I ordered this book even after seeing that it had only one review here and 1 star at that. I have been very happy with Sybex books in the past and the Exchange 2007 Implementation and Administration book by Jim McBee was excellent at getting me up to speed so I took a chance on this one.

Personally I like this book. I am not a fan of reading 1000+ page books to get familier with a new system because there is usually too much information I already know (and won't use) and I quickly loose interest. (Plus, those huge books are hard to carry with you.) I would consider this book a delta book, covering mostly the changes and new technologies in Server 2008 versus Server 2003. I'm not sure what the previous reviewer meant by some of his comments but I think this book does a good job of covering what has changed as well as brief instructions on how to implement these new technologies. It could it be a bit deeper in a few areas but that is what specialized books (server core, IIS 7.0) are for. The one section I think is too long and extensive is on the types of deployments.

If you are looking for a very readable book that brings you up to speed on Server 2008 without covering every topic in 100 pages then I think this is a good choice. If you want an encyclopedia sized manual on how to install and manage every aspect of the new Server OS then you might want to look elsewhere. Personally I like having one of each. This is the book I can carry with me on the plane or read while waiting somewhere and if I want more detail then I can look up that section in the huge book that I keep at work.