The Rebirths of Tao marks the end of Wesley Chu’s Tao series. We have talked to him about the new release and the Tao series.
For those not familiar with your Tao Series, can you tell us a bit about it?
On the surface, the Tao series follows a regular schlub named Roen Tan, an out-of-shape IT geek who is inhabited by an alien named Tao and drafted into a civil war fighting over control of humanity’s evolution. The aliens, known as Quasing, crashed landed on Earth millions of years ago and have survived by moving from creature to creature. Quasings can talk to but are unable to control their hosts, and they can’t leave until their host dies. It forces the Quasing and the human to work together in one body.
The series follows Roen’s journey as he loses weight, learns how to throw a stiff jab, falls in love, tries to keep his marriage together, and raise a kid, all while trying to save humanity from enslavement. You know, all the normal stuff people deal with every day.
The final book in the Tao Series, The Rebirths of Tao, was released April 7th. What can your fans expect?
It’s the final book in a trilogy so I’m trying my best not to give away spoilers. However, I will say that most of our favorite characters are back, at least the ones that survived the first two books. There is a generational passing of the torch and some progress in the war between the Prophus and the Genjix but maybe not as much as the reader might suspect. After all, let’s be honest, six hundred year old wars don’t just come to an end because Roen Tan and Tao say so.
It’s going to take a family effort, and even then it’ll require a little more than that.
Can you give us some insight into your main character Roen? How has he evolved throughout the series?
Again, treading lightly to be spoiler free. Throughout the trilogy, Roen has evolved quite a bit. He weighs a lot less than he used to and is now a svelte lean, mean fighting machine. He’s found love, has a kid, and is a little less insecure than when the series started. He still loves pizza though. He also might be dead.
Looking back, what about the Tao Series are you most proud of? And if you had the chance, is there anything you’d want to go back and change?
In many ways, I feel like my career has mirrored Roen’s transformation from the person he was to the person he strived to become. When I first started working on the novel, I lived an equally meandering life working a corporate soul-sucking job and was trying to figure out who the hell I am and what I’m supposed to do with myself. In writing The Lives of Tao, I kind of found myself alongside Roen.
In a short two years since The Lives of Tao’s debut, I became a full time author with a couple of books under my belt and now have several more under contract. Now I’m also a pretty happy dude. Let me put it this way. My wife recently went on a business trip and was gone for three weeks. I had the run of the house to myself. I could have done anything I wanted: go hang with the guys, go golfing, or turn my bathtub into a margarita swimming pool…etc. Whatever. Instead, my boring ass didn’t change thing. I wrote at my desk and walked my dog. As you do.
Have you ever struggled between what you would like to happen to a character and what you considered more sensible to occur? Can you tell us when and what did you do at last?
All the frigging time. Look, every time I step in front of a mirror, I see Tyler Durden. I’m a lot cleverer in my head than I actually am. There’s dozens of times when I have this scene or dialog that I’m just dying to put in a book so I try to force it in. Sometimes it works, but more often than not, it looks and feels out of place. But because I want to use that scene so badly, I keep it in. It isn’t until later after I’ve taken a step back from the book that I look it over and make a stink face when I go over that scene. In the business, it’s called ‘killing your darlings.’
The last time I tried to insert a scene was about a week ago. I have this great action scene and dialog that I’ve been dying to use for probably a year now. However, the scene requires six combatants, a range rover (or similar size luxury vehicle with leather interior), several containers of chloroform, and a rabbit stampede.
Unfortunately, my current work in progress is a futuristic procedural romantic comedy (it’s probably not but I like the way that phrase sounds—in my head that is) so, needless to say, that scene did not fit. Darling killed.
What sort of challenges, as a writer, might you have faced before your first book was published? Any insights you would be able to share for those aspiring writers seeking advice?
I took a three year hiatus from writing from 2007-2010 to be an officer in a raiding guild in World of Warcraft. I was one of the richest guys on my server (Holla atcha, Anub’arak). I spent a lot of time in that game. You know, that stuff you can’t take with you once you log out.
