Trader (Newford, #4) by Charles de Lint

Trader (Newford, #4) Reviews

• 
  Ambrosia

  Charles de Lint is rapidly becoming one of my new favorite authors - frankly, given how long I've enjoyed similar urban fantasists like Neil Gaiman, I can't believe it's taken me this long to come across his stuff. And his handling of this premise makes it slightly horrifying and definitely compelling enough to overcome its slight shop-wear.
  
  This particular volume was recommended to me by a fellow musician, as proof of de Lint's fine grasp of what it means to be a musician. I must say, in that sphere especially, I'm very impressed; there's a scene in this book where a normally-placid character sees another character playing an instrument very dear to him, and completely loses his temper at her. It gave me chills; I have little in the way of a temper, myself, but I could see reacting in a similar manner if I were in such a situation.
  
  That said, it feels a little rougher than the other (far more recent) book of de Lint's I'd read; less structured, with a lot of philosophy and ideas on the nature of identity that don't quite gel. But I did very much like the theme of living a life so full that there's no room for spirits to get in and work their mischief. One of the themes that goes underexplored in our cultural narrative is how contentment can be as much a trap as despair; if you're more or less happy with how things are going, you're far less likely to stretch yourself and risk upsetting the balance. But eventually that desire not to risk one's happiness turns into a rut, if not an outright prison.
  
  And while it didn't really bother me any, I was amused at how often I found myself thinking "Oh yeah, this book was written in the nineties." A teenager without a cell phone (and a mention of a 'cellular telephone' as an unusual accoutrement). A woman dating another woman and being nervous about how her friends and daughter would react to it, even in a major urban area. Several mentions of cassette tapes, or a brick-and-mortar video-rental store. Still a good story, but it definitely took a little bit of mental readjustment every now and then.
• 
  Kelly

  This book was slightly more mature for De Lint. It still brings up his favorite "don't overlook the spirits in homeless people!" theme a lot, and his sentimental view points of emos, goths, slackers, and all those other disaffected groups. He finds redemption in them. Which is sweet on some level, but again. He tends to beat it to death. The device for this one is about two vastly different guys who get their bodies swapped and their lives changed. One's a horrible guy and one's a good one. The metaphor about living in a new skin might be heavy, but it's well done. His writing is quality. I may have rolled my eyes, but something caught me about it anyway. I finished this book in two days.
• 
  Vigasia

  I didn't make as big impression on me as other Newford novels I've read so far, but it still was a good part of work I enjoyed reading and didn't get bored.
• 
  JG (Introverted Reader)

  Max Trader is a luthier who wakes up one morning in a body not his own. After the initial panic and a little further investigation, Trader finds out that charming, womanizing rake, Johnny Devlin, has wished for a different life and somehow they have traded bodies. Devlin has no intention of trying to switch back. He gets a fresh start while Trader tries to navigate his way through the wreckage of Johnny's life. While learning about Johnny, though, Devlin learns a few things about his own life and how he needs to start living as large as trees, to paraphrase.
  
  Characters, characters, characters. What draws me to Charles de Lint are his characters, and he did not disappoint with this one. Trader is a mild-mannered kind of guy, mostly forgettable except for his talent, but he's willing to learn from this unbelievable experience he has. He learns to live his life to the fullest and not take a single day for granted.
  
  So that one's obvious. What makes this a de Lint book is that even the secondary characters grow and learn and change. Trader and Devlin's switch is like a stone thrown into a still pond: the effects ripple out in ways that you don't see coming. Even minor characters learn self-acceptance, the value of having your own life outside of a relationship, acceptance of others, forgiveness, open-mindedness and all kinds of Important Life Lessons. I've loaned out my copy already or I would throw out a couple of quotes that sum all of this up much better than I can. Expect to see a revised version of this review when I get my copy back.
  
  Finally got it back!
  
  "The thing to do is to be happy with yourself, with what's in your own life; then if a relationship comes along it's a bonus, something to enjoy instead of the thing your life revolves around."
  
  "Look inside yourself for the answers--you're the only one who knows what's best for you. Everybody else is only guessing."
  
