"An excellent book for those of us who need to get up to speed on what's new in SQL Server 2005. The authors made sure this book includes the final information for the release version of the product. Most other books out now are based on beta versions. It covers key areas from XML and SQLCLR to Notification Services. Although the wide variety of information is great, my favorite part was the advice given on when to use what, and how performance is affected." --Laura Blood Senior Software Developer Blue Note Computing, Inc. "SQL Server 2005 is a massive release with a large number of new features. Many of these features were designed to make SQL Server a great application development platform. This book provides comprehensive information about the SQL Server features of most interest to application developers. The lucid text and wealth of examples will give a developer a clear understanding of how to use SQL Server 2005 to a whole new class of database applications. It should be on every SQL Server developer's bookshelf."