The Past Trader

by A.M. Donohoo

In a financial market where the fabric of time can be traded, Tallie must choose whether to erase innocent people from history.

Tallie works for The House - a shadowy conglomerate that trade financial instruments which modify history. She has the opportunity to make the Napalm Trade - delivering The House billions in profit, but making napalm more deadly in both the present and the past.

Journeying from the Ukrainian battlefield to the Tokyo office floor, THE PAST TRADER is a highly original debut novella that questions greed, violence, the uncertainty of time, and the consequences of financial speculation.

Genres: Science Fiction

170 pages, ebook

Published February 8, 2023

About the author

A. M. Donohoo is an Australian who has lived across the globe. He has worked a variety of careers including as a Hollywood magazine editor and as a hedge fund analyst. He interviewed Pamela Anderson on her daybed, and Dua Lipa during a psychic reading. In '04 Donohoo broke his back and spent ten years in a wheelchair. He wrote The Past Trader whilst working for a billionaire. He holds degrees in physics, astronomy & astrophysics, law, and English literature.

Reviews

[Lauren B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to Booksirens, publishers and the author for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I'll be honest, though this was written well, I didn't really understand what was happening or the logistics of the market and how it connected to the past, etc. This could have been hashed out more, particularly for people who are interested in the story but have little to no knowledge of investment markets etc.
Would love more background information, more description detailing the current war (I did enjoy that it touched on Ukraine/Russia, though not nearly enough IMO), and more clarity at the end.

[Sam bioteacherbooknerd · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t love this story. To me it felt very confusing with the idea of trading pasts and I kept finding myself lost. I had to go back multiple times to reread and I still was left feeling confused by the ending. The idea was intriguing but I think for me it ended up being too much to wrap my head around. That being said I did enjoy the writing style. I think I would definitely be open to reading another book by this author.

[Laura Potts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a unique sci-fi I was hooked from the first page. Some parts were slightly confusing due to some more technical language, however that may be purposeful but overall this is a really quick interesting read and I would highly recommend for anyone who likes sci-fi as this is unlike anything I’ve read before.

[Rebecca Bender · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I don't usually read sci fi fantasy books, so I was a little slow piecing the story together. I enjoyed the characters in particular Tallie & Charlotte. Tallie is a past trader. Just as we look at the farm market to predict how well the future sale of say hogs will be, the line weavers look to the past to gauge the best way to trade time from the past. The Past Trader tells the story of Tallie as she is making this trade. The question is who is the trade good for and what does it effect. I feel like the two portions of the story came together nicely. My one lingering question is this. What was the purpose of the well wrapped special bowl?

[Drea · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was totally unreadable. This was a goodread giveaway. I was looking for something short to read while I waited for a library book. It fit that criteria, but nothing about it was engaging. The characters were flat, one-dimensional. I’m not a writer but something was wrong with some of the grammar or sentence structure. It was distracting. I could not finish it.

[Kerri Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher / author for my free copy! I thought the premise of this was super interesting, but the logistics weren’t well explained within the book. It was too much finance jargon (and I work in finance) on top of a sort of time travel aspect which made it hard to wrap my head around. I still found it interesting and engaging. I was never bored. I liked the novella length but it also made it feel like it was a bit rushed and left the reader to imply a lot of how everything turned out in the end.

[Dipti · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a financial thriller with a time travel core (A “What if I could go back in time and buy APPL?” class of story). It has a cool big idea, and builds a very character and event driven story around it. I was pretty engaged with the book until about the 90% mark. At that point I began to worry that the author, though setting up the story well, was not going to be able to bring it home and my fears came true.

So, should you read this book?

On the plus side of the ledger, it starts with a cool idea, and has an engaging main character and the author is able to write little sketches well, and bring characters and places to life.

On the minus side, the main cool idea is never explained or elaborated, leaving me hanging in the science fiction department. I had hopes it would be explained at the end, but by the time I got to the 90% mark I realized the author was not going to make it.

The author also glosses over details of the financial matters and so left me hanging in the financial thriller department too. At the start there is a lot of invented jargon that sounds financial but actually isn’t and later on in the story any pretense of connecting with actual financial instruments and jargon is given up.

There is a sporadic parallel arc involving a mercenary/CIA type fighting in Ukraine. I kept reading hoping there would be a connection to the main story, but none materialized.

The ending seemed rushed, a bit Deus Ex Machina, and not well explained. I will admit that there is a short two page epilogue that may be meaningful if I had paid more attention to the minor side characters/events, but I just couldn’t be bothered to go back and comb through the book to see if this was indeed the case.

All in all, I’ve read worse books, and the author does write well, and I did enjoy part of the journey, but it got more and more unsatisfactory as we approached the end. The author is able to write isolated sketches that bring characters and places to life, but struggles to weave it all together and bring about a decent conclusion, which marred it for me.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall an enjoyable read. Lots of scientific talk shoved in between dialog. The ending felt a bit abrupt and made me feel as if the story was unfinished. Some engaging writing here though Tallie’s travel made me feel tired just reading about it.

[Sam Veltre · Rating 3 out of 5]

i enjoyed the story as it was a quick read and Tallie's tale is very intriguing. but the side tale set with Jimmy in the Russian - Ukraine war is distracting from the overall cool concept and science of trading pasts and their reproduction's. if Donohoo wanted to write a novella centering around the war id read that but it is out of place here.

[Alycia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confused

The book is confusing and there are multiple stories going on that seem to never get finished. If they would have connected together better I think it would have been a better book.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting read with a great premise

This was an interesting premise which was different to the norm and definitely made me think. It fit well into the short story format and felt complete (unlike a lot of short stories). I would definitely recommend!

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not into stockmarket trading. Unfortunately, I had trouble understanding past trading and could not finish the book. A stock trader might like it.

[Lee Thames · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept.

World building is minimal. Character development is minimal. And it works. Short read, worth taking a risk.

[Arturo Serrano · Rating 3 out of 5]

I reviewed this book for the Hugo-winning, Ignyte-winning blog Nerds of a Feather:

http://www.nerds-feather.com/2024/02/...

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tallies journey was a lot. Interesting book and a lot to keep track of. Quick read. Outside from my usual read.

[Sativa Galaxy · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 42%
I won an ebook copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads giveaways.

I got to almost halfway through this book before I finally gave up. I was hoping things would get explained by now, but no. At 42%, what past trading is should have been explained by now. Almost nothing is explained in this book. It is like I started this book from the middle and I missed the entire first half. I feel like the book description is very misleading. The characters have no depth at all. If they have any emotion or feelings, I do not know, because those things are not depicted in the book. The characters use a bunch of lingo that the average reader is not likely to know, and that lingo is never explained. What past trading is exactly, and how it works, is never fully explained. If you want to be confused the entire time you're reading a book, then you might enjoy this one, but if you would rather actually know what's going on, I'd give this one a pass.