  What kept this from being five stars are two of the characters who actually grow the most. They were the whiniest women I have read about in a long time. Oh, they felt real alright. I know plenty of women who moan on and on and on about their boyfriends, the lack of, or the fact that they need a life apart from. They are not women I want to spend time with, either in books or in real life. I have very little tolerance for that kind of thing. It's an important lesson to get out there, but spare me. Please.
  
  What's a little unusual about this novel is that there isn't really a bad guy. Devlin's not anyone's idea of a nice guy, but the real antagonists are apathy, inertia, missed opportunities, wasted talent, and a lack of self-awareness. Devlin's actually sort of the poster child for the "wherever you go, there you are" theme running through the book. He gets a new life, but he's unwilling to change and makes the same old mistakes all over again.
  
  This falls pretty early in the Newford books, which I will still maintain that you don't have to read in order, but it was pretty cool to go back and read an early book and see how the regulars were doing back then. I finally know who Tanya is and how she and Geordie meet, and I finally realize that there are hints of Jilly's
  The Onion Girl (Newford, Book 11) trials this early.
  
  On a side note, I adore the cover art that John Jude Palancar creates for de Lint's books.
  
  Anyway, this is a great example of why Charles de Lint is my favorite author. He tells a great story with an important message without being preachy, all while creating characters who honestly feel like old friends to me at this point. Reading this one has given me the urge to go on a Newford re-reading binge. Highly recommended.
• 
  Wing Kee

  Great 2/3s and a wonder 1/3.
  
  World: De Lint's Newford is magical. It's dense, it's fully fleshed out, and a living breathing character in the story. The depth and tone and lived in feeling of the world is a delight. There are no info dumps, you are in the hands of a master storyteller and the world is awesome.
  
  Story: The story on premise has been done so many times and the book recognizes this and even calls itself out. But in the hands of De Lint and the characters and the setting make this so much more. This story is beautiful, is melancholy and it has so much heart it's amazing. The first two thirds of the book is stunning. The last third is beautiful.
  
  Characters: The heart of this book. Every character is so beautifully flawed and read. You will instantly fall in love with Max, Zeffy, Nia and everyone. The characters moments are quiet and beautiful, the emotions real and heavy. These characters are perfect.
  
  This premise has been done but wow the writing and the execution is perfection.
  
  Onward to the next book!
• 
  Maggie K

  Another great Newford book!
  
  In this story, Johnny, who is an unemployed, womanizing, party boy of a man falls asleep wishing for a more stable life has his dream intersected with Max, a man whose life is so about work that he is not even living it anymore, and they wake up in each other's bodies. This story, shaped around their quests to truly find themselves, is Newford at it's best.
  
  DeLint's way of portraying magic as just right outside our own perceptions, excels at making the unbelievable seem most real. Characters we know, such as Jilly, Bones and Geordie, join in with Johnny and Max and other newcomers to spin an amazing tale. It's take on the personal journey of finding one's place in the world resonates easily for a truly fantastic read.
  
  4.5 stars!
• 
  Stephen Gallup

  I was casually browsing the book sale table at the library when this title caught my eye. "Trader" -- my first thought was that it might be about trading stocks or futures. Picking it up, I realized it was a fantasy -- way over at the other end of the spectrum, although on second thought the ambitions of your average trader probably do border on fantasy. But never mind that. I bought it anyway.
  
  Nominally about Max Trader, a renowned but introverted maker of fine guitars, the story shows what happens when, inexplicably, he wakes up one morning in a stranger's body, having somehow traded places overnight with an unsavory guy who is about to be evicted from his apartment.
  
