Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: The Best Linq Book Available
Comment: "LINQ in Action", published by Manning, is by far the best book available on Linq, both for those new to Linq and those already following it. The authors, Fabrice Marguerie, Steve Eichert, and Jim Wooley, have done a fabulous job of explaining Linq from the basics to the advanced. They even made it enjoyable to read, which makes it one of the best .Net books ever!
The authors' introductory chapter shows us right away that this book is different by presenting a perfect balance of the problem, the history, and the solution. Linq is a huge subject, but the authors are up to it, and they quickly whet the readers appetite for all of Linq -- Objects, Sql, and Xml. We then get a very thorough explanation of the new language enhancements that Linq relies on, but which the authors clearly show to have uses of their own. The chapter on Linq's building blocks, covering sequences, query operators, query expressions, and expression trees, was especially instructive to me, even though I've followed Linq from the alpha days, so again I'm sure this book has something for everyone. The book then covers Linq to Objects very thoroughly, including common scenarios and performance considerations that other books never consider.
The book then progresses to three chapters on Linq to Sql, which are of course my favorite since I'm really into O/R Mapping. The authors cover not just the basics to get beginners up to speed, but they also cover far more advanced content than I was expecting. For instance, they discuss not just the designer to setup mappings, but also the SqlMetal tool, and manual mappings using either attributes or xml. They also discuss the various concurrency options, the entity life cycle, inheritance, and more. The authors then give us three chapters on Linq to Xml, which again have something for everyone -- I especially like the chapter on common scenarios. The book finishes with a very thorough chapter on extending Linq, with a Linq to Amazon example, and a chapter that ties it all together with a real-world example that was gradually put together during the course of the entire book.
The authors also provide additional support and material online, including a bonus chapter on Linq to Datasets. There is also downloadable code in both C# and VB, although the book actually shows both languages in most cases, and always points out the differences when there are differences between them.
Disclaimer: I personally know Jim and have seen him present on Linq multiple times, Steve was a user of my WilsonORMapper, even contributing to it, and I've known Fabrice in the online world for quite some time too -- but I did very much enjoy and learn even more from their most excellent book on Linq.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An excellent in-depth tour through LINQ
Comment: The book is very well-written and very comprehensive. The authors made a great job at writing a book that can be read from cover to cover. The book begins with some reminders on LINQ history to understand where LINQ is coming from and why it is making life as a .NET developers more easier. Then come the language explanations, the part where you will see how C# and VB.NET have been tweaked to support LINQ syntax (btw, the book covers both C# and VB.NET LINQ and it is great to compare the different choices made). This part is really essential if you are considering using LINQ. Indeed, LINQ is coming from functional languages, something that most of us are not acquainted with, and it is disturbing at the beginning to understand things such as deferred execution. I found that a lot of energy has been put in pedagogy for readers that come with a classical OOP background.
Then comes the Part 2 on LINQ to object. This part is also vital because you will quickly realize that LINQ is about to definitely change the way your C# or VB.NET code looks like. Most of the algorithms we code rely intensively on collections and LINQ to object represents an incredibly powerful syntax to work with collections. Here also the authors worked really hard to explain properly the 'why/when/how to' things and to anticipate just in time the questions you might have.
Then comes part 3 and 4, on the 2 major LINQ flavors: LINQ to SQL and LINQ to XML. They represent a great opportunity to see some real-world use of what you've learnt in the 2 first parts. What I really liked here is that the authors anticipate the various scenarios (both common and advanced) you will face by using these 2 implementations of LINQ.
Then comes the great final, the part 5 that focus on how to extend LINQ to your own needs. LINQ is coming with several different extension points, from the single operator rewriting that will take you 2 minutes to write to the complete query framework that will take months to be written. This part explains and compares all these possibilities and can, alone, motivate you to buy the book if you plan to extend LINQ. LINQ extensibility is followed by another great chapter named 'LINQ in every layer' that put up together all knowledge presented until there to see how real-world applications are impacted by LINQ.
