Authors Prince and Lowe do a first-class job of introducing you to ADO.Net as well as allowing you to delve into the more advanced concepts.

The book follows the typical and very effective Murach style of a left-hand page of explanatory text on a specific concept and a right-hand page of code and/or illustration that is linked to the text on the facing page. I find this sort of presentation really helps me focus on the current topic. Also, eliminating the necessity of page-turning to find an accompanying example makes for a better learning experience.

The book is about 550 pages long, excluding appendices and index. There are probably less text than the typical book on this subject, and that's a *good* thing. The authors were highly selective in what they included. For example, you don't have to wade through 300 pages of "what is a form" and "what is an event" before you get to useful information.