Review for The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu

The debut novel by Wesley Chu The Lives of Tao is definitely a fun read. I'm a novice at the science fiction genre so I don't have all the references needed to compare this novel to others and for that I apologize but this novel was enjoyable nonetheless. The Lives of Tao begins with the death of a revered agent for the The Prophus cause named Edward. Inside Edward's head is Tao of the Quasing alien race. Unless Tao finds a new vessel soon, he will die as well. This leads Tao to Roen. Roen is an overweight, IT technician, desk jockey who's main ambitions are frozen pizzas and sleep. He is the antithesis of an agent which makes him perfect for Tao.

The Lives of Tao moves at breakneck speed and doesn't slow down at all. When not being entertained by the whitty banter between Roen and Tao, the pages are laced with action scenes. Although some of these scenes last for a blink it seems, they are still necessary and well described. There is no meandering in this novel of which I am thankful! Wesley Chu manages to carefully place information about the wars between the Prophus and the Genjix without losing the interest of the reader.

One other thing done well with this novel is the character development between Tao and Roen. They each compliment each other in a way that make duos so loveable. I challenge Chu to make the secondary characters come to life the way Tao and Roen have in his next novels. The secondary characters seemed like caricatures at moments and I didn't really care if they lived or died.

Finally, The Lives of Tao was an amusing, entertaining sci-fi read that is approachable and worth the time. Chu provides us with another theory on why we have war and who our elected officials may really be. ****