Now that in XNA 4 the Point sprites are removed, will you update the book to support XNA 4?
How can I change the Particle system to work with XNA 4?
This information may help:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2010/03/22/point-sprites-in-xna-game-studio-4-0.aspx
You can just use a regular triangle list instead of point sprites. It would take a bit of rework. I'm sure that Microsoft will update their Particle3D example before an update to the book becomes available.