Synopsis
When the quiet and responsible Leonard Trader and the wild and reckless Johnny Devlin wake up in each other's bodies, Trader is left to try to patch together Devlin's shattered and hopeless life.
Reviews
A master of urban fantasy returns with one of his finest works. One morning, a quiet, responsible luthier (guitar-maker), Leonard Trader, wakes up in the body of charming ne'er-do-well Johnny Devlin. At the same time, Devlin takes over Trader's body. Devlin starts cutting a swathe through the money, women and liquor in Trader's circle, while Trader has to struggle for survival on the mean streets while trying to figure out what happened to him and what he can do about it. This quest takes him (as such quests have taken many of de Lint's characters) into what is in, in effect, a marvelously wrought land of Faerie. De Lint (Memory and Dream, etc.) builds his story from a succession of well-chosen and well-expressed details. He eschews herding his lead characters into some grand, eternal arena; nothing is at stake here except their personal fates. Devlin and Trader are made so sympathetic in de Lint's seasoned hands, however, that the lack of a cosmic stage for their drama doesn't detract one bit from their wholly engaging adventures.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Founder of the urban fantasy movement, De Lint again sets his story in the city of Newford. When quiet, responsible luthier Max Trader and egotistical loser Johnny Devlin wake up in each other's bodies, Max has a harder time dealing with it than Johnny, who had desperately wished for a change. Now homeless, Max receives help from a Native American fortune teller to get his life back. De Lint explores the dangers of complacency and self-centeredness in a wonderfully allegorical tale. Highly recommended for fantasy collections.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
De Lint's latest urban fantasy is an outstanding effort, even for him, the master of the category. It uses the old theme of individuals' minds suddenly trading bodies--in this case, mild-mannered luthier Leonard Trader's mind exchanging bodies with that of ne'er-do-well Johnny Devlin. The subsequent story of Trader's effort to survive in Devlin's milieu and Devlin's to exploit Trader's situation for wine, women, and song is minutely detailed, thoroughly engrossing, and not in the least angst-ridden. De Lint is a master at world building, at creating the apt image, and at making grippingly suspenseful a story in which the fate of the characters may have no cosmic significance but is vitally important to them and their closest friends. It is hard to imagine urban fantasy done with greater skill, even by de Lint himself. Roland Green
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