  The tale of Max's quest to get back what used to be his, and what he learns along the way, amounts to a rite of passage toward a more authentic life, and I have only minor quibbles about that. However, four other main characters get essentially as much attention in the unfolding narrative as does Max, and that's where the problems lie. The author tells the story in what I think of as "basket-weaver" style, by which I mean the chapters alternate from Max to Leffy (an aspiring guitarist who dreams of playing professionally if she can overcome her shyness), Tanya (Leffy's roommate, a talented actress who has stopped acting), Nia (an alienated teenager), and Lisa (Nia's mom, who is preoccupied with the trauma of coming out of the closet). Most chapters conclude with minor cliffhangers, making the switch to another point of view somewhat irksome, but for me the book's basic flaw was that all these other characters are not very interesting. I suppose the idea is that all of them are in the process of learning to live more authentically, but even so their dialog in particular is utterly banal and put me in mind of the kind of mass-market chick-lit you see in grocery stores. I don't like to skim, but I found myself doing that every time these other characters started talking.
  
  Aside from that, De Lint is competent at what he does. (He should be, given all the titles to his credit -- nine pages on goodreads. Prolific!) It's escapism, which for me definitely serves a purpose every so often.
• 
  John

  I read Charles de Lint's Dreams Underfoot about 20 years ago and remember how I loved the city of Newford and the characters that the author had created for that magical place. I can't understand why I never continued with his other Newford books, but I have finally returned to that amazing city in reading Trader.
  
  Specifically, as it relates to Trader, the book was exceptional for the following reasons:
  
  The city of Newford is a fascinating place. As I read his books, my mind explores, whether walking or driving, this place the author has created. It seems so like our own cities, but is also, so very different. Every time I read about Newford it is as if I can see that Mr. de Lint dreamt about Newford and creates the city from his recollections. And the city continues to grow as he takes us down to the Tombs, or on a stroll in Fitzhenery Park, or to have a cup of coffee at Kathryn's diner where several of my favorite characters waitress, or the art galleries, or somewhere across town. It has become a real city in any Newford fan's mind. What a fascinating idea.
  
  The characters are so real, and many of them such as Bones, Jilly Coppercorn, and Zeffy seem to have so much wisdom that it is a pleasure to read about them. They aren't superhero characters who are always finding themselves in violent or explosive scenes. Rather, they are normal people who have to deal with an abnormal world. All the characters come to life, and each have their own distinct personality. That's what makes them so real. But how they react to unusual and magical or maybe what might be considered spiritual situations, makes for a fascinating story. "To sleep, perchance to dream," and to finally meet Bones and Jilly Poppercorn, "there's the rub."
  
  Trader, specifically, was an extremely interesting and engaging story from the very beginning. A man wakes up to find himself in the wrong place and the wrong body. What an amazing idea. Not that the idea hasn't been thought up before, but the way de Lint describes each character and the city of Newford as this story unwinds is simply mystical.
  
  I recommend this book wholeheartedly.
• 
  Allyson

  There's nothing particularly special about the premise of this story--guy wakes up and, having somehow swapped consciousness with another guy, now must navigate an unfamiliar life while trying to figure out how to get back into his own body. But that isn't the reason you read this one. You read it because Charles de Lint is a masterful storyteller who creates loveable (and hateable) characters, places you wish you could visit, and has this wonderful way of bringing magic and wonder into the real world in a way that seems completely plausible. I really enjoyed this story. At the risk of spoiling just a little, I must also say that had it ended any other way my review would be one star less for predictability, but it ended perfectly--not neatly, not nicely, but believably, and it was very satisfying. And that's hard for an author to pull off well, so props where props are due. Can't wait read the next Newford installment as I make my way through this author's catalog!
• 
  Mitchell Friedman

  A re-read, possibly for the 3rd time. Creepy. Don't like the cover on my copy. Don't like the arbitrary changing bodies concept. And really didn't like the bit where we were in the alternate manitou world. But this was Newford. And the richness of the world pulls me past the pieces I don't like as much. And this is basically the feeling I remembered from previous reads. With a lot of the usual cast, some on stage like Jilly and Geordie, and some just barely off-stage like Sophie and Wendy and Christie. And I'm thinking even though I don't think we see all that much of Max Trader after this one, this book still flows right into the next one.
• 
  Amanda

  I finished my book, I finished my book, I finished my book, I finished my book!!! I love it when I finish a book.
  