Something I would like to underline is that authors kept an objective eyes on LINQ. They warn you about the temptation to use LINQ for everything. What is awesome is that in a wide range of cases, LINQ represents both a new powerful syntax and also offers optimal performance. But for some other cases LINQ will execute much more slowly than a good old foreach style programming.
I highly recommend learning and using LINQ now because a lot of things is going to happen soon with LINQ, with things such as Parallel LINQ (PLINQ, to write queries that will execute on several threads at a time) , LINQ to Xsd (to write strongly typed XML queries), the ADO.NET Entities Framework (the Microsoft answer to O/R mapping) and more...
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best way to learn and use LINQ every day.
Comment: After a very good introduction about "what" and "why" LINQ, you will discover how and why C# 3.0 and VB 9.0 languages have been enhanced in Visual Studio 2008.
The rest is dedicated on all implementations provides by LINQ with Visual Studio 2008 (Notice the chapter about DataSet is available only on the web). But the "desert" is in chapter 12, where you discover how to design and build a new provider for LINQ: LINQ to Amazon !!!
Fabrice Marguerie, Steve Eichert and Jim Wooley have succeeded a excellent book that everybody must have when LINQ technologies are involved.
This book which is without doubt the best way to learn and use LINQ every day.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the best .NET books ever written
Comment: I am an avid reader of .NET books so it's pretty hard to impress me. But the authors of this book have gone so far beyond expectations that I simply had to take note. First, this is one of the best researched books you'll ever see. Second, it's extremely well written and easy to read. Third, they've really dominated this complex subject! They have anticipated all your questions and you'll see the answers within the text. You definitely won't need to turn anywhere else for LINQ info.
This book is refreshing because it's all new and original. They didn't simply regurgitate the MSDN documentation, and their examples are clear and relevant. And the authors frequently participate in online forums and they offer great support for the book. This is not a "hit and run" orphan book!
After reading the excellent ASP.NET AJAX In Action title from the same publisher, I was doubtful if lightning could strike twice. But it did. Buy this book!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A must read
Comment: This book is the fruit of a collaborative work. In a time of globalization, where ideas know no frontiers, this is a refreshing take on a hot topic like LINQ.
We have here three well known experts in their fields (name of the authors here) coming together to produce an excellent text book on LINQ.
The introduction is an appetizer for what comes next.
LINQ is not a language you will fall in love with at first sight. It demands that you get to know it but when you do you're hooked.
In this book we get a good summary outlining why we can't live without LINQ anymore. Also, a nice touch from the authors is that the code is written in both C# and VB.NET. It's a pity that this is not continued throughout the book. However, according to the writers, all the samples used in the book are available for download in both languages. So guys you are forgiven!
Because LINQ introduces new features, a full chapter is dedicated to C# 3.0 and VB.NET 9.0 enhancements. This chapter is for me the weakest part of the book. Even if LINQ in action is not intended for beginners, I would suggest to the readers to skip this section and come back to it later, because it will give intermediate developers the idea that LINK is only comprehendible by experts. It is too complicated too early in the book.
The rest of the book is cleverly divided into roughly three parts: LINQ for objects, LINQ for XML and LINQ for SQL. It is a very good idea indeed to have pushed the SQL part further down, after all, LINQ is much more than a mere language for relational databases. It is an advanced technology with many capabilities. For example, Object paradigm is at the heart of LINQ and this is well demonstrated throughout the book.
To conclude I would warmly recommend this book but for intermediate developers not for real beginners because some of the explanations introduced by the authors are not for the faint hearted!
I also give credit to the authors for creating from a blank canvas something as colorful as this book about LINQ. A hard challenge when you consider that nobody has really fully embraced the concept in a commercial application to date.
It's also a first book for Fabrice Marguerie, who I know well by his blog. Fabrice is a strong minded person, an expert in Object Relational Mapping, which gives you even more reason to purchase this book.
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