[ZW5]≫ Descargar Free Nocturne for a Dangerous Man Marc Matz 9780312869359 Books

Nocturne for a Dangerous Man Marc Matz 9780312869359 Books

Download As PDF : Nocturne for a Dangerous Man Marc Matz 9780312869359 Books

Nocturne for a Dangerous Man Marc Matz 9780312869359 Books

Matz creates a truly fascinating and original protagonist, while placing him in a believable future world. I especially liked the way the character's background and the facts about the society he lives in emerged bit by bit in the course of the story; no long bouts of dull exposition here! I sincerely hope to see a lot more, both of the character Robie and from his creator, Matz. This guy is someone to watch.


Tags : Nocturne for a Dangerous Man [Marc Matz] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Professional tracker Gavilan Robie, a sophisticate capable of assuming many identities, finds his many powers tested to their limits on a mission to rescue a man kidnapped by terrorists,Marc Matz,Nocturne for a Dangerous Man,Tor Books,0312869355,Science Fiction - General,Kidnapping;Fiction.,Science fiction.,Virtual reality;Fiction.,AMERICAN FIRST NOVELISTS,AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY,FICTION Science Fiction General,Fiction,Fiction - Coming of Age,GENERAL,General Adult,Kidnapping,Science Fiction,United States,Virtual reality

Nocturne for a Dangerous Man Marc Matz 9780312869359 Books Reviews

This is a novel of a near-future Earth that has suffered some significant damage resulting from climatic changes. As a result, some countries have been devastated by rising sea levels, but most have managed to adjust. Multinational corporations are extremely powerful (as they are today), and some nations have vanished while new ones have risen. Many important technological advances have been made, and there are plenty of improved or new gizmos and gadgets.
Initially, I thought this would be a case of "Neuromancer Lite", but sadly, not even that limited expectation was met. The setting was all right, but the kidnapping plot became unduly byzantine (by the end, the question is not who is involved, but who isn't involved, as seemingly every party has a stake in the affair). It's never even satisfactorily explained why the particular victim was chosen by the primary culprits.
The real flaw, though, is the protagonist, Gavilan Robie. He's part Scots, part Basque, part Cheyenne, part Breton, skillfully plays a 400-year-old Guarneri cello, is an expert on the arts with a Turner fetish, a master of all forms of unarmed combat, a great field medic, a wonderful cook, a wine connoseiur, a natural horseman, speaks 15 languages and several dialects, is rich, and of course, irresistible to women. One grandfather won the Victoria Cross. His mother was a fabulous actress. His father was a wealthy Scotsman who served in the British secret services before retiring and winning the Pulitzer Prize. Um...okay. (Admittedly, according to the blurb on the inside back cover, some of this is true of the author himself.)
I guess I could take that much if it wasn't for the fact that each of his friends is equally fabulous. Every one of them has some arcane skill or is that master of their craft or the acknowledged leader in their field. Not only that, he can't encounter anyone, no matter how casually, without discovering that he is connected to their past because of some daring rescue of their relatives or loved ones in the past.
For further insult, all of his magnificent buddies exist primarily to acknowledge his superior coolness in all ways. No matter how great they are, they either have to outright confess their worthless inferiority in the face of Robie's splendor, or suffer his silent assesment of their shortcomings and failings. Geez, I get it already--Robie is the most wonderfulest person that ever existed. You can stop bludgeoning me over the head with his sheer godliness!
To paraphrase an Ebert movie review, I hated this book sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, and page by page, until at last it was done and I could hate it in its entirety.
The cover art is terrible, too.
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.
-----------------------------------------------------------
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...

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman
I have loved this book for years. Sadly, this seems to be the only one the author has produced that I can find.
Matz creates a truly fascinating and original protagonist, while placing him in a believable future world. I especially liked the way the character's background and the facts about the society he lives in emerged bit by bit in the course of the story; no long bouts of dull exposition here! I sincerely hope to see a lot more, both of the character Robie and from his creator, Matz. This guy is someone to watch.