2013; 460 pages. Book 2 (out of 3) in the “Lives of Tao” series. New Author? : No. Genres : Action-Intrigue; Sci-Fi Fantasy; Humorous. Overall Rating : 7½*/10.
Right now, there’s a global war going on, and not many
people are aware of it. That’s probably
because it involves two factions of an alien race that was marooned on Earth a
long time ago when their spaceship crashed here. How long ago, you ask? Well, the dinosaurs were walking around back
then.
Our planet’s atmosphere is
toxic to them, but they’ve found an effective way to overcome that. They simply “inhabit” the body of a living creature. It could be
a human being, it could be a shark, it could be a brontosaurus. The earthly creature is referred to as its
“host”.
Nowadays, the two alien factions—the Prophus (the good guys) and the Genjix (the baddies)—both utilize humans almost exclusively as their
hosts. But the Prophus view the
arrangement as sort of an equal partnership (kind
of like roommates), while the Genjix consider it a master-slave
relationship. Guess which one’s the
master.
So the next time you hear
voices in your head—well, just a single voice,
actually,—choose your words back to it carefully. You don’t whether it’s a Genjix or a Prophus.
What’s To Like...
The Deaths of Tao
is the second book in Wesley Chu’s (completed) trilogy called “Lives of
Tao”. The Prophus-Genjix conflict is
heating up, and the Prophus continue to get the worse of it. The protagonist from the first book, Roen
Tan, is back again, along with his Quasing (that’s
what you call an alien that’s inhabiting your body) Tao. This time he shares the spotlight with his
wife Jill (although they're separated now), who’s Quasing is named Baji, and an
up-and-coming an bad guy named Enzo, who’s Quasing is named Zoras.
There are 45 chapters covering
the 460 pages of the story, and for the most part, they cycle among the
three protagonists. There are a bunch of
plotlines, but the three main ones mostly take place in Taiwan (Roen’s), China/Tibet (Enzo’s), and the US (Jill’s).
The Taiwan setting became my favorite, because you very rarely find a novel set there and because it is
where the author was born.
If you’re a lover of Action-Intrigue stories, The Deaths of Tao
is the book for you. All three
storylines have plenty of it. The
fight scenes are well-written and easy to follow: you can feel the punches, kicks, bullets, and
deaths. The intrigue is equally
fascinating – why are the Genjix so concerned about US trade sanctions, why is
a Quasing prison camp in Tibet so crucial to their long-term plans, and where in the world did Dylan disappear to?
Each chapter opens with a
short “intro” written by one of the Quasing.
It’s not crucial to the story, but it is a clever way to give the reader
their version of “history” here on Earth.
I chuckled at the mention of durian; I once had an opportunity to
partake of this fruit when I was traveling in Asia, but passed on it. I think I would do the same with the “stinky
tofu” mentioned here.
The ending, or “endings” to be precise, are okay but incomplete. Each of the three main
storylines closes with an exciting battle, but none of the plot threads are
resolved. That’s “none" as in "zero”. The Prophus are still in dire straits, only
they’re more dire now. Both sides have
suffered some deaths, including both Quasing and humans, but the losses by the Prophus are far more grievous. The human world has
become more aware of aliens amongst us, but discover there’s not much they can do
about it.
Oh well, that’s why there’s a
Book Three, The Rebirths of Tao.
Kewlest New Word ...
Ghillie Suit (n.) : a type of camouflage clothing designed to resemble the background environment such as foliage, snow, or sandRatings…
Amazon:
4.3/5
based on 216 ratings and 150 reviews.
Goodreads: 3.91/5 based on 3,580
ratings and 329 reviews.
Excerpts...
Zoras watched with disdain as Enzo played the crowd like a
politician walking the rope line. Keeping his face stoic, he touched the
outstretched hands and made eye contact with the worshipping masses. It was a far cry from how Devin, who played
the role of an isolated Egyptian Pharaoh, treated his people.
You are a
god. Remember that.
“A god who
leads, Guardian.”
To lead is a
human trait. A god demands obedience. (pg. 79)
Sixteen behind you.
Ten on both sides. All armed and probably
awful shots. Four bosses in front. Oh, and you have Hutch, the narcoleptic
guard. You got a plan to get out of
this?
(…) He
shrugged. “I got nothing.”
I find it
ironic that you had a plan to fight your way out of Prophus Command, but not
out of a triad warehouse. I am starting
to doubt your loyalties.
“Or
intelligence.”
Or will to
live.
“Or delusions of
invincibility.” (pg. 166)
“He should be
alright when he wakes.” (…) “Ground hit him in the head when he jumped out of a
second story window.” (pg.
223)
There are some nits to pick.
There’s a moderate amount of
cussing in The Deaths of Tao, 16 instances
in the first 20% of the book. That’s not
excessive, but given that I didn’t note any adult situations or other R-rated
stuff, it has to be asked whether the cusswords could've been omitted.
More serious is the abundance
of errata, something other reviewers also pointed out. Spelling miscues such as eying/eyeing might be shrugged off as choices of British-vs-American
English. But grammar boo-boos like “Sure
buddy”/”Sure, buddy”, “several startled crewman”, and “could happened” are just sloppy proofreading.
So are continuity issues such as a guy named Jim showing up (page 432), followed one paragraph later by Roen asking
where Jim is, and being told one paragraph after that that Jim was
blown out to sea by a grenade.
The most egregious typo is
the misspelling of “Genjix” on the
back cover of the book, where it is rendered as “Gengix”. Sheesh. Angry Robot Publishing is already rivaling
Tor Books as the publishing house with the worst set of copy editors.
At the other end of the Picky-to-Egregious
Scale was a chemical cited on page 315 as “Osmium Quintoxide”. We’ll forgive the chemistry issue regarding Osmium’s
possible/impossible valence states. But
calling those five Oxygens “quintoxide”
instead of “pentoxide” is like
fingernails-on-the-chalkboard to a chemist.
Still, cusswords can be
tolerated when they’re used in moderation, typos and grammar can be corrected
by copy editors, and if you aren’t a chemist, you won’t care whether it’s quintoxide
or pentoxide. True, the ending doesn't tie up
any plot threads, but the story has lots of action, significant character development
of all three protagonists, and a rapidly deteriorating outcome for the Prophus that now seems inevitable.
7½ Stars. In summary, The
Deaths of Tao didn’t captivate me the way Book 1, The Lives of Tao did (and reviewed here). But that doesn’t merit the 1-star
and 2-star ratings that some reviewers gave it.
Book 2 in any trilogy is mostly just tasked with linking the first and
third books together in a coherent, if forgettable, manner, and The Deaths of Tao does that successfully here.
For comparison, consider J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. You probably remember the epic endings in both The Fellowship of the Ring (Book 1) and The Return of the King (Book 3). But how much, if anything, do you recall about the ending of Book 2, The Two Towers?
