Before I found this book, I was rather lost. I was trying to learn C# and the framework using the doc's that came with Visual Studio and the .Net Framework installation and was only getting so far. I didn't feel like I was learning it comprehensively.

Even though this book is large (about 920 pages), it's easy to read, has example code throughout, and covers a lot of what I needed to know. It had a breadth I found lacking in other .Net books. Troelson covers the C# language very well, and covers many of the important facets of the .Net API and its interfaces, like database access, Windows Forms, GDI+, Win32 DLL & COM interoperability, file I/O, serialization, Web Forms, and web services.

It's a fair reference, though it is by no means complete. His goal is to give you enough information to make you reasonably competent so you can get basic things done, and understand enough so you can comfortably venture forth and learn more if you need to.

Unlike many of the other books I looked at, Troelson provides enough information so that you learn how to compile the example code using the command-line compilers of the .Net Framework SDK and how to compile them in Visual Studio.

The example code is available from the Apress web site as a ZIP file, and all example projects have Visual Studio project files so there is no setup to do for Visual Studio users. Just compile and run.

My only criticism is that he made "errors of ommission," where there were words missing from sentences, breaking my concentration a bit. I never had a problem with the example code. Things compiled as they were.

I would've liked to have seen coverage of Windows Forms applets (deploying forms via. Internet Explorer), and .Net's security model, which he doesn't get into at all. Nevertheless, the book covers more than other books I looked at, and I am very pleased with it. If you're trying to learn C# and .Net and are feeling lost, get this book. You won't be sorry.