This book was such a fantastic surprise. So after reading Kaiju Preservation Society, I knew Scalzi would be an author to watch for me. I was not let down.

The humor in every page is so witty and brilliant. You will meet 2 spy cats, and a host of other unhinged characters that make this book very hard to put down.

The other side of this I really enjoyed is how it feels like day one at a new school with how the main character deals with boatloads of family information he has never met. His uncle has never been in his life and bequeaths a whole lot os responsibility to his nephew. The mystery is great and so funny.

Honestly read this book. You will not be disappointed.

Starter Villain is by John Scalzi and has sentient cats. What more can you ask for out of a book? I'm not sure I even need to write a review, because why wouldn't you want to read it? But, since we're here, let's take a look.

Our lovable hapless protagonist, Charlie, is underemployed, broke, and alone, except for his cat, Hera. Charlie just wants to buy the local pub, but this dream is out of his reach. Or is it? When his long-estranged wealthy Uncle Jake dies, Charlie is pulled into a global web of supervillains, spies, assassins, and feline overlords. He has to make a lot of decisions and face a lot of moral quandaries in a matter of days. Can he navigate the (sometimes literally) perilous waters and do the right thing without causing global disorder?

Why you should read it: Another strong and silly Scalzi satire. White-collar cats. Global conspiracies. Bad guys getting what they deserve. Good guys getting what they want and need. Blue-collar unionized dolphins. Lots of lovely jabs at capitalism (and other -isms), the 1%, and the current political/economic environment. Strong writing. Great plot. Snappy banter. Characters that you will love, and love to hate. Did I mention the sentient cats?

Why you might not want to read it: There are no reasons not to read this book. None. .

5/5 stars. Highly and enthusiastically recommended!

I received an advance copy from Tor via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Satire is what Scalzi can do the best and I'm here for it. This book with so much tongue in cheek humor pounces (see what I did there) on the trials and tribulations going on in the world today. From corruption to union labor disputes to nepotism to animal rights...it's got it.
We would hope we can see what is going on in out world, but the reality is we all live in our bubbles until something happens to scrape us off the floor and really take a look at what is going on.

The humor though, that is what slays me. John Scalzi can write a good dialogue with a hefty side of laughter that's for sure!

Would I recommend this book? For Sure!!!! (but only if you like cats that can type)

Starter Villain is only my second book by Scalzi, but I think it's my favorite so far. With its cat spies, unionizing dolphins, and dastardly board of billionaire villains (redundant, I know), this read was a great balance of charming wittiness and poignant observations about capitalism and society at large. I really appreciated the approach Scalzi took to what made Charlie's uncle a villain and what set him apart from other ones. He leaned into the fun supervillain tropes - giant lasers, volcanic lairs, super-intelligent animal minions, unfathomable heaps of money, etc - while also making it feel like something that could actually exist in our world if one had the resources and inclination to make it so.

Overall, this was a fun and fast read that made me laugh out loud several times. Highly recommend!

A fast-paced delight from start to finish. Suspend your logical brain and join everyman Charlie during the strangest time of his life when he discovers he's inherited his Uncle's Villain business. A retired reporter and middle-school teacher, Charlie is struggling to pay his bills and living a very ordinary existence with his cat. He has modest dreams of buying a pub and being the community barkeep, an indulgence in nostalgia tied up with memories of good times spent there with his now-passed father.

Then one day his world suddenly becomes dangerous and ridiculous - his estranged Uncle Jake has died and every Villain in the world either wants to kill or extort money out of Charlie as he is told he needs to take over the business. What follows is a fun roller-coaster ride full of spy-thriller villain tropes - intelligent spy cats, giant lasers, talking dolphins and a conclave of the world's worst businessmen (in more than one definition of the word). Charlie narrowly escapes assassination attempts, navigates sneaky politics and generally has no idea what he is doing at any given time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it was silly and untaxing. Much like The Kaiju Preservation Society, Scalzi doesn't make his hero particularly smart, charming or charismatic and the reader's only job is to try to keep up as crazy events unfold. My advice is to sit back, hold on and enjoy.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

Every time a new Scalzi novel appears on the horizon, I know that I will find a fast-paced, humorous tale that enjoys poking fun at some of humanity’s flaws: Starter Villain is no exception, and it proved to be as riotously entertaining as I hoped for.

Charlie Fitzer, a former journalist who lost his job and is now making ends meet by working as a substitute teacher, is besieged by financial problems: his current employ barely pays the bills and the house he’s living in might be taken from him since his half-siblings have every intention of selling it, so he’s unable to use it as collateral for a loan that would allow him to buy a historical pub and give his life a new (and hopefully fruitful) direction. Imagine then his surprise when he learns that his uncle Jake - a successful entrepreneur dealing in parking lots - just died and named him as his representative at the funeral ceremony: Charlie has not seen Uncle Jake since he was five years old, and all he knows about him is that Charlie’s father did not want his son to have any contact with the man.

