[Book review] LINQ in Action

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 (Fabrice Marguerie, Steve Eichert, Jim Wooley) 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.

Check how to purchase the book on Manning website...