Let me start by saying this book is a treasure trove for anyone diving into the world of chatbots and conversational interfaces. The author, Srini, does an excellent job covering multiple platforms like Chatfuel, Dialogflow, Microsoft Bot Framework, Twilio, and Alexa Skills. It's like having a Swiss Army knife for bot development!

The theoretical foundation is rock solid. I found myself constantly referring back to concepts when designing my own bots. The explanations are clear, and the structure makes it easy to jump between different platforms depending on your project needs.

However... (and this is a big however) the code examples can be frustrating. About half of them didn't work out of the box for me either. As an experienced developer, I could debug most issues - things like missing steps or incorrect API calls - but it definitely slowed down my learning process.

The silver lining? These debugging sessions actually gave me deeper understanding of how these platforms work under the hood. But if you're completely new to bot development, be prepared for some head-scratching moments.

What really shines are the practical examples that walk you through building actual conversational bots. When they work (and most do with some tweaking), they provide fantastic hands-on experience that's hard to find elsewhere.

Bottom line: This is still one of the best resources available for bot development despite its flaws. Just approach it with your debugging hat on, and you'll come away with valuable skills that are in high demand today.