Apocalypse is at hand, and it's up to Roen Tan and his alien companion Tao to save the day. When The Lives of Tao, Wesley Chu's comedic, action-packed debut, ended, Roen had saved and married Jill, the woman of his dreams. But as the sequel opens, Roen and Jill are separated, yet still engaged in the battle to save humanity from the alien Genjix--Roen as a renegade, Jill as a political operative in Washington, D.C.
In The Deaths of Tao, two alien factions are battling for the fate of humankind. The Prophus--the faction to which Tao belongs and which is served by Roen and Jill--aim to propel humanity's technological progress to a level at which it becomes possible to return the aliens to their home planet, from which they have been exiled. Until now, the opposing Genjix have sought to promote progress, too, but they believe warfare facilitates innovation--thus, their goal has been to incite global conflict. Now, however, the Genjix no longer want to return to their planet--they've discovered that global warming would make Earth hospitable to their kind.
Roen's desperate mission sends him to Taiwan, where myriad battles ensue as Prophus armies clash with those of the Genjix. Aided by her own alien companion, Baji, Jill strives to stop the Genjix through political channels. In the foreground of these conflicts is the bittersweet tangle of their relationship.
The Deaths of Tao preserves the caustic banter and suspenseful battle scenes that made its predecessor enjoyable, and leaves the door open for another sequel. --Ilana Teitelbaum, book reviewer at the Huffington Post