The author set himself a lofty goal: to try and explain what differentiates a living from non-living system. He states the problem initially and clearly but spends almost all of the book not addressing the issue or worse, rambling about even more unanswerable questions (e.g. the nature of consciousness) or how probable life is in the observable universe. As a scientist and an avid consumer of scientific literature I found this book to be deeply unsatisfying. The science is shallow and I didn’t walk away with any more of an understanding of the living process than when I started out. I remember reading a monograph by Gilbert Ling years ago (in the mid ’60’s) about a “physical theory of the living state.” Although Dr. Ling’s hypotheses have not withstood scientific scrutiny at least there was some formal meat to the arguments. In short, if you are hoping to get an answer to the question posed (what defines the living state), this book will frustrate more than illuminate.