  Good ol' Freaky Friday kind of story. The good guys win.
• 
  Chris

  Body swapping, Newford style. I found myself wondering if maybe I would give it four instead of five stars upon rereading, but... I couldn't put it down and stayed up too late, so...
• 
  Redsteve

  I feel like de Lint is really hitting his stride with this one. Even though the story is told through about a dozen characters’ points of view, the shifts don’t seem to derail the story as in Memory and Dream (Newford #2). The basic plot is interesting but fairly straightforward – two very different people waking up in each other’s bodies – and most of the book deals, without explanation of the underlying cause, with the fallout and changes in both their lives. Much of the final ¼ of the book takes place in the spirit realm/Dreamlands and has some interesting aspects: part of it seems to exist as itself, part created by the spirits who live there, and part shaped by the dreams of humans in the material world. Fast read, good story, sympathetic (for the most part) – if imperfect – characters, and a satisfying ending. 4 stars.
• 
  Elar

  Newford stories are always quite interesting having legends, urban fantasies and folklore threaded with social dramas. I like it as much as black humor action packed American Gods or humorous Good Omens, this series is just more feminine take on the same scene. Some situations in this might make reader uncomfortable because they touch right place and show the bottlenecks of our current social order.
• 
  Drew

  Charles De Lint isn't a perfect writer from a literary standpoint, and every time I read one of his books there are a few moments where I find myself restructuring his sentences in my head, or changing some wording around, to make it all flow more smoothly. Despite all of this, I adore his books. He goes so far beyond making up for slight weaknesses in his style that it seems petty to even bring them up. The characters in his books are more like real people I actually know than any other literary characters I've ever encountered, and I feel like he understands and captures the tragic beauty of the human condition in a way that art rarely achieves. His stuff is incredible, and "Trader" is no exception.
  
  This is a book about Max Trader, a luthier (that's someone who builds guitars) who wakes up one morning in the body of a good-for-nothing wasteoid. The wasteoid, Johnny Devlin, woke up in Max's body too, and now, while Max is having to deal with the fact that Johnny's broke, getting evicted, and in a lot of trouble with his ex-girlfriend, Johnny's busily seeing how quickly he can run Max's life into the ground. The story focuses on Max rather than Johnny, though, and there's a sad beauty in seeing a good person try to deal with a bad hand that he incurred through no fault of his own. There's a much larger metaphor here too, in that a lot of people go through this sort of thing in real life, without any fantastical switching of brains, and also have to pick up the pieces. It made me consider the plight of the homeless in much more detail than I ever had before.
  
  There's a lot more to the story, involving Max's teenage neighbor and her mom, Johnny's ex-girlfriend and her musician roommate, and of course, those De Lint mainstays Geordie Riddell and Jilly Coppercorn, who seem to show up in every book he writes (and thank god for that--they are both awesome characters). At the heart of it all, though, is the story of a man who has to figure out who he really is despite losing all outward signs of being that person. De Lint keeps you interested, makes you care--sometimes even about characters that shouldn't be sympathetic at all--and provides some insight about people and how they interact, insight that's well worth taking in and remembering. "Trader" is well worth your time.
• 
  Marie Browne

  This book starts with a good boost for me because I really like the way DeLint writes. Trader is another of his urban fantasy books that brings back a lot of his favourite characters such as Jilly and Geordie but introduces us to some new players as well.
  
  As usual the action has a musical/arty theme and his characters tend to be a little boho and 'alternative'.
  
  The only reason I'm giving this only three stars is that, in this book, his moral message is delivered with a slightly less subtle hand than usual (in my opinion). The base line of this is that, after some of his other work such as Memory and Dream or Someplace to be Flying this falls a little flat (and as a dyed in the wool De Lint fan that is hard to admit). His conversations seem either preachy or a little wooden and the time spent in the other-world seem rushed and he misses out on a huge opportunity to explore that world with the reader. He says a lot about 'this' is here and 'that' is there but he doesn't say why.
  
