Rating: 
Summary: An amazing debut. Great book!
Review: (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!
Rating: 
Summary: A clever, intricate noir SF-thriller
Review: -----------------------------------------------------------
While Nocturne is unquestionably SF, Matz's "dangerous man"
reminds me more of classic noir detectives like Ross Macdonald's Lew
Archer & John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee. Stir in a dollop of Wire
Paladin and you have Gavilan Robie: a near-future P.I., now a
specialist in the recovery of stolen art, but a man with a darker history
of dangerous 'recoveries'. Between cases, or when tension mounts,
he relaxes by playing his Guarneri cello, a gift from a grateful client
after a particularly hairy rescue. Robie is asked to 'recover' Siv Matthiessin,who's been kidnapped by an
eco-terrorist group that is demanding an enormous ransom and an end to
her employer's Congo Basin construction project. Robie seems to offer
her only chance of surviving her ordeal, in a future that's grown
warmer, darker, meaner.... This is a book that worked really well while I was reading it, but won't
stand up to much post-reading poking-about. In particular, hero Robie
is just too omni-competent to be real. But superman power-fantasies are
an honorable SF tradition, and Nocturne is a fine and absorbing
entertainment. I'm looking forward to Matz's next. Don't be put off by the lurid cover, which looks like a Baen reject,
& has virtually nothing to do with the book...
Rating:
Summary: Science Fiction for Real Adults
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Complicated and convoluted...
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: not bad, but....
Review: For me this book started off pretty good, but ran out of steam towards the end of the book. Some nice character studys, and a fairly interesting story, a well thought out and believable future history, however i felt that the ending was a bit of a letdown and Two pages of action in a book that that was 470 pages long, left me wishing for more things to actually happen to keep my interest in the main story going. I still remain confused about a number of things in the story, such as, Why did they kidnap her in the first place? what were their goals? also the author would make comments about certain events taking place in the past and then never properly expand upon the events, which left me more than a little confused about the plot in some places. One other thing that i did not like, was the fact that after you read the first couple of pages, the cover artwork gave away what was going to take place in the rest of the book, not too smart if you ask me! Mr Matz's style of writing reminded me somewhat of Peter F Hamilton's MIND STAR series of books, if Mr Matz can blend his action with the story a little more, then like Peter F Hamilton's third book in the MIND STAR series THE NANO FLOWER his books will be well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK!
Review: I hope Gavilan turns up again. I really enjoy him and his thinking and his brand of adventure. He is a complex character without being incomprehensible. Just good writing and description. What fun it is to find a new author.
Rating:
Summary: good but not great...
Review: I started this book thinking it to be something totally different than what it turned out to be. While the plot is apparantly based in the near future (about 50 years hence), I find issue with the label science fiction. Gavilan Robie is a enthralling main character with so many facets to his personality, the reader never is quite able to get a handle on it before the author introduces another part of the whole. Gav is James Bond, Rambo, and the Renaissance Man all rolled into one person. The author is obviously well educated but I can't help but think the story would be much more interesting, exciting and basically a much better read if he had eschewed obfuscation.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good Novel by a Promising Author!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Better than that.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Nocturne For A Dangerous Man
Review: 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.
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