I guess for the raw amateur novice or for the professional who only wants a superficial quick once over this book might be of some use but for most its superficial approach makes it useless.

I have no doubt that it will get good reviews from first timers who will not realise that the ease with which they work through it has little to do with its use of English or its use of colour and interminable screenshots. The reason it will seem so much easier than many other books is that it is completely superficial and makes no immediate demands of the reader's intelligence.

It is only when the newcomer tries to actually do some programming for themselves (there are no exercises or other things that might disturb the reader's peace of mind by letting them discover how much more there is to both programming and C# than has been revealed in this book) will soon find that they are having problems with anything other than the most trivial of programs.

Yes, the book is cheap for a book on programming but even impoverished students understand the concept of value for money. As for the back-cover claim that it offers 'cost-effective training for your staff', well I think that if I had an employer who considered this book a substitute for proper training I would be looking for new employment.

The only person for whom this book has anything substantive to offer is one who is content with superficial knowledge. If you genuinely want to learn either C# or programming this is not the book for you.