I tried to read this, but gave up about 1/4 of the way through. It was definitely a DNF for me. I would still read more by the author. However, I just didn't connect with this story.

2/5 Stars

I requested this novel based on a podcast recommendation, so it's not my usual fare but I thought I'd give it a go. Unfortunately, this one is just way too in the weeds with science and religion (weirdly) and I bailed on it about 1/3 of the way in.

So I finished this book last night and I'm still not quite sure what I read. The first half of the book is kind of a slog and involves a lot of quotation from the Bible and physics principles. Some of it was formatted strangely on my Kindle making it impossible to read. The second half picks up once Thomas arrives in a small town to find Andrew Black. I finished it in a few hours eager to see how it ends. But now I'm just left confused. Imogen was Andrew Black the entire time? Is the baby even real? Unfortunately this book left me with more questions then answers.

I loved this. I didn’t think it would be my kind of book but I really enjoyed it. I’m so glad I was chosen to read this by email. Thank you. It’s such a good story. I couldn’t put it down,

3/5 stars

Thanks for providing this precious arc in regards to the publisher and author!

It was a fine novel. Not too dazzling but fine piece of work

Maxwell’s Demon by Steven Hall: first a thank you to NetGalley for giving me an e-copy of this novel in an exchange for an honest review.
This mystery/speculative fiction is about a failed writer, who one day receives a strange voicemail from his world famous father who happens to be an exceptional author..except his father is...dead. He also seems to think that he is seeing fictional characters in real life. What is going on?
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Okay soooo this one was not for me. So much of this book is presented in a really bizzaro way. There are pages upon pages dedicated to quantum physics, biblical studies, some really esoteric ideas. It was all a bit too much to grasp my attention and interest. Also, while I respect that those subjects could be said to add to the air of mystery, to me it felt like I was straight up reading a research paper. Like, what?!
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I couldn’t connect with this book, it was just all over the place for me. Although if you are into deeply philosophical novels with very factual encyclopedia-esque type style...then this may actually be appealing to you

Steven Hall is either utterly brilliant or more than a little insane. Possibly both. His first book “The Raw Shark Texts” melted my mind, and it remains one of the most innovative books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Maxwell’s Demon was even more challenging and just as delightful. I should warn you that this is not an easy read. It feels like the mental equivalent of an intense yoga session. Or maybe closer to twisting into a pretzel like a contortionist. There are intellectual gymnastics involved but also real suspense as the reader tries to figure out, along with the protagonist, what is going on. Everything is very ominous, and it feels like danger lurks at every corner, but it is never clear what form that danger will take. When it pops out at you it is just as likely to be a carved ox from a nativity set as a tiny world sucking black hole.

I realize I am being deliberately obtuse, but I think that the less I explain the plot the better, and I honestly, don’t think I could accurately sum it up even if I wanted to. Just know it is humorous, terrifying, and often rather confusing. After finishing I feel smarter, having learned the basics of everything from theoretical physics to Biblical textual origins and exegesis. I also feel dumber for not really getting some of significance behind the text in unusual page layouts. With a strange format and structure, it takes some work to parse out the meaning and it often completely eluded me. If you have read “House of Leaves” “The Illuminae Files” or “The Raw Shark Texts” you will be familiar with this unconventional style. “Maxwell’s Demon” never required reorienting the page, so it worked quite well as an e-book. Reading it was easy but understanding it is a whole different story!

The ending surprised me and was not at all where I was expecting the story to go. While Hall compares the fictional book of the title to an orrery, one of those intricate, mechanical planetary models with all the moving parts, I would assess this book in a similar manner. There are so many moving parts and pieces and you don’t know what some of the gears are even for but when set in motion it all comes together into a magnificent elaborate whole and you realize that every piece plays a vital role. This is the kind of book you could read a hundred times and find something new with each reading. It really is just about as clever as possible, but it was also really entertaining. There was fourteen years between “The Raw Shark Texts” and “Maxwell’s Demon” and I can barely comprehend the thought and labour that goes into these books but I sincerely hope we don’t have to wait as long for the next masterpiece!

