The ending of the Lives of Tao series is fun and enjoyable. It finishes the storyline well. The series is a great ride, written with great moments of tension and humor. The whole series has a similar feel, so if you enjoyed the previous books, then you will enjoy this book as well. ( )

Believe it or not, reading this was like reading a healthy but calorie-laden meal served up for the whole family, full of hormonal spices, just a hint of spiritual grace, and finally washed down with a whole bucket of scotch.

That is: This book was mightily satisfying and easily the best of the trilogy.

A lot of time has passed, and Roen's son is a feisty teenager wanting to jump in the war, which is fine for a setup, but how Chu weaves him through the tale and sets him up to save his papa is more than satisfying. It's mythological. The wrap-up of the trilogy was extremely satisfying, if not quite as epic as the second. The underwater base battle was sweet, but it's the reappearance of truly memorable big bads that brings meat to the series.
Even the epilogue puts a bow on the tale with two broken arms and a beautiful sense that all roads lead to Roen.

Could the future be more bright? We've got our three-times-three act play in full swing here, and I couldn't be more pleased by how it turned out.

I'm a solid fan. If the rest hadn't sold me before, then the moment when Roen started using his head to solve the big problems did it for me. My middle-aged boy has grown up. :)

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Received a free copy from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Since the previous book a lot has changed in the world, Cameron is now a teenager, the world has split into pro-Prophus and pro-Genjix factions and with the revelation that aliens were inhabiting people, steps have been take to eradicate them by the Interpol Extraterrestrial Task Force. But a new threat has appeared, the Genjix are developing a technology to change the world. World War. A Genjix scientist who defects to the other side holds the key to preventing bloodshed on an almost unimaginable scale.

Roen survived the lost of his Quasing, Tao, but has lost some of his authority now he is no longer a host. He still has a key role to play in the battle. With Tao’s influence Cameron is a mature teen, but still suffers from not seeing the bigger picture at times. As the family are split after a Prophus attack, and Cameron starts to have a crush on the daughter of the scientist, the stakes suddenly raised much higher than before. Roen plays his trump card, and the final scene is set.

Having thoroughly enjoyed the first two in the series, I was really looking forward to this one, and mostly it didn’t disappoint. The characters are confident, the plot flips and twists nicely, and the whole concept has been well thought through and written. But this one didn’t have the same edge as the first two. Perhaps because it is the final one, and certain things need to be wrapped up, it didn’t have the cliff hanger ending or the pace of the others. That said it was still worth reading, and I do have a inkling that this will be continued; well at least I hope so.
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A decent finale to an entertaining series. Still some open plot lines so guessing that we will see more in this universe...

4 Stars for a fun read. ( )

There has been a major shift in the battle between the two alien factions: the Prophus and the Genjix. They’re still in opposition - but humanity now knows they exist and is hunting them ferociously.

It has managed to save the Prophus from complete defeat, but the Genjix are still pushing towards their plan to radically change Earth - even while rent with internal conflict and the human opposition. Prophus must fight them - while keeping under the radar of the human authorities.

This book is excellent because it brings so many different storylines and balances them all perfectly

We have the conflict of the Tan family discussing Cameron’s upbringing and questioning what they did for their child, what his future looks like and how alien he may be because of that.

We have Cameron and Alex with the teen love affair and poor Tao lamenting the horror of human puberty (and frequent threats to jump off a cliff in his sleep). I loved how it ended, the reality of it and how it didn’t become sickeningly twee or consume the book.

We have Cameron - and I really love Cameron. He is incredibly skilled, extremely dangerous and even as a 15 year old far more dangerous than nearly anyone around him. He’s been backed from a very young age with vigorous training and the brilliant insight of a million year old alien full of knowledge and wisdom. It would have been so easy to turn this character into a juggernaut of Gary Stu dangerousness. It would have also been easy to turn him into a character who mopes around “woe is me why can I be normal”.

Instead while aspects of this are all present and inform his character, none to an extreme. He’s a really balanced character who combines all of these elements while still being very human and really bouncing well off Tao.

Then there’s Roen with his former relationship with Tao and the wonderful complexity this brings with both Prophus - since he’s the maverick former commander who doesn’t quite fit into their hierarchy even with Tao. And now he has a son who is possessed by his mentor which brings another whole level of complexity

And through that is Jill, effortlessly, perfectly competent in so many ways. There is an edge of the woman/mother/wife as keeper: she becomes super competent and a leader because of the manchild she married needs her to play parent. Jill’s an awesome character but the idea that a wife ends up having to be the caretaker of her husband is a problematic trope.

I have to say i spent a large part of the book vaguely irritated at Roen and co for their hatred of the IETF without ever actually thinking about how… right they are. Honestly, aliens have invaded Earth, they’ve been here since the dawn of human civilisation and they’ve spent pretty much all of that making humanity kill each other. Over and over again for centuries. Humanity, the IETF, have every damn good reason to loathe the Quasing

And it’s not like Prophus are necessarily good - they decided humans not fighting may develop the technology they needed to get home: it’s how useful humanity can be. It makes me really glad to see Tao’s harsh summation of his species - as well as adding to this excellent world building; what the Quasing do, how they act on their homeworld and other planets and a really insightful look into what the Quasing actually are and how the Quasing on Earth are so very different from what they were at home on Quasar.

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