When Max Trader wakes up in the body of Johnny Devlin, a man he has never met, he can not believe that his comfortable life has been usurped by a loser who is just about to get evicted for non-payment of rent. But Max lives in Newford where the threshold of the world of spirits that most people only visit in their dreams is easily breached, and the street people are closer to the liminal zone than most, so when he finds himself living in a park with a stray dog, his new friends and the real Johnny's not so friendly acquaintances help him come to terms with what has happened and decide what to do about it.

One thing that has sometimes irritated me about Charles de Lint is the idea that apart from street people it creative types like artists and musicians who are going to have otherworldly experiences. In this book however, although Max Trader is a master craftsman, a successful and well-respected luthier, it is not the creative side of his life that left him vulnerable to the body swap, but his social isolation and lack of connection with other people. The charming but feckless Johnny Devlin just went to bed wishing that his problems would all go away, and once he had Max's comfortable apartment and his bank accounts, he didn't want to let them go.

I thought that this book was a bit too long and could have done with having a few less characters; if the author had thought up a different way for Nia to meet up with the real Max, he could have dispensed with Nia's mother Lisa and her relationship with Julie altogether. I found them the least convincing characters, and leaving out their story would probably have knocked 50 or so pages off the length. ( )

vintage Charles de Lint ( )

this book entranced me. it was amazing. the style of the writing was almost lyrical and you could really feel the story.

http://www.leftfield.org/~rawdon/book... ( )

Max Trader is a successful luthier - a master guitar maker - with a quiet, relatively contented life. Johnny Devlin is selfish, mean spirited and chronically unemployed. One morning the two of them wake up in each other's bodies. Devlin quickly and gleefully sets up in Trader's life, while Trader - friendless, penniless and about to be homeless, attempts to reclaim some semblence of his former life...

Bodyswopping - a tired, worn out science fiction cliche you might say. But this book is actually rather good. It's the first Charles De Lint book I've read, and first and foremost I was very impressed with the quality of his writing. The language is quite evocative, he doesn't just describe things, he lets you see them, feel them, smell them. The characters are very well drawn, you quickly find yourself liking them, understanding them, and feeling for them when things go badly. The plot is probably the weakest point of the book, slow at times with not a lot happening, but then this story is very character orientated, and it's what happens to them that matters most to the reader, not a grand over-arching plot.

I've given this book 4 our of 5. It probably deserves more, but for two reasons. One is that I'm very keen on plot-driven novels, and the second is that there are books that I've enjoyed a lot more, and I need some way to differentiate between them. ( )