Customer Reviews
"I ordered a copy and just read it. What fun! It’s a great thing to have done. By the way, Mme. Lavoisier [Count Rumford's second wife] was quite a gal. She was quite instrumental in much of Lavoisier’s work and, to a lesser extent, Rumford's."
John Bechhoefer, Simon Fraser University
29 July 2018
"I enjoyed reading "Max the Demon vs Entropy of Doom", and pass it around to family members. I liked the combination of a simple comics plot and historical figures to present the essence of energy and entropy."
Benny Poupko
20 June 2018
"I have been teaching Physics in high school for about 40 years but unfortunately I retired before the publishing of Max The Demon. I enjoyed it very much and I think that my students would have enjoyed it too because it is scientifically correct and also very amusing. It would have helped me in my work!"
Mario Brociner
6 June 2018
"As most physicists will agree, entropy is a very delicate concept. A nice demonstration is the famous quote of Von Neumann talking to Shannon about his information quantification: call it entropy, since "no one knows what entropy is, so in a debate you will always have the advantage.” I enjoyed reading “Max the Demon” very much and found it an excellent demonstration that even such complicated concepts such as entropy, statistical mechanics and the relation to information theory can be explained through humor spiced with many different levels of sophisticated facts and valuable knowledge. This unique combination makes “Max the Demon” an accessible book to various audiences, from elementary school pupils to physics professors. Each can learn and find new ways to understand the great wonders in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics."
Roy Beck, Tel Aviv University
4 June 2018
"Quite easy and fun reading for me. I admit it refreshed some things I knew and forced me now to look at few more things off-line. I liked a lot the going back in time and talking with the scientists. I see the nice jokes around mainly for the mature audience. I learned few things – boring a cannon, Maxwell Demon. See you open the door to the 2nd book in the sequel – “quantum information – the future Pandora box” or alike…"
Ronny Ronen
3 June 2018
"I just finished reading through your (comic) book. I liked it a lot -- it was both entertaining and has beautifully simple yet insightful explanations."
Ben Feldman, Stanford University
3 February 2018
"My kids loved it. My daughter, who is not particularly a fan of science and math, read it three times already!"
Yuri Suzuki, Stanford University
2 February 2018
"After several weeks of shipping the book finally reached me and I enjoyed it very much! I especially liked the connection of physics (thermodynamics and other fields), history (introduction to famous physicists) and fantasy (Tachyonia) paired with a hint of humour which can also be recognized in the way of drawing. I noticed that you chose a female character (Julie) as main research representative which is a clever choice regarding the current gender discussions (at least that's a big issue in Germany at the moment)."
Almut Alexa. University of Cologne
27 January 2018
"This is a really good comic book that introduces the fundamental concepts of thermodynamics such as energy and entropy in a very clever and entertaining way. The adventures of Max the demon are delightful. My family all enjoyed reading it and also my students!"
Roser Valenti, Goethe University
13 January 2018
"My daughter is a big fan of your book (Max the Demon)—so much so that she hasn’t let me read it completely yet."
Joel Moore, University of California, Berkeley
08 January 2018
"I must say that my kids (14, 11) were also hooked and read the book from cover to cover immediately after getting it. This has never happened for any other science book."
Zohar Nussinov, Washington University in Saint Louis
06 January 2018
"My whole family enjoyed the book a lot!"
Vladimir Dobrosavljevic, Florida State University
06 January 2018
"Max the Demon is simply marvelous. I gave my copy to my high-school junior grandson, who is doing his first course in Physics. He devoured it with great pleasure. The physics is clear and convincing!"
Bennet Brabson, Indiana University
5 January 2018
"Excellent book. Beautiful illustrations."
Rajiv Singh, University of California, Davis
5 January 2018
"I really did enjoy reading Max The Demon! (A terrific treat for ending my semester when it arrived just in time!)."
Steve Simon, Oxford University
5 January 2018
"This is a great comic book which beautifully explains the principles of thermodynamics in an a very visual and entertaining way. I would highly recommend the book to anyone who likes physics."
Gil Drachuck, Ames Laboratory
14 December 2017
"Max's adventures on earth bring about a fabulous opportunity to discuss concepts like energy, entropy and even information with adults and kids alike. I read the book with my 13, 10 and 5 year olds and they *all* loved it. Each of them took something from the book and the discussions were fascinating. Even my kindergartner who did not understand much of the physics was captured... his imagination games now include time travel and tiny robots. The older two kids (10,13) were really engaged and asked many questions about microstates and information. Questions continued well after we finished reading. In short - I recommend this book to anyone who wants to have some fun while learning about thermodynamics."
Tami Pereg-Barnea, McGill University
06 December 2017
"From its inception two centuries ago, thermodynamics has been a subject that caused considerable frustration both to students and teachers. On one hand, thermodynamics is extremely deep and abstract, hence hard to grasp and teach. On the other hand, it is a topic of prime importance with plenty of useful applications, ranging from water purification and desalination to chemical plants and global warming.
The book of Auerbach and Codor makes a great contribution to the field by using a completely different and unorthodox approach. It lures the reader into the topics of thermodynamics by employing an imaginary, sci-fi comic style with vivid and colorful illustrations. As the readers get absorbed by the adventures of "Max the Demon", they are equally exposed to the fundamental laws of thermodynamics, and to the deep consequences of heat, energy, entropy, information and more.
