i've read it and it's a good book to have an overview of Pentesting. A lot of screenshots help to understand the basics. But the  chapters are very short and no subject is covered in depth. For ewample only 12 pages on nessus/metasploit...
So the beginner will have to go for another book very quickly.

EH-netters get a discount when purchasing books from Syngress.  Don posted this last month:

20% discount: http://www.ethicalhacker.net/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,54/topic,8048.0/

Now that I read that thread again though, not clear whether the discount is just for those new books or for any books bought on Syngress' website.

That is exactly what the book is about if you want to start and know nothing then I recommended this book.

I don't like the sound of the "basics" part as I like to learn something new all the time so this isn't a book I will be getting.

I have this book and I would say its for anyone who never done any security I been doing security for about 4 month now and I knew everything in the book already. If you want break into security and are total new and want to start then this book is good. so all the people who say I don't know where to start then buy this book. It does not go into a lot of technical details its more into and you expected to build on it.