Tau 4 [Paperback]

First let me explain my personal "star rating" system. I am very stingy with the stars. I have awarded 5 stars to perhaps no more than 5 books in all my vast reading experience. A 4 star award from me means an excellent read that is just missing something or which fails in some specific area. A 3 star award means "good read worth the purchase price."

Plot/Storyline: A man succeeds through guile and deception in infiltrating Altair Base, a high security experimental research facility to "rescue" its most important test subject, TAU 4. Tau is a morphing hybrid created by the perhaps villainous Dyle Carzon. From there, the reader never is really certain who is evil and who is good - until close to the end. Neither is Tau. The story takes place somewhere in some galaxy and Earth is mentioned only one or two times in such a way that it is clear that it is of little if any significance. "Humanity" is represented by a people native to yet another planet similarly to the way that Native Americans are often portrayed.

In reality, TAU 4 is a romance. The science basis is stated but not clarified. The moral questions about creating hybrids for violent use is a common one. Therein lies the battle between good and evil in Tau 4 but, frankly, that battle seems fought more because of personal relationships with Tau than from any forceful considerations of ethics.

Until the last page, I sincerely did not know how this would or even could end happily. It doesn't end at all. The very last typing of the very last page contain the dreaded and wholly unexpected words: "End of Part One". My initial reaction? "WTF!!" My secondary reaction was, "Oh good. The next installment should tell me who Tau grows to be and how the "relationship" will develop.

Character Development: Tau definitely grows and develops. The "man" (his name changes through the story) does as well. The reader is left to contemplate whether Carzon is evil, just obssessed and misguided, or if he changes as things progress. The truly "evil" Carzon sidekick is more predictable as is his ending.

Writing Style: Truly lyrical voicing. The reader is given the sensation that the story is being told next a campfire by a master. The language reminded me of ancient classics. If the reader is not prepared for this style, he might less drawn in until the story grabs him - as it will. Prepared, however, the reader would relish this phrasing and presentation.

Editing/Formatting: Less technical editing/formatting concerns rather than the feeling that there are voids in the story. Waks tends to gloss over conversations by telling us the results of those conversations rather than letting the characters reveal themselves through their choices of words. POV is most often omniscient with some switching to direct third person. This bolsters the campfire storytelling sensation but leave a reader hungry for more intimate contact with the characters.

Overall: Good read. Interesting writing style. Incomplete story - not just because of the cliff-hanger ending. I want to know more about "how" the morph was created. Cloning perhaps? This is never - ever - discussed. It was just a "done deal" and the story was more about how to deal with the "new" result rather than any word about how that result was achieved, from a scientific standpoint, to begin with. In addition, there were characters that seemed very important who just disappeared. The one that I wanted more to know especially was Temwold - one of only three females in the entire book - who just never resurfaced once Tau left Altair. Suggestions were made that Temwold was part of the plan to "rescue" Tau but that was never substantiated or explained. I want to know where Temwold ended up and what her true role in the whole Tau experiment really was. This was one of the voids I mentioned previously.

However, the result of what surely must be seen as a incompletely developed story is that I want to know more. If by design, that approach worked for me. I hope the next installment is available soon.

Rating ala movie style: There is considerable violence in the book but because of the lyrical style, that violence is muted somehow. At one point, the "storyteller" even directly says that it isn't necessary to describe the torture that one character experiences just that the result is that that character ended up telling his torturer everything he knew. Can't really express how I feel about that. The reader is expected to recoil in horror but, frankly, the writing just wasn't gruesome or something so I never felt the recoil or even much interest in this part. Sad because it is that aspect of her character that troubles Tau the most. As I said - voids. There is no sex and the very little nudity included was non-sexual and non-titillating so this is a fairly safe read for any age. No profanity at all - that just wouldn't have worked in the lyrical storytelling format

I received a copy of Tau4 from the author at GenCon, it was one of many books I had purchased at the Con. It was a very great and wild ride. I was sure on several occasions that I knew what was going to happen and it DIDN'T. I was taken aback by the twists and turns of the story. The writing was great I felt like I could almost see what was going on. I came to care for some of the characters and feel saddness when some things happened to them. I read mostly epic type of fantasy, but this was a great epic sci-fi book. Can't wait for the next book, to see what happens.

It seems profoundly ironic to me that this week is the International Comic-Con 2009 convention here in sleepy, conservative San Diego. America's finest city is currently being overrun with out-worldly invaders.... I picked up this book - just as the conference began - in order to transport myself mercifully into strange and mysterious worlds beyond planet earth. And yet it is astonishing to me that ANYTHING in a book could possibly compete with the colorful yet disturbing freak show that has been amassing outside my window. I am distracted by the mass intergalactic personality disorder unfolding before me, as it pours into the San Diego Convention Center. Sadly for non-aliens like me, there is no escaping the escapism!!!

Anyway... [At the author's request, I have removed the majority my original review. She suggested that it revealed too much. If you still want to read my original review, you can find it in the "comments" section.]

...

As for the science fiction story... Well, it was cool beans. I would say that there are plenty of standard features here (e.g., space ships, stun guns, force fields, space creatures, evil empire, alien super-senses, etc.) and plenty of standard themes (e.g., monster-creating laboratories, Star-Wars-like bar scene, tribal conflict, etc.). The story certainly kept my interest and flowed nicely.

I might further suggest that readers push through the first few pages... After that, things take off! I might add that I loved the author's extensive vocabulary. Have a dictionary nearby!

Two human thumbs up!