Thank you to Grove Atlantic/ Grove Press for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.

So not for me. Had to put it down at 30% - just way over my head right now. In fairness I don't think this genre for me.

Order vs chaos/entropy. Keep order thus keeping chaos and entropy at bay. How to keep order, hmm, maybe by making good use of words, naming things well. This is were I get thoroughly lost because for me words remain words whether they are on paper or on an e-book. I really could not understand why the abhorrence for e-books.

Hall writes well, in fact he kept me there. His book is chaotic and twisty and he uses his words to create some sort of order and this is where it became problematic for me because in the course of the twists and turns, of words used to say this and then say that, I lost meaning and I'm left with unresolved confusion. What happened and what did he want the final message to be, got lost in the words. The glimpse of explanation I saw at the end left me like Iota flying in the face of God, in this case Hall, shouting a much confused <b>why</b>?

<i>An ARC gently provided by publisher/author.</i>

I’ve heard amazing reviews for this book and I just had the hardest time getting into it. I would rate it a solid 3 out of a 5.

I was so excited to read this book from the author of The Raw Shark Texts, and it did not disappoint!

Similarly mind-bending, philosophical, and fast paced, the story follows a writer who finds himself in the shadow of both his deceased father and his father's mysterious protege, whose writing is so widely lauded and absorbing that it seems just a little too real...

There are some really powerful images in this book: the scary scene in the church, the cluttered shop stuffed with doll's houses, and a vibrant cast of characters.

My only criticism is the long sections discussing the idea of entropy near the start which lost me a bit.

Otherwise this was a novel with an intriguing and fresh premise, drawing the reader in and barreling along at pace to its final, devastating conclusions.

This is a wonderful twisty little mystery with elements of religion, science and philosophy. Something really different, if a little mind-bending at times. A really good read.

"Angels and letters, entropy and the end of the world."

This is a wild book, a literary treasure hunt mixed with philosophical ideas, bible discourse and the second law of thermodynamics (and we do not argue with the second law of thermodynamics… or do we?).

There are twist and turns and turns and twists, yet Steven Hall never loses sight of characters and manages to make it feel deeply personal. A fantastic book about words, connections, loss and hyperlinks.

If you’re a Dan Brown fan, this novel is for you. It’s chock full of metaphysics, religious ruminations, secret codes, mysterious symbols and characters who may or may not know the meaning of life.

“If the theory holds, then the divine letters and the heavenly host are one and the same - the angels are the letters - singing the glories of God, transmitting the narrative, and, by doing so, fulfilling their divine role as fundamental building blocks and bringing all things within it into existence.”

I wanted to like this novel. Initially I enjoyed the many existential digressions and the oddly interesting typeset of some of the text, but then I lost interest in following the lengthy (at times rambling) science-y narratives. I spent much of the novel wishing I knew what was going on, and as a result never really found myself caring about any of the many, multiple characters.

Although I appreciated some of the thought-provoking concepts, the novel suffered from trying to do too much.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic for the opportunity to review the ARC via Netgalley.

Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Press for the digital ARC of Maxwell’s Demon by Steven Hall.

Thomas Quinn is a writer, descending from a writer father, Stanley Quinn, recently deceased. Stanley’s assistant, Andrew Black, is a writing phenom who becomes famous for his book entitled Cupid’s Engine, which seems to break genre and trope. And then, Black seems to disappear. When Thomas receives a mysterious message on his voicemail from a father he believes to be dead, he falls face forward into the rabbit hole that twists, turns, and then circles back on itself. Who, exactly, is Andrew Black?

Maxwell's Demon is a thrilling story of physics and philosophy. Also of religion, of the art and engine of writing. But it is, somehow, not exactly about that at all at the same time. It is House of Leaves meets The Da Vinci Code meets Recursion. A mind-bending adventure that keeps you guessing, thinking, and reminding yourself to breathe.