However, I found that the book was not very useful for a less-than-experienced reader (specifically, me).

The main thing that bugged me was that the cover makes it sound like a complete reference for everyone, but if you dig deep enough into the introduction, you're told that the book is written specifically for VB6 developers - and the rest of the book very much bears that out. If you are not a VB6 developer you may feel like this book was not written for you, and that's correct - it was not.

This VB6 slant is so pronounced that I believe the front or back cover should have stated - very clearly - that this book is wirtten with the VB6 developer in mind. Better yet, the title should have "for VB6 developers" in it somewhere. In either case I would have (correctly) avoided wasting money on a book that is not written for my needs.