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LINQ is a beast of a topic to master, even for the most adept .NET developers. Advanced but little-known features from .NET 2.0 such as iterators, generics, generic interfaces and delegates are just the start of understanding LINQ. From there you have a set of new language features that are added to .NET 3.5 to support LINQ processing. Finally you must conceptually tie all of this together into a coherent model of processing that you can understand. To make all this happen, what is needed a great book from a great explainer.

Enter LINQ IN ACTION from Manning Press. As soon as I opened this book, what became obvious was the fantastic ability of the authors to explain the deep technical subject matter.

Unlike so many books that do a poor job of explaining, this title does a great job of leading your through the material. Programming books are usually written by highly technical authors who know that material but are not in the business of developer training. Such authors can write books that are had to follow an do not do a good job of explaining the topic. The authors of LINQ IN ACTION do a fantastic job of explaining, much like a great instructor/teacher is capable of doing. This makes it a great book.

This book does not use terms that have not previously been defined in the text. All terms are defined in advance of use. The book has few typos, grammatical errors or transposed labels for figures or listing. The book has lots of short code samples to get you thinking as you go along. Gone are the long, impenetrable code listings you see in other books. This book aims to take you from the beginning to the end with LINQ, doing a great job of demystifying a complex topic. The book succeeds.

The bonus in this book is the fantastic code samples that serve as a companion to the title. The samples are served up inside a small .NET app that is actually a great example of really good .NET coding. The source code for this little app is included. This app (written in C#.NET) and the source code it showcases are the icing on the cake. This is a fantastic book for professional developers which I can strongly recommend. The authors and Manning Press are to be commended for a job VERY well done.

Dan Mezick (3/21/2008)

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