Shadowhawk and The Founding Fields present the second book giveaway of the year, courtesy once again of the great folk at Angry Robot Books.

“If you are looking for a book that is part international espionage thriller, part alien invasion, and full on rocking fun, then this is the one you should be reading.” ~Shadowhawk

For this second giveaway of the year, Angry Robot have been kind enough to provide two print copies of their latest debut publication, The Lives of Tao from newcomer Wesley Chu. I read the novel a couple weeks ago, and I was extremely taken with it. Much as with Nathan Long’s Jane Carver duology from Nightshade Books, or Matt Forbeck’s self-published Shotguns & Sorcery trilogy, Wesley’s debut is a fun novel from start to finish and it does a great job of entertaining the reader. Pure and simple light-hearted fun that avoids unnecessary complexities for the sake of complexities.

As I mention in my review of The Lives of Tao, this is a book that crosses several genre boundaries, and is all the more fun because of that. Its also a movie that I can see rather easily being converted into a movie. In fact, I think it would be perfect for the medium. I’ve got my fingers crossed for that!

Much as with most of Angry Robot’s publications, The Lives of Tao is a very different novel from what you are bound to find in the mainstream, and in fact this is very much the publisher’s strength. One only need to look at Aliette de Bodard’s Aztec noir-fantasy Obsidian Blood and Adam Christopher’s Empire State for corroboration of that fact. If you are looking to explore Angry Robot’s titles, then The Lives of Tao is a great place to start, and I’d certainly recommend it.

Without further ado, here are the details of this giveaway.

• Simply answer the following question in the comments section: “If you could be any fictional international spy, who would you want to be and why?”
• The giveaway runs from today, 30th April, and all the way through to the 15th May. So that’s a full 2 week window in which you can participate.
• There are two copies of the book up for grabs, kindly provided by the publisher, Angry Robot.
• Entries are open to everyone living in US, Canada, UK and EU.
• At the end of the window, I’ll pick two entrants at random and they will receive an email that they’ve won. They will have up to 7 days to respond, sooner the better so I can make sure that the winners get their copy of the book. If there is no response in that one-week period, I will pick another winner(s) as needed.

That has to be one of the best covers out there. It captures the essence of the novel, and the core of one of the protagonists really, really well.

EDIT:

Winners Announced!

@VeronicaRundell and Mia are the lucky ones. Congratulations to both! I’ve sent out the necessary communication, so make sure to check your emails and your twitter, whichever applies. You have seven days from today to respond.