about the book
Thirty-year-old Roen Tan is an insecure flabby slob with a heart condition. His life is going nowhere. An IT tech who spends just about every waking hour grinding away at his computers, Roen rarely slips away to a nearby dingy Chicago club to try to meet girls. Unfortunately, the last time he hit the bar, he drank too much, the girls all ditched him…and Roen picked up a snarky ancient alien instead!
Centuries before dinos walked the earth, aliens crash landed and they have since been trying to get back home to no avail. They figured humans were the best chance of developing the technology they needed. The extremely long-lived Quasings, blue-tinted gaseous beings, have to enter an earthling body to survive on this planet.
Roen’s alien symbiote is Tao. In past lives he has inhabited King Solomon, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, and recently, a kick-ass super spy, Edward Blair. For millenniums, the Quasings have been manipulating the world’s history. Now two factions are at war, the Prophus and the Genjix. Tao is a peaceful Prophus. An experienced, powerful soldier, he plays a major role in this hidden war. The ruthless and savage Genjix, who far out-number the Prophus, don’t mind taking out the entire planet and all its humans to reach their goals.
To avoid capture by the Genjix, Agent Blair just died gallantly by taking a nose dive off the John Hancock Center. He knew Tao would survive, but it was a close call. Tao had to take the first human available and, unfortunately, he just barely made it into the very unsuitable Roen.
Once Roen realizes his queasiness is not a bad hang-over and the annoying voice in his head is not the first sign of going insane, he tries to cope with having a real live alien within him. What’s more, in order for both of them to survive, Tao is demanding that Roen train to become an agent for Prophus. The weak-willed Roen has his doubts. How can he possibly become a lean-mean fighting machine, a suave politician, and an international man of mystery who takes on really bad-guy aliens?
It’s never going to happen!!!
about the author
In his quest to become a writer, Wesley Chu studied everything but writing. His grammar stinks. His first attempt at a novel was a 180,000-page monstrosity entitled Woes, Toads, and Crossroads. He made just about every mistake an author could make in those pages, and after an appropriate mourning period and a brief stint with a cone of shame, Wesley sat down and started writing The Lives of Taos. He’s a firm believer that mistakes are the best way to learn, and he poured all his newly acquired knowledge into Tao.
You wouldn’t expect such writing from a guy like Wesley. First off, he’s a big martial arts expert and has spent years as a stunt man. Exceptionally good at falling down, he’s always the token Asian dude getting his ass kicked. He doesn’t mind being a token. It’s his bread and butter!
With a passion for history, Wesley always wanted to know what was behind the big events. For example, why was Genghis compelled to conquer faraway places? He began to conjecture that space aliens are driving all our history. Throw in a lazy fat guy and the whole concept blossomed! Truth is, the book contains a little of Wesley throughout. He choreographed every fight scene, and the drinking scenes are straight out of his nights spent with his buddies in Vegas.
Wesley currently lives in windy Chicago with his dog Eva, who he sometimes rides. He’s currently working on a new series about an energy stealing time traveler with addiction issues!
Sources:
Author website
Author interview: Examiner
Author biography: Amazon
Author interview: terribleminds
Also by Wesley Chu:
Time Salvager. Tor Books. 2015.
The Rebirths of Tao. Angry Robot. 2015.
The Deaths of Tao. Angry Robot. 2013.
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