‘I enjoyed Maxwell’s Demon a great deal. Anyone who enjoyed The Raw Shark Texts will be delighted.’

‘Labyrinthine, mind-twisting and deliciously diabolical, yet also unexpectedly warm-hearted. Maxwell’s Demon is fantastic.’

‘A cracking detective story that seems to be investigating its own existence. Hall explores that rich border zone that lies between fiction and non-fiction, and does it with verve and a playful, adventurous spirit. A unique voice in exploratory fiction.’

‘Dazzlingly clever, wickedly playful, devastatingly poignant.’

‘A wonderfully imaginative, splendidly baroque novel that is a combination of the baffling, teasing and tantalising. Part fantasy, part mystery, it is altogether delightful and filled with surprises – in a word, exceptional. No, make that two words; the second is fantastic. A rare, sui generis treat.’

‘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.’

‘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.’

‘A smart, teasing and (above all) loveable mystery tale … Superb.’

‘Ingeniously plotted and compulsively well-paced, a blend of detective story and science fiction with an epistemology course thrown in.’

‘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.’

‘An entropic and sprawling mystery … Mind-twisting … Introspective and philosophical, the novel explores the dangers that occur when fatalistic urges take over.’

‘Written in the first person and paced like a thriller, there’s an intimacy and immediacy that quickly grips, and even the long digressions on theory — a trademark of the form — are enjoyable to read.’

‘It’s Raymond Chandler meets Dan Brown meets Albert Einstein. Meets Christopher Nolan. Meets Jorge Luis Borges. It’s a mind-expanding page-turning adventure-mystery that crackles with intelligence and intrigue; a book about books (sort of) that’s been beautifully rendered in book form.’

‘Anyone who has a taste for postmodern hijinks – fans of Thomas Pynchon or Mark Z. Danielewski – will be drawn to the menace and profusion, the same-like brilliance and black hilarity of Maxwell’s Demon.’

‘There’s no denying what a brilliant writer Hall is.’