The book's goal is to help you build "high performance" ASP.NET applications, and it does not disappoint. It covers different aspects that contribute to performance, such as caching, session state, and data access, and shows you how to use these technologies in the best way. There is more detail here than I have seen elsewhere, and the code by and large avoids using unrealistic, overly simple examples that in the end don't really show you how to solve a real-world problem (no "Hello, Worlds" here thankfully). For example, in the chapter on session state management, they show graphs comparing each mode and show how different stress conditions determine which mode is ideal. And the chapter on caching is the most complete I have seen. They cover each option in great detail with clear code examples. Code you can actually use.

The authors provide a great discussion on stress testing and tuning ASP.NET applications. IF YOU BUY THIS BOOK FOR JUST ONE REASON, BUY IT FOR THIS: it is the ONLY book on the market that I know of which discusses Microsoft Application Center Test (ACT) in detail. The authors show you how to set up tests and interpret the results. They even throw in a few well-placed equations for crunching the test numbers. They talk about the ACT object model (something I can't find in any other book) and show you how to script out your tests. Wow.

The book also has a good chapter on XML Web services. This chapter contains a great section on how to call Web methods from client-side code - very different! Throughout, the book is loaded with lots of good code. And yes, the code is in VB.NET, which some C# developers may not like. But it's just not a big deal. VB.NET code is easy to understand and C# developers will get just as much out of this book as will VB.NET developers. The concepts are just as important as the code in this book.

I give this book high marks because it knows its audience, and delivers what that audience wants to know in a concise, but detailed 360 pages. (I have a low opinion of thick computer books that manage to say very little in 1000+ pages). Buy this book if you are ready to move beyond beginning ASP.NET and want a detailed discussion on how to develop your ASP.NET applications at the next level.