I wanted to like this book, but it just kept letting me down. There's something really fun about the premise, and it had the potential to be hilarious. But so-so writing, cardboard romance, and an unconvincing training montage left me with eyes perpetually rolling. 
 The good news is this: 
 -The author obviously cared about this story. 
 -The idea has potential. 
 -The writing is 'meh', and has some pacing issues, but it isn't bad so much as unpolished. (couple more rounds with the editor might have made a world of difference) 
 The bad news is this: 
 -The idea needed better execution 
 -The writing really needed another round with the editor. 
 -I have some major personal gripes with the plot. 
 Conceptually, there's a few things that really rubbed me the wrong way. Pretty much any major historical figure you can think of? Revealed to be a Quasing. And it's outright said that their major innovations are at the behest of their alien 'partners.' Tao scoffs at the idea that (view spoiler)[Galileo (hide spoiler)] could have come up with anything without being host to a Quasing. "Cheating," he calls it. 
 For me, that's a bit much. Yes, the Quasing are really old and basically immortal, but it would have been nice for humans to have been more than just meat suits. For all that Tao expresses a love for his hosts, it comes across more like master/pet than equal partnership. 
 And don't get me started on the women. There are two so-called "major" female characters in the narrative, both of which serve as Roen's love interests. One is unattainable, host to a Quasing named Baji, the other is a civilian. (There are pages dedicated to "I'm dating B, but I still love A, and oh what might have been if I wasn't so awkward around women...") Neither of them are well developed beyond their cardboard roles as potential love interests, which is especially frustrating because the end of the book hinges on Roen's feelings about them both. (view spoiler)[The triangular conflict is resolved when Baji's host is killed and Baji inhabits Love Interest #2 instead. ...Way to go, author. Way to go. -.-; (hide spoiler)] 
 Both of those might have been salvageable in the right hands, but Chu doesn't quite pull it off. 
 I can see why this book got high marks from some corners--to be perfectly honest, if I'd read it 10 years ago my opinion probably would have been different. Then again, there's a lot of books I've been hesitant to reread for precisely that reason.