Customer Reviews

The Mind Game

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

MacDonald may be one of the best storytellers I've ever read, especially for a first time novelist. Tightly blending story, science and game theory "The Mind Game" is a masterfully plotted piece that moves along so fast you feel like you're being dragged, but not so fast that you feel you're being left behind and lost. The intricacies of Ben's efforts to untangle the layers of deceit that are woven around him are stimulating and in a word, fabulous.

A new door for fans of intrigue has been deftly and intelligently opened. Game theory (as exemplified by the well-known Prisoners Dilemma) as a backdrop for a novel is unique and refreshing. And MacDonald is a great writer. His choice of writing the book in first person, rather unusual for a thriller, was a good one because readers can really get into the main character's head as the mind games unfold and explode. The settings are fun - delightfully sunny African beaches and dusty stoic Oxford brick. Fast-paced and memorable.

The Mind Game is a psychological thriller that exercises the readers powers of deduction within the framework of Game Theory. Taken together with the utterly believable characters and beautiful locations, this creates an exciting and intelligent page-turner. MacDonald's writing brings every page to life and makes the book an absorbing journey into the murkier side of scientific research. A thoroughly recommendable read. I am already looking forward to MacDonald's next book!

Oxford researcher and instructor James Fieldhead leads a team on a field experiment centering on better understanding of human emotions. James enlists his student Ben Ashurst to serve as a guinea pig to test a new device in a luxurious resort in Kenya. To encourage Ben to come, James allows him to bring along his girlfriend Cara on this all expense paid for "holiday."

Initially, Ben enjoys the vacation of a lifetime. However, the experiment begins to place him in danger and fear as to what will be the next twist. He turns paranoid, trusting no one including his mentor and his girlfriend. When the experiment is completed, Ben retains his anger and rage, feeling unfairly used and with a need to know whom is really behind the game he just played and lost and what is the ultimate victory.

THE MIND GAME is an exciting medical thriller that is at its top game when the story line revolves around modern psychology theory. As the plot veers from neurology and game theory into the chaos of a typical thriller's cat and mouse chase, it loses some momentum as the audience struggles with a loss of reality. In his debut Hector MacDonald has shown he can entertain and educate his audience with a great intelligent psychological thriller, but needs to show he has the endurance to stick to his prime plot without adding unnecessary gimmicks that spins away from a winner. This book is still worth reading as one of the better sub-genre entries in quite awhile.

Harriet Klausner

This is a great debut novel by young British author Hector Macdonald who impresses immediately with his great and very involving style. His characters are well-drawn and the concept of the book is immediately highly intriguing.

Oxford student Ben Ashurst is your average Oxford student who leeds a fairly uneventful life all the way down to his fairly dull girl friend Jenni. Trying to keep up with the ritzier and glitzier crowd in town he attends the parties of his aquaintance Pierce who leeds the life of a rich dandy. When the exotic and very attractive Cara turns up at one of these events, Ben is smitten and drawn into a stream of events that soon is beyond his control. To gain Cara's interest he tells her about an exciting emotions study that his tutor, Professor Fieldhead is planning, and for which he refused to be the guinea pig. In no time Cara has changed his mind and the two of them are on a plane to Africa, courtesy of Dr. Fieldhead and the research on his breakthrough emotion sensor. But what starts as an apparent dream holiday in a paradise resort to study the somatic responses to pleasure, very soon turns into a shocking nightmare for Ben, as he finds himself caught in a cobweb of lies and paranoia.

The storyline of the book is very imaginative and well thought-out, impossible to figure out even for the seasoned suspense buff. Every time you think you know what will happen, there is a well-designed twist, and the author effortlessly keeps you going to the highly entertaining conclusion.

A very enjoyable book and an impressive debut for a young author. One hopes that more of these will follow

Ben Ashurst was living a peaceful life as a student at Oxford University until he meet a famous investigator who offered him to participate in a research - as a volunteer human guinea pig - bases in emotions and reactions but what he never expected was that his trip to Kenya ended in a nightmare and back in England an almost persecution mania because of situations given to study his reactions and feelings without his knowledge and consent. These limit situations make him angry and curious and start investigating until the find out the real purpose and the brains behind the project. This is a very psychological thriller in which the reader have to pay attention to every dialogue to follow the sequences of the experiment and Ben's emotional responses to the manipulation and the second thoughts of the researchers.

Totally unique, psychological thriller, built around the question "What if emotions could be quantified and qualified?

The subject of this "emotions research" is placed in increasingly nerve-wracking situations, in which every thought and feeling is monitored for science's sake--or so he thinks. unfortunately, the protagonist is unsure if his predicaments are orchestrated or real and he begins to question his relationship with himself and others.

The settings altermate between, Oxford University, the coast of Africa, Silicon Valley, and the dark recesses of the mind. With more twists and turns than an Irish byway, "The Mind Game" explores the human capacity to understand fear, deceit and the search for truth amidst very complex relationships.

Excellent read!

I must admit I usually don't have the patience to read books, but this one was so gripping and captivating, I even read it during work :-) Even if I predicted some of the twists, it was a pure pleasure. plus an interesting thinking of emotions control, something which never occurred to me. I wish the end had been a bit more romantic, not so cold. Even if a little love confession (another one) from Ben to Cara. Well, I guess the fact the book ended with 6 times the sentence "I love Cara" is a close enough... I really liked that Cara character, even though from some point I did not believe a word she said.
Thanks to the author for the great pleasure of reading the book. Well done!

The mind game is an excellent first novel by Hector Macdonald. A young undergraduate student is convinced by his charismatic professor at Oxford to be part of a study into emotions, at a resort in Kenya, with his assertive girlfriend Cara. The experiment is going well until Ben (the student) is wrongly arrested for buying drugs and thrown into jail...

Overall I thought it was an excellent novel. There was plenty of action at the start that slowly evolved into a psychological thriller. The clues to the twists, I found were a little obvious, except I must say that I didn't see the final twist coming. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a thriller away from the stock standard medical, crime, murder thrillers that seem to flood the market.

The beginning is superb,and,well,the soiree whit those blase' Oxfordians and their naive hosts is beautifully written, and the dialogue is worthy of a dramatist like Pinter. Following it, a more plausible, politically conscious version of "the Beach" (if you care to compare two very different novels). Then, you have a series of "revelations" and "twists of the tale" that leaves the reader baffled, incredulous, doubting of being put-on. Really,there's a limit to the suspension of incredulity... and credulity. You feel admired by the writer's ability to startle. Then the book wawers on, the plot and the gist lost in dubious speculations and improbable settings. Conclusion: a good enough first novel, but there's plenty of room for improvement.