Don’t trust the other poor reviews on this book. This is a great book for a particular type of reader.
- If you are an experienced developer but are wanting to ramp up on MVC in .Net then this book is for you.
- If you are an experienced MVC developer and are wanting to understand the depths of MVC4 then you are probably not going to get a lot of new stuff from this book.
Here’s my take…
I have just finished reading Asp.Net MVC 4 in Action and thought before I write my own review let me see what others are saying about it. I’m shocked at the poor reviews this book got on Amazon - it doesn’t deserve them - if you are a particular type of reader. Let me explain why…
I bought this book about 2 years ago. It came in a big Manning purchase with 5 other ‘in action’ books. For the last 2 years it has sat on my shelf becoming old. Eventually, last month, I got to a point where I had time to read it. After reading it cover to cover I can honestly say it was not what I was expecting AND I really enjoyed it.
Why did I enjoy it? I’ve have had limited exposure to ‘Web’ development. Most of the applications I develop are native client applications. I consider myself an exprienced developer, just not in this space. I was looking for something that could get me ramped up in MVC in the .Net space quickly. I found this book was almost like a buffet lunch on MVC in .Net. It took me across the full spectrum without going too deep into specifics. I came out of it being productive. I was pleasantly surprised to see the ‘test’ mindset of the authors. In essence, it covered many of the general topics an experience developer who is new to MVC in .Net would like to know.
So why has this book gotten such bad reviews? I think many of the other readers were expecting a MVC4 deep dive AND this isn’t that type of book. While it touches some MVC4 specific things, this is primarily a MVC in .Net book at a higher level which just happens to have been written at the time MVC4 was around.
This book is not for someone who has been working in the MVC space for years and is wanting to at a very deep level understand the mechanics of MVC4. If you are in that category I think you would probably be wasting your money.
So, for me this book has paid off. I found it still relevant even though MVC4 is on its way out and being replaced with MVC5. And that for me folks is a sign of a good programming book (provided that is what you wanted).
Buy from Amazon
ISBN-13: 978-1617290411