For the non-professionals and professional alike, this book offers a simple view on the foundation and concepts underlying contemporary issues of renewable energies, global warming and the alarming release of CO2 into the atmosphere due to fossil fuel burning. All these issues are intimately related to the laws of thermodynamics.
I highly recommend "Max the Demon" to the scientific aficionados as well as to the general public and school students. It's an excellent starting point for an adventurous scientific journey. Moreover, it's an extremely fun journey!"
David Andelman, Tel Aviv University
05 December 2017
"This is a fantastic book! Not only the basic concepts of thermodynamics are introduced so easily that probably an average "middle school student" would understand them, but it might even be helpful for some of the physics professionals. Not to mention the fact that it is an extremely entertaining story... Highly recommended!"
Krzysztof Wohlfeld, University of Warsaw
02 December 2017
"I recently received my own copy of Max the Demon. Now I am enjoying the science. I admire the way the story is told. How the profound understanding of Boltzman is communicated (the fact that out of randomness certainty emerges, on average and in the large N limit). Also the idea that irreversibility is only for a macroscopic observer, but not for a demon equipped with Max's "mircrostates" glasses. I also very much appreciated the introduction of the logarithm. I wish I would have had such a definition when first encountering the notion in school. Great job!"
Jean-Noel Fuchs, University Pierre and Marie Curie
29 November 2017
"I've just finished reading your delightful "Max the Demon". I can't hold myself from congratulating you. It is an absolutely wonderful book and the idea will surely be followed by many. Satisfaction guaranteed with delight as a bonus."
Michael Revzen, Technion University
25 November 2017
"Very educational and entertaining book! A great way to study physics :)"
Alexandra Bakman
22 November 2017
"This truly wonderful book manages to communicate to a lay audience the essential concepts of statistical mechanics: entropy, reversibility and of course the Maxwell demon. I was quite amazed by the fact that the authors obeyed Einstein's dictum: Things should be made as simple as possible but no simpler. At each stage where the danger lurked of sacrificing accuracy to preserve comprehensibility the book came through with a most faithful description of the underlying ideas.The readers who eventually learns the nuts and bolts of the subject, will find that this book has told them all and withheld nothing. The authors are to commended on pulling this off."
R. Shankar, Yale University
20 November 2017
"My almost three year old and I read our book together quite often, and we both love it. He likes Max, Boltzmann, Julie Calore, and the purple prosecutor. I like that the story is great, engaging, the art is lovely, and I enjoy the humor. There are lots of nice details. This is hands down the best physics comic that I’ve seen."
Ana Akrap, University of Geneva
20 November 2017
"The Story with Julie and Max is joyful and inspiring reading. It's really demonic! Never thought it was possible to show the whole Entropy-Story in such a concise way. The clear reference to the growing threat of the earth's ecosystems is superbly integrated. The basic idea to let Maxwell's Demon, with his tricky shutter and his zoom-in eyes, play the leading part in this drama is simply marvelous. Congratulation. I greatly enjoyed your book. It should be read by every physics teacher and clearly by everybody else who cares or does not(!) about our environment."
Urs Zimmermann, KZU Bülach Switzerland
19 November 2017
"Many times, the full understanding of a theory is anticipated only after a clear connection between observations and a logical fantasy. Thermodynamics, a fundamental theory in physics, seems like an illogical fiction. Max the Demon brilliant graphical novel tells the logical fantasy of thermodynamics accurately in a language attractive to everybody."
Zeev Vager, Weizmann Institute of Science
19 November 2017
"I just finished reading your wonderful book. I cannot add too much to the most warm reviews that are listed on the back cover. I was very much impressed by the many original ideas included in the book. I only mention the visits of Max with past great physicists. Congratulations!"
Igal Talmi, Weizmann Institute of Science
19 November 2017
"The story is constructed remarkably well; it can be approached and appreciated on different levels according to the readers' familiarity with the scientific subjects and the aspects of history of science. I was very much touched by the portrait of Ludwig Boltzmann, and felt a pang of regret just as Max the Demon did when he said farewell to the great scientist. The entire book is permeated by a subtle humor, both in the text and the images. It was a very good move to put this in the context of global warming and the special responsibility of mankind for having caused part of it, and now to find solutions to counter this trend. Last but not least there is the scientific educational aspect, in particular the red line in the story about the second law of thermodynamics, and the thought provoking idea that going against it is possible in principle as a stroke of luck: Wonderful."
Dirk Van Der Marel, University of Geneva
18 November 2017
"The two copies of Max the Demon arrived today. I am really impressed and touched: Its great! Sir Bio looks like our former Bavarian prime minister and the thermodynamics professor like Duncan Haldane (what is presumably intended). … All the best and thanks a lot for this enchanting book."
Rudi Hackl, Walther Meissner Institute
18 November 2017
"Max the Demon and the Entropy of Doom … is an entertaining explanation of the laws of thermodynamics, with a particular emphasis on the Second Law, using a humanoid alien, Max (the Demon), as an effective superhero. The comic does a good job, with nicely illustrated examples, of getting the point across about entropy as counting how many (microscopic) ways there are to do things. … It also illustrates what we mean by temperature and heat with nice examples (and a not very subtle at all environmental message). There's history (through the plot device of time travel), action, adventure, and a Bad Guy who is appropriately not nice. … My kids thought it was good, though my sense is that some aspects were too conceptually detailed for 12 years old and others were a bit too cute for world-weary 15. Still, a definite good review from a tough crowd, and efforts like this should be applauded - overall I was very impressed."
Doug Natelson, Rice University
17 November 2017