  In no way can Trader be considered a bad book, it isn't, it's perfectly readable and I don't think anyone will have trouble getting to the end of it, there just wasn't enough depth to it to keep me entirely happy.
• 
  Mark

  
  Charles de Lint is probably one of the most brilliant writers at making you feel wretched one minute and then tremendous the next. He is not well known, but has produced an admirable body of work, all of which I'd term as Dark Fantasy. Many of his books center around the archetypal town of Newford (which I've always thought of as in Canada, for some reason) where dark and dangerous things always seem to happen. This is not horror, but a shadier side of fantasy. Reminds me a lot of
  Neil Gaiman, though I suppose I should say the opposite since I read de Lint first.
• 
  Frank Taranto

  DeLint shines as usual. A wonderful and interesting tale about a man who shifts minds with another and his travails in finding a soltion to his probelm. Placed in his city of Newford, and using some of his long term characters, he again shows us a world of supernatural bordering and interacting with our world.
  
• 
  Sas astro

  Continuing my aim to re-read all of Charles de Lint's Newford stories. It's so log since I read some of them it's as if I'm reading them for the first time. This one gripped me from the start, no one else makes the impossible seem possible in the way de Lint does. He keeps me firmly believing that there is magic in this world.
• 
  Jeannine

  Another one of my favorites!
• 
  Ronan Palmer

  Zzzzzz
• 
  Milliebot

  This review and others posted over at
  my blog.
  
  I’m a big fan of de Lint. He’s one of the authors whose work I hoard (and sadly am very behind in reading) so it’s not surprising to me that I really enjoyed this book. He’s excellent at writing urban fantasy with a Native American twist. Trader, like many of his novels, is set in the fictional town of Newford, where the barrier between “our world” and the spirit world seems to be pretty thin. Many of his characters pop in and out of each other’s stories, so there were a few I recognized.
  
  Max isn’t a character I recognized (though my memory is shit, so it’s possible I’ve come across him in other Newford novels and simply forgot), but he’s one I quickly came to enjoy. This book is told from multiple points of view, but Max is the only one with a first-person perspective. Sometimes the change in perspectives screws with me, but in this case, I think it gave a lot of depth to Max’s character. His voice was stronger than the others and, given that he wakes up in another man’s body and is stuck in his life, it makes sense.
  
  The rest of the story is primarily told through the eyes of the female characters in both men’s lives. There’s Nia and her mother Lisa, Max’s neighbors; Zeffy and her roommate Tanya, Johnny’s enemy and ex-girlfriend respectively; and Jilly Coppercorn (one of my favorite Newford characters – please go read The Onion Girl immediately) who works with Zeffy and Tanya and is no stranger to the…spiritual…side of the city. These ladies are all well-developed with clear voices.
  
  De Lint is one of those authors who gives a description of his characters when they come on the scene. As you might be aware, I’m really growing out of this. I don’t mind a little description, but it gets tiring to get the run-down of every character – it pulls me out of the story. Fortunately, once he lets you know what they look like, he really doesn’t mention it again. Except, in this case, for Zeffy. I got tired of hearing about how beautiful she was with her curly red hair, freckles and darker skin. An interesting mix, to be sure, but not one I needed to hear about throughout the whole story.
  
  That’s really my only complaint though, and I realize it’s a pretty minor one. Despite a somewhat slow-moving plot, I was never bored. The story is told partly through the relationships these characters have with each other.
  
  I’d say this is a contemporary urban fantasy (set maybe in the 90s – at least before cell phones were a thing – but yeah I’m still calling that contemporary), but it’s light on the fantasy. Yes, two men switch bodies and there’s a journey into the spirit world. But it feels almost normal (which is what I’ve come to love about the Newford books in general) because the real focus is on relationships. How strained things are with Nia and her mother; the almost father-like relationship Max has with Nia; the way Tanya can’t seem to get over Jonny; Max’s lack of meaningful friendships in his life.
  
  This is a book centered around the theme of relationships and friendships and sharing your life and your happiness with those you love and value. That sounds hella sappy, but it’s true! Max’s journey is about making meaningful connections and having more than just a comfortable life, a hobby, and going through the motions.
  
