ng-book last update was to version 1.4, so all promises of authors have been fulfilled - that's why I trust authors again and why I bought ng-book 2. I'm not affiliated to authors.
upd.: congrats with your first comment on HN.
I was also surprised by the order of the subjects. It almost immediately started of with a manual $compile function and custom binding parameters. Which I felt would be better placed later in the book, when a user is more comfortable with the angular syntax and workings.
Still, I don't want to sound overly negative. If it worked for you it must be doing something right. But sharing this experience actually triggered me to create this account after lurking for so long. :)
But your concerns around teaching order are totally valid. With ng-book 2 we've taken a code-first approach. We're starting with smaller chunks of concepts and building up the theory from there. Every example comes with complete running code separate from the book. So it will be a lot easier to see how everything fits together. I'd love to get your feedback on what we have so far, if you're up for it. My email is in my profile.