Customer Reviews

Nocturne For A Dangerous Man

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

 

 

I'd have to disagree with the last reviewer. First off, any story set more than a few years in the future is science fiction, or to use the much better term, speculative fiction. If the science doesn't jump out at you (and there's a lot more than is apparent at a glance) that's because Matz is of the show, not tell, school of SF writers. Second Gavilan Robie is an extraordinary character, but he's no superman. He falls into the very capable, mature, category of heroes -- such as his spiritual ancestor, Travis McGee. (If you don't believe that there are people who are incredibly at both physical and intellectual activities, check out Joanna Zeiger. She's a top marathoner, Olympic class triathlete, and is going for her Phd at John Hopkins in genetic epidemology. Superwoman?) Robie may be at the high end of the curve, but he's not off the chart. Anyway, I like reading about people who are really gifted, and giving. Sometime Matz enjoys being erudite, but obfuscation? I didn't find the book either confusing or obscure. What I did find was a thoughtful, and exciting, thriller that got me to think about what kind of plausible future we are going to get and what kind of people we want to be.

An intense, enthralling thriller. What I like best about Nocturne for a Dangerous Man is that the characters are complex and multi-layered. The eco-terrorists have background and stories; they are not just stereotyped villains. The protagonist is a complex mixture of many emotions and motives. I particularly appreciate his dedication to ethical principles--and cynical idealism. He is truly the dangerous man of the title, yet operates from a worldview that favors freedom and many other important values. The author does not allow his rich characterizations to interfere with the story. This is a thriller and you feel the tension as he tries to get to the kipnapped executive before she is killed. Buy this novel. You'll be thrilled, scared, inspired and more.

Reading this book makes me want to describe it in more poetic or evocative language than I usually use. The villains evoke the Greek Furies, but to describe the book as a whole I would evoke the Fates who spun the lives of men. Nocturne is a rich tapestry with threads of many lives. I might nickname it The Webs of a Life. The phrase "A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows" also comes strongly to mind, but that has already been used as an SF title. The hero, Gavilan, is a true paladin living in a world 50 years from now. He makes his living recovering stolen art, but his life is rescuing people. The events in the novel take less than 10 days, but Gavilan's ghosts and flashbacks span 30 years of rescues and family memories cover over 100 years.

The plot can be described simply: a brilliant young scientist is kidnapped by terrorists, and Gavilan is convinced to try to rescue her before a 10-day ransom deadline. The characters and the book are not simple, they are deep and rich. The terrorists are misguided idealists. Gavilan is a musician, an art lover, and a deadly unarmed combat expert with strong ethical principles against killing. His actions are always aimed at preserving lives, even those of his opponents, not taking lives, but his actions are not always gentle. (Don't let the cover mislead you--Gavilan does not carry a gun, but he is indeed dangerous.)

The world in Nocturne is very lived-in. There are no expository lumps to describe gee-whiz changes to the reader, but there are many changes from our world present in the background.

I can recommend this book to anyone who likes science fiction, music, art, martial arts, daring rescues, loving relationships, haunted heroes, strong ethics, believable futures and many other threads woven into a rich whole.

This book is like a combination of the best of early Robert Heinlein and Theodore Sturgeon. The action is gripping with dramatic tension (it is a thriller!), but the characters are also fascinating and varied. No cardboard heroes or villains here. Shades of gray are very evident. Set in a future 50 years from now, suffering from ecological consequences to human greed. The protagonist (Gavilan Robie) is Scottish, Basque, and American Indian, a master cellist, a former member of the Action Rescue Committe (freeing political prisoners at great personal risk), skilled at a wide variety of martial arts, multilingual, and making a living from recovering fine art (that has been stolen). He also, sometimes, tries to find people who have been kidnapped. Matz does an excellent job of exploring Robie's psyche and world while keeping the reader's tension high. (The kidnapped victim--a brilliant woman who may be the 21st century's Leonardo da Vinci--is slated to die in a week.) I particularly liked that Robie is complex. In some ways, he can be quite nasty (he'll use bribery, blackmail, and physical violence if necessary), yet he is amazingly compassionate and holds to a clear set of ethical values. Even the "minor" characters in Nocturne for a Dangerous Man have stories to tell. I saw that Nocturne got rave reviews from Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly. I think they are well deserved. This is a new author and I'll be watching for his work in the future. Buy this book--you'll be powerfully moved by it!

Loved it. My educated male friends loved it. I have additional praise for this book. I enjoy books of this genre, however I weary of the inevitable sex scenes. They're usually written by male authors or from the viewpoint of a male hero. As a heterosexual female, I find the scenes doubly onerous. It's sooooo refreshing to read a book that *doesn't*. The protagonist thinks about it sometimes, and gets offers, but actually has some self control. And hey, this action hero actually *cares* about women as people. I really appreciated the author's descriptions of his character's thought processes and mental strategies behind the male dominance behaviors when jockeying with other males. I've only read female authors who try to do that with their characters. So interesting to read a male author's description. My friends and I eagerly await Mr. Matz's next novel.

