It would worry me if I could not recommend this book, the foreword is written by the inventor of ATL, while the sales blurb on the back reads like a 'who is who' of ATL and COM. I was not surprised to find that it lived up to my expectations.

The book is very much in depth, in places I have often wondered if one really needs to know ALL the detail. I have never yet needed to know some of the things that this book covers and I do not expect I will, however if you often have to work with multibyte character sets you will appreciate the in-depth discussion of the appropriate types.

For technical in depth detail of ATL this may be your book, but it is certainly not ideal for learning ATL. Personally I found it a very dry read.