  If you’re interested in fantasy lite, Native American folklore, the “trading places” trope and lots of female characters, I think you’ll like this book. There’s probably an order to the books in the Newford series, but from what I can tell, they really don’t need to be read chronologically. Really, just pick up any of de Lint’s books – he’s great!
• 
  Daniel B-G

  This is a fairly decent story held back by style. The premise feels a little cheesy if I’m honest. It almost felt like de Lint went “so what would happen if a tradesman traded places with another person” and then worked the story out from there. He even called the character Trader. That being said, the story was fun, I liked the characters, it moved along pretty well. I nearly quit though thanks to how the book is written. First and foremost, I really hate when writers mix first and third narration. I’m assuming this decision was taken to show who the protagonist was, but that wasn’t necessary, I got it. What it did do, was to make me wonder how the “I” narrator knew all the limited 3rd person narratives (answer: he didn’t because that would be stupid). Either make it all 3rd, or make it all 1st. Don’t mix and match, it’s bad. I also really dislike de Lint’s style in 1st, all his characters spend too much dead time involved in flat introspective churn in 1st person and that really bogs down the story. Finally, too much time was devoted to quite lengthy reflections on identity. These were self-indulgent, they were just too long. They were essential to resolving the plot, but I think they should have been hinted at, not explained. That would have been intriguing, not boring. All in all, it’s OK but I cannot imagine ever reading it again.
• 
  Amber

  This series all takes place in the same little magical urban city with one side character(Jilly) that pops in to almost all of the stories(so far) to help tie them all together and to help push the stories forward in a generic instead of forced way.
  So we have Max, Johnny, Zeffy, Tanya, Lisa and Nia in this story, where Max wakes up one morning in someone else's body and understandably freaks out. When he confronts the person(Johnny) in his body and that person has no interest in trying to fix things he doesn't know what to do, so he goes back to Johnny's apartment only to find himself evicted. Zeffy and Tanya are owed money by Johnny(now Max), Nia is 16 and friends with the original Max, when she overhears Max and Johnny arguing about the switch and then meets Max(now Johnny) and is totally freaked out by this stranger in her friends body and runs for it, only to come home and find her mom kissing another woman so now she thinks she's been swapped out as well.
  This is all just set up and I swear reading the story is easier than it sounds from reading this lol. There are a lot of different variations on the theme of figuring out who you are and then being true to that person in this book and all of them are interesting in their own ways. I recommend this entire series if you are looking for something gritty, urban and ethereal all at the same time.
• 
  Sarah Swarbrick

  I used to read lots of Charles de Lint many moon ago, so when I stumbled across this in a second hand book shop I couldn't resist. The whole time I was reading this book I kept having little deja vu moments (definitely a strange thing when reading about magic and memory), only to discover as I come to write this review that the reason I am having those thoughts is because I have in fact read the first 3 books in this series decades ago. No wonder some of the characters felt so familiar. That said, this totally works as a stand alone story. A what if - what if you woke up in someone else's skin. The weaving of myth, magic and the so called 'real world' were what I had expected, something that de Lint does well.
• 
  Eric McLaughlin

  Bravo! My favorite one yet from the Newford series. This is a case of the switcheroo. But doesn't follow the standard path. Set in the city of Newford with a lot of the usual characters. A lot of Native American and Dream world spiritualism involved in the story. Standard elements from de Lint, great characters, fascinating world, social political depth. And fun story. My favorite of the series so far.
• 
  Tina M

  As usual, Charles De Lint delivers an astounding tale that you begin to believe has many deep layers of truth in it, and always has much to dig through to get to the depth of multiple meanings he seems to be conveying.
  I usually read a book in a matter of a day or so. Not this author. I savor each page, sometimes reading the same paragraph over, before I can move on.
  This is definitely one of those!
• 
  miss kerris a scott

  I love these books after he literally saved my life in hospital 30 years ago when he showed me a way to see the magic in the world. Being back in Newford being with some of my oldest friends
  
  , well what's not to like ? My only complaint is he doesn't write them quick enough but I'll take what I can xx