The Lives of Tao

When out-of-shape IT technician Roen wakes up and starts hearing voices in his head, he naturally assumes he&;s losing it.

He isn&;t.

As of last night, he 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. Over the millennia his people have trained human heroes to be great leaders, to advance our species at a rate far beyond what it would have achieved on its own. 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.

So now Roen must train to be a hero worthy of his unwanted companion. Like that&;s going to end up well.&;

&;Wesley Chu is my hero.&; He has to be the coolest science fiction writer in the world.&; &;Lavie Tidhar, World Fantasy Award-winning author of Osama