I was very pleasantly surprised by "Nocturne for a Dangerous Man." This is Marc Matz's first novel, who, by all indications, is a very talented writer indeed.

While reading this novel I was struck by how difficult writing in this genre must be. The James Bond/Doc Savage/Buckaroo Bonzai/Bruce Wayne type of character has been done to death. Whats more, to do it effectively, one must tread a very fine line between being just hokey enough, but not TOO hokey.

A previous reviewer mentions Heinlein, which is very apt. This novel reminded me of a good Heinlein novel, and it impressed me because it avoided becoming a BAD Heinlein novel. The protagonist is very well written, and given just the right amount of depth. Despite being a borderline superhero, we identify and empathize with him. The future world/society Matz creates is very interesting and textured. The "sci-fi" elements support the setting and plot well. The world of "Nocturne for a Dangerous Man" could easily support future novels, with or without Gavilan Robie.

One of the best sci-fi novels that I have read this year. I stumbled across it in my local bookstore and gave it a try in spite of the comic book cover. I discovered much to my surprise that it was an amazingly well developed character study of a man who had seen too much of the dark side of life but continued on nevertheless. I very much enjoyed reading the musings of the of a philosopher in action. The ideas are well developed and the future is entirely too realistic. Good plot. Intricate requires some intelligence to follow. Great first novel. Pleasant change from all the sword and sorcery repeats.

When I first started this book I thought, "great! A character somewhat like Travis McGee (I'm a big fan of the late John D. MacDonald's series) without it being a clone", but as I read on I felt there was something missing. Maybe it's the way Matz introduces us to characters and then forgets about them after one scene; perhaps it's the way that Gavilan seems to be *too* much of an expert on too many different things, which strains credibility to the breaking point. And the ending is somewhat disappointing after the long buildup.

At any rate, I wouldn't say *don't* read this book, although I definitely wouldn't put it on my list of favourites. Hopefully Marc Matz' next work will be just a little bit better.

(please, for a much more erudite and thorough review, see Tom Easton in the most recent Analog magazine: this book deserves it).

An amazingly detailed view of the mid-21st century . Matz writes with a love for words and an eye to detail that is absolutely fantastic. This is a book that you read not only for the plot but for the glimpses of the background. He has captured a complex tapestry of what is, what will be, the next century from the point of view of an amazing character.

Gavilan Robie is a connaisseur, musician, art-lover, martial artist and decidedly not a killer. He works for himself, for art, for what is beautiful and rare. He is by far one of the most captivating characters I have ever read either in SF or in the thriller categories.

Read this book!

but in a good way. Like many people, I thought the cover sucked, but the cover is definitely not the book. The reason I give it only three stars is because I can't give it a 3.5. It should deserve more but I can't, in good conscience, rate it higher. For me, a three is a readable book; four is pretty darn good; five is a Great Book that will probably be read for the next 50 years.

I loved certain things about the writing, other things nagged me. Matz doesn't tell you things about the world he's created for the book, he shows you, which is something I think is good. Infodumps are for people who don't read SF and can't handle painting a picture of a world using offhand comments and small details that are revealed in descriptions. On the other hand, it felt a bit like a sequel in a series where only longtime readers can really appreciate the multitude of characters and half explained situations that pepper the book. Assuming he keeps writing (and I hope he does) he will probably fill in the details with forthcoming books.

The references to art and music made for dense reading since my education and interests left me a bit unprepared for this kind of extensive name-dropping. I actually kept a reading journal when I re-read this book recently so that I could look up all the references I missed the first time. I admire the eclecticism, and it educated me in some areas I about which was under-informed, but I felt these kinds of details sometimes got in the way of the story. He definitely writes for a well-informed readership. Dunces and cultural illiterates need not apply.

Like a Raymond Chandler story, the convolutions the hero goes through to find out the information he needs makes for the complications. Without his jumping through hoops, talking to this person or that person, and taking various side trips (some of which are completely fruitless) there would be no real story. For some people, that means that the ending comes as an anti-climax. Indeed, one reviewer wrote that there are about two pages of action. I would dispute that, but the action is rather scarce as most of the story is the preparation.

The only reason I can't rate this book higher is that despite the attention to detail, the depth, and the character development I found in this book, it didn't affect me much emotionally. I wanted to like the character, but he felt distant and uninvolved, despite being the center of the action. Maybe it was supposed to be a reflection of his state of mind, but I felt as if I wanted to get more submerged in the viewpoint relationship, but the character had commitment problems.

As a side point, having practiced martial arts for over 10 years, the limitations Robie puts on himself are just barely borderline realistic. To fight someone who is also a trained fighter and limit yourself to disabling moves to the exclusion of possibly lethal ones, you have to be worlds better than your opponent, otherwise you are toast. It's actually easier to fight to kill someone than to just disable them since disabling is so much more risky, especially when your enemy is armed.

This is a good solid book, but there are some (non-fatal) flaws. I hope Matz keeps writing so that we can find out more about Robie, and so that the potential I see here can develop.