The Agony Column:

"Nocturne... brings to mind Adam Roberts' Salt. Neuce writes quite well, and the story is involving enough to make one look forward to the sequel.

"Readers who enjoyed the socio-political, science-fictional speculations that drove Salt, or say, some of Ken MacLeod's work would find this book quite a treat. This is more on the planetary romance side of the space opera equation, so to speak. Don't expect big spaceships blowing stuff up; do expect carefully conceived characters and civilizations in the process of throttling themselves into a state of perpetual tension."

Reader Views:

“Nocturne is a book with appeal for a wide range of readers, from young adults on up. It would be an interesting book for a book club, reading groups or simply for a solitary reader who enjoys books which ask more questions than they answer.

"It proves a sobering parallel to today’s world in all its prejudice, hatred and even love. It is a book to read, and a book to be contemplated not only in a group but also most importantly, alone. As we all know, it is the questions in life which have no answers to be those that haunt us the most. And that fact alone is worth the time spent visiting Nocturne and its people within the pages of this book."

The Internet Review of Science Fiction:

"One of [Nocturne's] jacket reviews compares it to both C. J. Cherryh and Kim Stanley Robinson. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it's half right—which is pretty good for a jacket review, in my experience. There's no great similarity in content between Nocturne and Robinson's Mars trilogy... and even less between Neuce's writing style and anything I've read from Robinson. The comparison to Cherryh, though, bears out.

"The Cherryh of comparison here is she of Foreigner, Wave Without a Shore, and Cyteen—stories pushed along by intense conversations, political intrigue and deeply conflicted characters driving themselves nuts trying to understand each other. Another comparison that sprang to my mind was Maureen F. McHugh.

"Like the others, Nocturne is a product of a serious-minded writer with a lot to say about social power, prejudice, and personal relationships. And like both Cherryh and McHugh, Neuce writes from within the heads of her characters. This means Nocturne isn't the most readily accessible work and won't be to everyone's taste, but it puts Neuce in the company of a couple of authors who've bagged most of the major awards between them.

"Nocturne is a strong debut and Neuce strikes me as a writer who will only get better... I'm definitely interested to see what she does with Nocturne's sequel."

Ideomancer:

"[Nocturne] is as hard scientifically as Bear, Benford, Brin, or Niven, but has the anthropological focus of the very best of Ursula LeGuin. Despite [some] flaws, the novel explores an alien sociology in such microscopic, and sometimes myopic, detail and in such a thoroughly realized world, that I found it impossible not to think about for weeks after putting the book down."

Book Crossing:

"[Nocturne] is an interesting but very complex science fiction thriller that showcases the societal differences between the three prime groups that make up Nocturne that has led to decades of distrust. The storyline is built around [an] official investigation, but in fact is more about how substrata populations, especially those vying for power, react to the explosion and the inquires, as everyone has an agenda. This is not easy to read as no one truly carries the plot but fans of deep thought-provoking sci fi will want to take the time as Jus Neuce writes an insightful look at societal pressures that run the gamut from total reform to total control to status quo."

SFSite:

"Like Ursula K. Le Guin in 'The Dispossessed', Jus Neuce isn't concerned only with telling a tale of people and events, but with painting a portrait of a society that's fundamentally unlike our own. This she does with impressive depth and consistency. Nocturne...whose rules and protocols are just odd enough to be alien and just recognizable enough to make sense, feels both genuinely unfamiliar and completely authentic.

"The book's big event occurs in the first few pages, with the rest of the story devoted to its repercussions. Much of the action takes place in offices and boardrooms, with as much (or possibly more) of the narrative given over to characters' internal musings as to what they do and say. Sound dull? It's not. The author brings a surprising level of suspense to what's basically office politics writ large, building tension by frequently intercutting between different points of view, maintaining sympathy by interweaving the high-stakes political maneuvering with Graham's and Kellan's much smaller, very personal, and quite touching, story. As the hidden stresses in Nocturnian society become more explicit, as the factions line up and the rifts between them deepen, the sense of impending calamity intensifies. A final revelation of betrayal carries real emotional punch.

"Nocturne is a difficult book, both by design and by omission. ...What you will find is a thoughtful examination of a society in transition, and of the stresses that engender social change. Flaws and all, it's one of the more original debuts I've read this year, and also one of the most intelligent."

SFRevu:

"Though [Nocturne] begins with an explosion, it is not a story of action. It is in the tradition of C. J. Cherryh, a sere tale of inner turmoil, a story of politics and power in a society that is palpaby nearing a breaking point... The novel ends with tantalizing hints of future revelations in a future work—the conflict resolved in this story is clearly only a rumble on the horizon of change to come.

"Readers who enjoy a tale that speculates about who we might be in strange places far from Earth, who thrive more on psychological tension than on shoot-outs or the usual apparatus of space opera, who find pleasure in the mental exertion that comes from reading prose aimed high in the cerebellum will find in Nocturne an enjoyable read."

Heartland Reviews:

"Nocturne is a most unusual literary science fiction novel about a colony established far from Earth, their request for help, and the resulting unwanted group of people Earth sends as a final communication. The two groups of people are culturally different, which makes for societal conflict, prejudice, and bigotry. Overlying this is the first group's complex and extraordinarily subtle bureaucracy and social interaction. The group reminded me of the aristocratic Japanese in its unspoken rules and quiet demands for privacy and acknowledgment of power.

"This is a very complex novel which is more about evolving human interrelationships than it is about plot. If you are familiar with the writings of Gordon Dickson or Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, you will find interest and enjoyment in this work."

And here's what two figures in the science fiction field said about Nocturne:

"Jus Neuce's spider-silk prose provides subtle speculation—genetics, psychology, economics, even the science of tidal-locked planetary bodies—and lurking beneath the surface of it all is a sense of unresolved menace that leads to the expectation for a sequel. Readers who can't get enough of Cherryh's tightly written characters and plots or Robinson's colony politics should give this new writer a look—Jus Neuce presents a sense of wonder and humanity in Nocturne." —Editor Edward Carmien, PhD

"On both a personal and societal level, Jus Neuce tackles questions in Nocturne that have been immensely relevant to us in the 21st century: the proper response to tragedy, and the very personal choices therein. The response of the people and government of Nocturne to tragedy leave the reader not with answers to the big questions, but with food for thought, as good science fiction should." —Editor Rob Gates

And click here for a reader's review in a unique format: a podcast! (The reader covers a few topics in the podcast, which is several minutes long; her review of Nocturne is toward the end.)

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