Cover Art: The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu (Angry Robot)

Time of late has been extremely limited, between work, reading, and reviewing, so the blog has been a bit neglected with regards to new content. This is why I’m doing a cover reveal post for one of my most anticipated reads of the year. Read on and find out why!

“One of the best Angry Robot covers yet, this one is truly fantastic and has increased my excitement for the book.”

When Angry Robot announced last year that they had signed on Wesley Chu and his debut novel (soon to be a series) The Lives of Tao, I was intrigued to say the least. The impact was from the title of the novel, which hinted at the novel content. I’ve been looking forward to the cover ever since. In January of this year, I listed the book on my “51 Most Anticipated Releases For 2013” post. My main reason at the time was that Wesley’s main character was an IT technician named Roen, who is the unwitting host to an alien life-form. As I said in the post, what’s not to love?

A few days ago Angry Robot did the official cover and I have to say that I’m definitely in love with the cover. Angry Robot has put out some amazing covers since early last year, and The Lives of Tao is no exception. Much as with Aliette de Bodard’s Obsidian & Blood, Adam Christopher’s Seven Wonders and Paul S. Kemp’s Egil & Nix #1: The Hammer and The Blade, the cover for Wesley’s book is extremely apt and properly represents the novel blurb.

Here it is:

When out-of-shape IT technician Roen woke up and started hearing voices in his head, he naturally assumed he was losing it.

He wasn’t.

He now has a passenger in his brain – an ancient alien life-form called Tao, whose race crash-landed on Earth before the first fish crawled out of the oceans. Now split into two opposing factions – the peace-loving, but under-represented Prophus, and the savage, powerful Genjix – the aliens have been in a state of civil war for centuries. Both sides are searching for a way off-planet, and the Genjix will sacrifice the entire human race, if that’s what it takes.

Meanwhile, Roen is having to train to be the ultimate secret agent. Like that’s going to end up well…

Book Info:

The First Book in the Lives of Tao Series

UK Print
Date: 2nd May 2013
ISBN: 9780857663283
Format: B-format Paperback. 384pp
R.R.P.: £8.99

US/CAN Print
Date: 30th April 2013
ISBN: 9780857663290
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 464pp
R.R.P.: US$7.99 CAN$8.99

Ebook
Date: 30th April 2013
ISBN: 9780857663306
Format: Epub & Mobi
R.R.P.: £5.49 / US$6.99

Much excitement! What do you think?

If you haven’t already done so, please add the novel to your Goodreads shelf: The Lives of Tao.

You can find the official product page for the novel here.