This book sets out to introduce WPF to professional developers. Co-written by four authors, it covers a range of topics at varying levels . Inevitably this kind of multi-author book has the feel of being a collection of specialist essays by experts in the various areas rather than a coherent, empirical textbook. This may or may not be a bad thing, as the resulting book will have something for readers at all levels. (A good example of pleasing some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time)
Among the topics covered are general WPF development concepts, Styles, Animation, Bitmap Effects, Transformations, Custom Controls and Win32 Interop. The book also covers the kind of pro dev topics that often don't get as much coverage elsewhere, e.g. Security and Architecture.
I have read several WPF books and this is the first one I have seen that shows how to use Expression Blend as a core part of the development process. An interesting approach and one that is quite useful.
The code behind is in C# (as is every other WPF book on the market at the time of writing), but it would be better if VB.NET code behind was available also.. There are downloadable code samples for most chapters. I thought that the code demos for Chapter 10 - WPF and Win32 Interop examples - were a particularly useful inclusion in these early days of WPF.
Because it is a relatively small book (by modern technical book standards anyway, at 400 pages) I did feel that there was
insufficient coverage of some key topics, e.g. I would have liked more on Control Templates and Document display, for example.
However there are occasional little gems, such as excellent descriptions of particular new WPF topics - RoutedEvents, for example being explained very clearly. The two step by step chapters on Expression Blend have many useful screenshots. The Special Effects chapter includes examples of the kind of WPF showpieces that have caught a lot of people's interest.
If you decide to pursue WPF in depth, then this probably Won't be the only book on the subject that you'll buy. But for an overview of WPF, plus an introduction to using Expression Blend as a development tool, there will certainly be material in here that you will find useful.