Look guys, eyes on the frigging prize. Don’t let dumb distractions get in the way of your dreams. If you can’t find the time to write, you’re probably not a writer. Writers write. That’s what we do. If you are intent on making a career of storytelling and putting down words for others to read, set aside time to write and guard those precious minutes like fucking Smaug sitting on top of his piles of gold.
What is the hardest thing about writing?
The assassination attempts and my father constantly setting me up with job interviews at banks and other fine financial institutions.
Ok, seriously. The hardest thing for me is staying focused. Sometimes, after putting down hundreds of thousands of words, writing can become a drag. When it’s your job though, you have to get the words down. You are contractually obligated to be creative. The world is one big distraction (looking at you Twitter) and it’s easy to get sidetracked. Get your ass in the seat and write.
I guess it’s not an understatement to say that your Tao Series have been quite a success. You’ve been shortlisted for the John W. Campbell Best New Writer Award among other things. Did you ever expect something like this?
The honest answer is I knew I’d sell at least 150 copies. I had sold about a hundred copies of The Lives of Tao at my release party, and my family bought 50 copies (Thanks Mom, Dad, Stephen!)
Other than that, man, it’s all a crapshoot. So many good books don’t get the recognition they deserve and so many bad books make the bestsellers list. It’s crazy I tell ya! At the end of the day, the only thing an author can control is the content he creates. Once he lets it out of the wild, all he can do is make sure he gives it as much support as he can before working on the next book. Agonizing over sales numbers and reviews is useless and dumb.
By the way, I agonize over all my sales numbers and reviews.
You also have another book being released later this year called Time Salvager. It’s featuring an energy stealing time traveler with addiction issues. Can you tell us a bit about what we can expect?
Time Salvager (Tor Books) is scheduled to drop July 7th. The book follows a time traveler named James Griffin-Mars. His job is to scavenge for technologies and resources from a more prosperous past. Time traveling is strictly regulated in the present. Salvagers can only scavenge from dead end timelines—events preceding an immediate disaster, explosion, or accident—where the resources salvaged will not affect the present. The problem with this job is that the salvager experiences the last tragic moments of the victims before the disaster happens. That tends to mess with a guy’s head.
For your own reading, do you prefer ebooks or traditional paper/hard back books?
I have a confession and it’s kind of weird: I like to smell books. Like, physically, take a brand spanking new book, stick my nose into the pages, and give it a sniff. It’s super dorky and I promise I only do that with books I own.
What kind of books do you read, any favourite authors?
I used to be one of those guys who followed favorite authors. When Anthony (yes, Piers), Pratchett, Jordan, Scalzi, Sanderson, etc… came out with a new book, that’s what I bought and read. These days, I get a lot of free books. It’s one of the few perks an author gets. Now, I have a lot less time so my reading habits have become a free-for-all. It’s like Thunderdome–Two books enter, one book out! The loser gets tossed into the Gulag. (Ok, not true. I love all books and would never Gulag them.)
What do you do when you’re not writing, any hobbies?
I’m kind of a person of extremes. For a long time, writing was my hobby before it became a career so now I guess I just work too much. When I’m not sitting on my ass for sixteen hours a day, I like to travel and work on my bucket list.
In February, I went to Tanzania and summited Kilimanjaro. I want to do Everest Base camp in the next two years and maybe learn to play curling. I’ve always wanted to make the Olympics but at this age and with my now awful reflexes, I’m rapidly running out of sports to get good at. Basically, my options are archery or curling, and archery is right out. I can’t hit the side of a frigging barn at ten meters with a bow and arrow if my life depended on it.
What’s next, what are you working on now?
I’m currently on a two book a year schedule between Tor and Angry Robot Books. I just handed in Time Salvager 2 (title TBD) in March. I’m working on two novel ideas this summer, and then I’m book touring in July (come hang out with me y’all!) and then starting August, I need to switch gears and begin writing The Rise of Io, a new trilogy based in the Tao universe.
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Interview by Dag Rambraut – SFFWorld.com © 2015
