Maxwell's Demon
Published on 24. February 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-1-84767-248-3 (ISBN)
Description
'Ingeniously plotted and compulsively well-paced' Sunday Times
'A cracking detective story that seems to be investigating its own existence' Jeff Noon
'Are you there, Tom?'
I stood in the doorway, staring at the phone.
My father had been dead for almost seven years.
When Thomas Quinn receives a seemingly impossible voice message, he can't help but wonder if Andrew Black - a legendary, reclusive mystery writer and his father's protege - is somehow involved.
Thomas knows that Black can't be trusted, that he should be avoided at all costs. But as the search for answers spirals into an examination of the nature of time, entropy, the true forms of angels, fictional stalkers and the secrets of the nativity set . . . Thomas realises that he might not have a choice.
'A cracking detective story that seems to be investigating its own existence' Jeff Noon
'Are you there, Tom?'
I stood in the doorway, staring at the phone.
My father had been dead for almost seven years.
When Thomas Quinn receives a seemingly impossible voice message, he can't help but wonder if Andrew Black - a legendary, reclusive mystery writer and his father's protege - is somehow involved.
Thomas knows that Black can't be trusted, that he should be avoided at all costs. But as the search for answers spirals into an examination of the nature of time, entropy, the true forms of angels, fictional stalkers and the secrets of the nativity set . . . Thomas realises that he might not have a choice.
Reviews / Votes
Thirteen years after The Raw Shark Texts, Steven Hall comes back with another dazzlingly smart postmodern treat. Maxwell's Demon is both steeped in high European theory - think Calvino and Eco - and enormously enjoyable * * Observer * * Ingeniously plotted and compulsively well-paced, a blend of detective story and science fiction with an epistemology course thrown in * * Sunday Times * * A postmodern mystery . . . Ingenious fun . . . Showily postmodern, full of odd typographical elements, altered realities and intertextual jokes . . . Maxwell's Demon is consistently fun and often impressive * * Guardian, Book of the Day * * An engaging, pacy mystery as well as an exploration of reality, entropy and the language of a modern creative landscape . . . The book is full of conceptual and typographic trickery and it's soaked in an appreciation of the written word * * Independent, Books of the Month * * A Pynchonesque, footnote-and theory-heavy mystery novel that's as postmodern as they come . . . A smart, teasing and (above all) lovable mystery tale . . . Superb * * Telegraph * * Dazzlingly clever, wickedly playful, devastatingly poignant -- M.R. CAREY Labyrinthine, mind-twisting and deliciously diabolical, yet also unexpectedly warm-hearted. Maxwell's Demon is fantastic -- CHRIS BROOKMYRE As melancholy as it is captivating. Whether pertaining to thermodynamics or company kept around a manger or autumn leaves born of text and set free, Maxwell's Demon is hard to put down. Even when you're done -- MARK Z. DANIELEWSKI A cracking detective story that seems to be investigating its own existence -- JEFF NOON Moves at an exhilarating lick . . . The genius of the book is that despite it seeming like an elegant orrery, all these wheels within wheels are a carapace, a psychic armour against a grief (and it's not the grief you were expecting). Beneath this truly beautiful astrolabe is a beating human heart -- Stuart Kelly * * Scotsman * *More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
238 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84767-248-3 (9781847672483)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Previous edition
Person
Steven Hall is the author of The Raw Shark Texts and was lead writer on the bestselling video game Battlefield 1, for which he received a Writer's Guild nomination. His 2007 debut novel, The Raw Shark Texts, won the Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. It was an international bestseller and has been translated into over thirty languages. In 2013, Hall was named as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. Maxwell's Demon is his second novel.
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