This is the Elektra saga excerpted from the Daredevil comics. They took bits and pieces of the original stories and tried to put it together in a book that emphasized Elektra. Not a good idea as a lot of the origianl storytelling elements were lost in the transition. Hopefully Marvel will rerelease the original Frank Miller Daredevil series in their complete form.

This is for beginners only. Examples and explainations are very simplistic and do not provide the detail necessary for creating a real world messaging application. Much effort is expended providing information on using the Visual Basic IDE and on creating a UI. The code examples also demonstrate poor programming practices. I would not recommend this book to anyone. If you would like a good MSMQ reference buy Designing Applications with MSMQ by Alan Dickman. It is not perfect but is the most comprehensive text on MSMQ that I have read so far.

I started MSMQ a month ago and found this book quite useful for novice like me. It starts with concepts and them implement it in the following chapters.

Sometimes find it a bit hard to follow as the steps are not given in full.

Does not include info to set up the MSMQ environment properly as this is also very much helpful for beginner.

Conclusion : 3 stars book. Could be further improved.

The first chapter serves as a precursor to the remaining book. It details the features, functionalities, and benefits of message queueing. The book gives the reader a solid foundation on message queuing in which to build upon. It is easy to read, with examples throughout. It successfully conveys the power of message queuing in an enterprise environment, where it's role is paramount. Now, we are ready for the second book to take us farther into distributed applications as a business solution for complex integration issues. We can expect the sequel when? :)

Growing up in St. Louis in the early and mid-eighties, I was a big Cardinals fan (now refered to as the Arizona Cardinals). And Neil Lomax, being the quarterback, was my favorite player. Now, this novel is written before Neil moves with the team to Phoenix, so that chapter of his life (his hip injury that ends his career after only one season in the sun) isn't included, which is somewhat of a shame, cause it would have made for a great dose of humble pie.

Neil Lomax was the loudest critic of the city of St. Louis in their support (or lack thereof, as far as he was concerned) of the Big Red. He was full of sour grapes, citing that he belived that "Fredbird the Redbird", the St. Louis Cardinals baseball mascot, was more popular than he cause Fredbird hit more homeruns than he did. This comment, along with many others muttered by Lomax, led to the feeling that St. Louis was a "baseball town". No one, and especially not Lomax, cared to mention that St. Louis was a baseball town cause they were the only team in the city that EVER WON. Anyone who followed football in the seventies and eighties knows that the Cardinals lost WAY more games that they won, and were the primary laughingstock of the NFL (with the exception of the Buccaneers).

I mention this because in this book, which as I stated earlier pre-dates the move to Phoenix, Neil Lomax makes numereous statements of glowing praise regarding the wonderful support of the St. Louis fans. Did he say this to sell a few more copies, which to my knowledge wasn't even carried by bookstores outside of Missouri? Or is he the prime example of the new, modern "fickle" athlete primma-donna? Here's a thought Neil...St. Louis fans put up with the losing ways of the Cardinals for 28 years, which to be honest with you is 28 years longer than any other city on earth would have. I believe Lomax recognizes this, because since his departure from professional sports, he has made numerous attempts to launch business opportunities in the Gateway City.

The book is basically like all other sport-star biographies...long on information you could care less about, short on the knowledge you do seek, and rose colored glasses regarding the authors life. This book is a waste of time. Sorry to be so harsh, Neil, but maybe next time you'll actually win a few games before you started bad-mouthing the city who supports you...or should I say, SUPPORTED you. GO RAMS!