Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: A must have book on WCF
Comment: This book is one of the best books on WCF.
I have been reading about Service Oriented Application (SOA) for a while and I have tried to develop applications using this style of programming. It a style of programming.
You must be able to answer this question before you can start doing WCF programming.
Q: What is the purpose of WCF?
A: In my understanding WCF is there to make calling "functions" across different boundaries simple. By boundaries I mean application to application, business to business, machine to machine etc. simple.
This book explains all that and more....
Take for example you have a functionality that can translate numbers to words
(e.g. "72" to the words "Seventy-two") or the MS-Word spell and grammar checker.
How many times have you need to reuse some of this same functionality in another application, if you are like me this is often. The standard way is cut and paste and dll's.
What WCF allows you to do is to expose this functionality on the wire across many different boundaries. This exposing comes with a price.
Like how can I secure the communication (authenticate, authorize, encrypt ) , perform transactional work (rollback , commit), handle problem like broken wires a host of other stuff .
FACT: Many people don't understand Object Oriented Programming (OOP) although they use an OOP language like C++, C#, Java. I was guilty of the same about seven years ago. So I went and read many different books on OOP.
The principle is simple. Grasping its importance is another matter.
The principle is: program to an interface, not a concrete type
You can't stress too much how important this principle is.
If you go and read Programming WCF Services with out the above knowledge it will be like reading in a foreign language
Suggested reading
Design Patterns (GoF)
Component Oriented Programming by Juval Lowy ( the light went on here)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Poorly written
Comment: Well, from what I can tell, the author knows his material.
Unfortunately, the book is poorly written. The author simply doesn't write as well as Petzold, Richter and Sells do. He tends to "dive down" into advanced material without making it clear that he is doing so; this makes it difficult to get an overview of the material.
I agree with the earlier reviewer who stated that one should read some _other_ book first to get an overview of the material. Maybe then, this book would be useful.
It still seems poorly organized to me, though.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Welcome to WCF
Comment: Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to digest and appreciate this book. WCF is a huge topic and Juval's work is the most comprehensive and insightful you'll find. This is one of those books that teaches you a technology and makes you a better engineer all at the same time (see the chapter on transactions for a good example of what I mean). Personally, I always keep a copy within 3 feet.
You _can_ buy other beginner books or go fishing on MSDN, but if your goal is to be good at WCF you'll need this book eventually. Another way to look at it is if you take the time to understand this book, you'll be excited instead of overwhelmed when WCF 2.0 comes out.
One of my favorite things about this book is that it serves as a guide and reference both at the same time. While this means it is absolutely packed full of information, it also means that almost everything you need is in one place.
In summary, I highly recommend this book, but only if you're going to take WCF seriously. If you only want a cursory understanding of WCF, you may want to start somewhere else and come back to this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good and Bad
Comment: Read this book after reading a simpler book on WCF. Most of the chapters in this book are disconnected. There are some good subject matter covered but they get usefull when you really write a real Service and you can get it from MSDN. I did'nt see anything like pitfalls and better approach to doing a task. Also its not very concisely written and lot of filler code.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Do you take software seriously?
Comment: Then you need this book.
Juval has produced yet another required addition in any serious .NET architect's library. I have several of his books and this one will join the others, highlighted everywhere, tabbed often, and finally laminated so it will stand the abuse from constant use. His writing style and extensive knowledge of the framework make this for sure a frequently accessed resource.
Filled with well engineered examples and guidance through pragmatic use of the advanced features of this extensive framework, the book targets those who take producing software seriously. If you plan on building solutions that will see real world use, the knowledge and skills you gain from this book will prove invaluable.
He offers to the reader quick and brilliantly presented access to key concepts that are a must for making the correct technical design decisions. After having read the book one is left with the feeling of having taken easy advantage of tactics Juval has developed from what truly must be an enormous number of hours studying, testing and developing against this revolutionary framework.
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