I'm a veteran developer who uses COM/ADO for most of his development. With 3 solid years of ADO experience (coming out of DAO beforehand and dBase before that) I couldn't suggest a better book. This is my 3rd ADO.NET book this year and I can assure you that if you buy ANY book on ADO.NET then this will be it, this will be the icing to any other book you own or the first and only book you will ever need.
If you have a total lack of programming experience you should probably stick with a language + data combo book, then come back here later one when you have a better understanding of your language as this book will top off what you learn. I am positive there are better books for beginners out there, people who need more hand-holding and less code or people who may not be able to derive concepts without an explanation.
If you are an intermediate, professional or veteran developer who knows a decent amount of ADO then this book, and specifically chapters 10 and 11, are what you really want. You want a book that will answer all the questions you would have about ADO.NET as if you sat down for the first time to write a Rolodex sample without the slightest clue about ADO.NET, but knowing exactly what you'd want to do if you were to veresed with 'traditional' ADO.
The bulk of this book is a re-organized, regurgitated ADO.NET reference, with the first glance this bothered me but I've come to find it indispensable over the last few hours and it makes an excellent companion to the Framework documentation. Since there were no other reviews to this book I almost didn't make the purchase and as a matter of fact I bought yet another ADO.NET book from at the same time. I probably won't even read that book except as a boredom killer now (it arrives Monday, tomorrow).
Hopefully this review saves someone else from passing this book by, If you're a pro and you're looking for the perfect book, this will be it. Trust me.
