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madmikeyb83's review against another edition
3.0
Enjoyable in the end but too much unnecessary exposition in the early and middle section, seemingly to deliberately confuse and misdirect the reader. The last minute rug-pull of the true meaning of the whole book seemed very tenuous comparatively to the rest of the story.
angus_mckeogh's review against another edition
3.0
Cross between the Truman Show and a treatise about what makes existence possible: language and writing or someone’s unchronicled life. A mystery with repeated diatribes about identity. All in all nothing terribly magnificent.
carolyn0613's review against another edition
2.0
This was a very off book. There is a central mysterious figure of Andrew Black who haunts the thoughts of our protagonist. There is also a mystery to be solved. The plot is all very complicated and torturous. The thoughts of the main character are transcribed in endless detail and are rambling at best in my opinion. I'm afraid that the ending didn't make much sense to me. I was quite finished with everyone in this book by about a third of the way through and just couldn't get excited by the denouement and the motivations behind it were completely obscure to me. So I don't think I can recommend it.
mpho3's review against another edition
2.5
I almost DNF’d this because I was very close to hating it and had decided to do myself the favor of stopping. But the next day curiosity got the best of me, so I picked Maxwell's Demon up again and forced myself to speed through the remaining 100 or so pages. Forced is a key word, and yes, I skimmed. So now that it's done, my final take is I can’t with this book.
For one thing, post-modern, meta-fiction, typographical trickery is not my thing. Like many others, I was reminded of House of Leaves, but thankfully this book is sprinkled with far less of the typographical word play than that one. I'd almost consider the amount tolerable, except that some of it was so tiny that my middle-aged eyes determined Hall didn't want me to read those parts, and I didn't.
Second, the physics stuff was interesting to me as were the philosophical musings and the bible apocrypha, but the mysteries contained in the polaroid, Dracula's Castle, Imogen's whereabouts and other things frustrated me because I did not find them interesting enough to cast about lost in Hall's game.
Third, he takes too long to tell the story, dancing around it and dangling bits without enough forward progression. I got much more curious when Stanley arrives in Owthorne in search of Andrew Black, but this is also where things more aggressively start to fall apart.
Last, from that point on, there's an unfair amount of having to suspend your disbelief that ratchets up in the final acts, and in which everything is revealed to be first one thing, then another thing, and then yet another thing until you realize this thing was never going anywhere at all. I like a good twist, but it has to follow some sort of logic otherwise it's just another M. Night Shyamalan, and I'm not a fan of that. 2.5 stars
For one thing, post-modern, meta-fiction, typographical trickery is not my thing. Like many others, I was reminded of House of Leaves, but thankfully this book is sprinkled with far less of the typographical word play than that one. I'd almost consider the amount tolerable, except that some of it was so tiny that my middle-aged eyes determined Hall didn't want me to read those parts, and I didn't.
Second, the physics stuff was interesting to me as were the philosophical musings and the bible apocrypha, but the mysteries contained in the polaroid, Dracula's Castle, Imogen's whereabouts and other things frustrated me because I did not find them interesting enough to cast about lost in Hall's game.
Third, he takes too long to tell the story, dancing around it and dangling bits without enough forward progression. I got much more curious when Stanley arrives in Owthorne in search of Andrew Black, but this is also where things more aggressively start to fall apart.
Last, from that point on, there's an unfair amount of having to suspend your disbelief that ratchets up in the final acts, and in which everything is revealed to be first one thing, then another thing, and then yet another thing until you realize this thing was never going anywhere at all. I like a good twist, but it has to follow some sort of logic otherwise it's just another M. Night Shyamalan, and I'm not a fan of that. 2.5 stars
laurenh22's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
rey_reads's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
maxwell's demon is relentlessly clever.
reading it made me feel often uneasy and i'm still not entirely sure what to make of it. i think i could read this several more times and come to different conclusions each one.
writing this, i really can't decide if i think the ending is unsatisfying, or if it is the only ending that there can be. i'm confused, but i definitely enjoyed the experience.
conceptually the book is brilliant.
i do think it probably works better as a written piece than an audio book, but would be interested to see how reading the physical copy changes my thoughts on it. i'll probably pick up the real book in the future.
reading it made me feel often uneasy and i'm still not entirely sure what to make of it. i think i could read this several more times and come to different conclusions each one.
writing this, i really can't decide if i think the ending is unsatisfying, or if it is the only ending that there can be. i'm confused, but i definitely enjoyed the experience.
conceptually the book is brilliant.
i do think it probably works better as a written piece than an audio book, but would be interested to see how reading the physical copy changes my thoughts on it. i'll probably pick up the real book in the future.
littlemisselvis's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Not a flipping clue what this was about.
espeonesque's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
I have absolutely no idea how to review this as I basically have no idea what was going on the whole time. It wasn't bad but I need someone smarter than me to explain wtf it meant
j_muddell's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
economydreams's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0