Rating: Three out of five stars

World-Famous Three-Word Review: Ancient alien war.

The primary strength of this book was its concept: all of the great, noteworthy people in history have been secretly guided and trained by an ancient race of aliens that live in their head.

The weakness of this book was its execution: unpolished writing, scant character development and too many plot holes.

With that said, I still enjoyed reading The Lives of Tao.

It was clever, interesting and action-packed. But at times, the prose was also clunky, awkward and overly informal. The storyline kept me reading, but the word choice limited my enjoyment.

Perhaps the most limiting factor of all was the book’s main character: Roen Tan.

In the story, Roen is a lowly number-cruncher who is thrust into greatness when a reknown alien being forces its way into his brain after its previous host was killed by his sworn enemy.

For the next several hundred pages, Roan fails to convincingly develop as a character. He spontaneously transforms from an overweight slob into a soldier overnight, but he never gains any likeable personality.

I liked the interwoven narrative of the history of the Quasing, the secret alien race.

I liked how the Quasing were characterized by their former, famous hosts. For instance, the eponymous Tao had previously resided in the mind of Genghis Khan —  his greatest triumph and failure.

I even liked how major historical events such as the Spanish Inquisition and Bubonic Plague were tied back as power plays in the ever-lasting war between the two factions of Quasing.

But I did not like Roen Tan. And having a flat, unappealing main character is a severe limitation.

I’m haven’t yet decided whether or not I will read the sequel: The Deaths of Tao.