Good but not the best

I have to say, this book is very comprehensive but if you already own the Flash MX actionsript bible, then this might not be worth your while since it is so similar. Except for the code being updated to Actionscript 2.0's format (whcih really isnt too much of a difference), I didn't find too many new things.
If you're new to actionscript, DONT GET THIS BOOK!!! This book is definitely not a first-stepper for any non-programmer, it is more like a 2nd book you'll want to get your hands on after you've taken your first steps in actionscript. After reading this book, you'll get a full thorough view of all the capabilities of actionscript, but it'll take perhaps half a year of doing projects in actionscript before you'll really appreciate the amount of info this book has. Oh, but the downside is, if you just take your time to read the help within Flash MX 2004, you'll pretty much get just as much detailed info about all the methods and stuff. But some people prefer to have a book in hand while others don't mind reading on screen... I'd say this is a good rference book, but dont expect it to teach you to code, more like expect it to help you grasp actionscript's power better and more...er..fully.

Not what I had hoped for

Noting the good reviews, I purchased this book 2 weeks ago. Despite one of the authors having worked for O'Reilly (on an excellent ActionScript Cookbook), this book has not attained O'Reilly quality.

The real problem I had with this book is the lack of indexing; I am of the opinion that a desk reference--particularly a thick one--can only be as good as its index. All the knowledge I needed may have been in the 891 pages of this book, but if it's not in the index, it's a moot point. Case in point, I wanted to see all the properties, events and methods of the MovieClip object at a glance, a reasonble thing to ask from a complete ActionScript reference. I looked for "MovieClip->properties", "Properties->MovieClip", but no entry for either! Some of what I wanted I found in the MovieClip and Button chapter by chance, but scattered, not concisely listed.

So I returned this book and bought both of Moock's recent offerings instead. The only reason I did not get Moock's books first is the fact that it cost twice as much since I really needed his ActionScript MX book AND the ActionScript 2.0 supplement. I wish he had simply updated the former book for MX 2004 and AS 2.0 rather than go the supplement route, but the extra cost is worth it and I'm glad to be free of the Bible.

Surprisingly Wonderful Book!

Okay, I have to confess, when I see a member of Wiley's "Bible" series on the shelf, I cringe. These books seem to be about the ugliest ones in the store, and I'm fortunate to live near Powell's Technical Bookstore in Portland, Oregon... so I see a lot of them. They seem deliberately designed to be as huge as possible, almost wastefully so. I disapprove of the inclusion of a CD; this, too, seems wasteful. The whole design of these books is so hideous that one is bound to realize that it was produced rate. I just don't have enough good things to say about this book! I was so surprised! Usually I go straight for the O'Reilly books, for a number of reasons, but since one of this book's authors is also the author of the ActionScript Cookbook (O'Reilly and Associates), which is fabulous also, I decided to give it a look.I recommend this book for anyone and everyone learning ActionScript 2.0 at this time. Until O'Reilly updates its catalog, this book really is the Bible on the subject. Five stars!