This book is an excellent introduction for the developer new to ADO.NET. The book is geared towards the C# developer using VS.NET so if that doesn't describe you then you will want to look else where. If that does describe you then this is the book you want. The book starts with an introduction to C# which is probably good enough for someone familiar with Java or C++. This is followed by a brief introduction to ADO.NET and how to use VS.NET to build data driven applications. Chapter 5, the longest chapter in the book, is an excellent explanation of using ADO.NET disconnected classes and data providers. The author does an excellent job of explaining these critical topics. The book goes on to explain how XML documents fit into ADO.NET and follows this with a discussion of web applications, web services, and ADO events. The book contains a nice discussion of the ODBC data provider including how to install it into the VS.NET toolkit. This information is not easily found elsewhere. I especially like the author's style, which makes the book feel like a discussion with an enthusiastic co-worker rather than as a dry treatise. The book contains quite a few step-by-step, screen-by-screen examples of building applications. If you are (or plan to be) a C# developer and are new to ADO.NET you are unlikely to find a better book than this one for making this complex topic easily reachable.

I start working with ASP.NET Web Services and Web Application and use MySQL as back end. I've seen couple of books but none of them provides good coverage on ODBC data provider. Author has done an exellent explaing database connectivity with various ODBC data sources. Good coverage of XML Services and intro to Web Applications. An above average book for ADO.NET, XML and Web database programmers. I agree with other reviewer that the author's style, which makes the book feel like a discussion with an enthusiastic co-worker rather than as a dry treatise. Normally you would think developing Web Services are a "BIG DEAL" but author explained in a way which makes Web services a "Peice of Cake". Based on this book, I wrote a Web service, which works as a Database Layer for my three ASP.NET applications to send data back and forth.

Cheers!