Charlie’s shocks are far from over, however: at the funeral - where many floral arrangements sport less than complimentary phrases - people seem more interested in confirming that Jake is really dead, and one of them even tries to knife the corpse. On top of all this, Charlie is contacted by his uncle’s administrators and learns he’s been named Jake’s successor - but not to the parking lots “empire”, because his uncle really was a very successful, highly placed criminal with a broad scope of interests. A villain. And Charlie must learn quickly how to step into his shoes…

Do you remember those older Bond movies where bad guys participated in vast, encompassing organizations dedicated to mayhem (think Spectre)? Where the main villain owned a secret retreat, usually on a deserted island, that was his base for the construction of some doomsday machine? And where said villain appeared usually stroking a cat? Well, Starter Villain enjoys all these elements, and more. The novel is a lovingly irreverent homage to those movies and tropes, with satellite-killing laser beams, secret vaults holding unimaginable riches, dastardly plots to influence world politics, and so on, all viewed through the progressively less innocent gaze of Charlie, who starts this adventure like the proverbial fish out of water but little by little shows a huge reservoir of pragmatic good sense and a shrewdness that keep him afloat (and alive!) in the very troubled waters he’s forced to navigate.

Charlie is not alone in this adventure, though: back home he shared his life with two stray cats he had adopted, Hera and Persephone, and the final revelation in the avalanche of discoveries he’s subjected to is that some cats are quite intelligent and able to communicate through a special keyboard - Charlie’s two housecats belong to this peculiar category and were his uncle’s observers from day one. I am aware, through John Scalzi’s social media, of the presence of both dogs and cats in his household, so this latest theme in the novel is indeed a way of showing his affection for his feline friends and a way of introducing a commentary on human foibles from the perspective of another species. The discovery that these highly evolved cats hold executive positions and manage large funds in the organization is only one of the amusing revelations you can expect from Starter Villain.

Cats are not the only sentient creatures you will find here, however: at some point Charlie is introduced to talking dolphins, who immediately present their labor grievances to the new boss, threatening a strike: this is one of the funniest sections of the story, both for the rude, foul-mouthed disposition of the cetaceans and for their chosen names which range from “Who Gives a S**t” to “Eat the Rich”. The dolphins’ names made me somehow think about the ships’ names in Banks’ Culture series: weird and funny at the same time, they were the perfect way of depicting those creatures’ attitude toward the rest of the world.

The hilarious, improbable characters peopling this story are placed in an equally improbable (?) corporate setting in which the villainous organization operates through a subscription system and even holds yearly meetings in a luxurious environment - the trick here is to be able to survive the assassination attempts from the other… ahem… colleagues. Don’t look for layered villains here: they are humorously depicted caricatures whose lack of subtlety is indeed the main attraction: they need only to be totally evil, and that’s what makes them perfect for the tone of the story.

I had great fun with Starter Villain - no surprise there, what was unexpected was the ending of Charlie’s journey and the real reason for his uncle’s choice of successor. Unexpected but ultimately right for the kind of person Charlie is shown to be. Once again, I closed this latest Scalzi book with a big smile on my face, and that’s exactly what makes this author one of my favorite reading choices.

There’s nothing like a good Evil Villain scheme to get Autumn well on its way. As the leaves turn and the wind gets nippy, it seems like the world itself is starting to plot against us. And while I may not be able to impact the earth’s movements around the sun, I can at least take heart in the story of other fiendish schemes - and the path to overcome them.

Enter Starter Villain, by John Scalzi. This wry, metafictional story of an ordinary ex-journalist who receives an exciting and terrifying bequest instantly caught my eye. When Charlie’s absent billionaire uncle dies, he’s asked to stand at the funeral, and everytually ends up in control of the his vast business empire. An empire of… villainy, complete with island lair, sentient cats (and dolphins), and fiendish inter-villain disputes.

If you, like me, love thinking about the pragmatic elements of super-villain schemes, you’ll understand why I had to give this a read. Books in this genre require two elements to succeed: 1) a compelling narrative for why villainy may be worth exploring further instead of just dismissing as “pure evil”; and 2) excellent world-building that explores the organization and its dysfunction. So how does Starter Villain stack up? (Many thanks to Tor and NetGalley for the gift copy!)

So… what is a villain, anyway?

Let’s start with Scalzi’s exploration of villainy, and of evil. Uncle Jake’s company is an interesting perspective on what it takes to make villainy profitable. In a twist on real-world innovation, Uncle Jake funds innovative startups, then repurposes their breakthroughs for more… questionable buyers. Frequently, his customers pay for subscription access to his services just in case they want to use them. And in Cold War fashion, enemy governments pay for access as mutual deterrents, never actually using the powers themselves. Nefarious? Yes. But it also drives innovation and people often don’t end up actually hurt. It’s a pretty pragmatic capitalist approach to villainy.

So you could be forgiven for assuming that Starter Villain is a Big Statement on Modern Business. After all, outside of the fictional technology at stake, many of these operating procedures are standard practice for the biggest companies in the world. Subscriptions that feed on FOMO? Check. Innovation driven and funded by government initiatives? Check. Extreme cognitive dissonance between the enterprise’s on-paper value and the amount of liquid cash? Check, check.

But Scalzi’s got worse villains up his sleeve - an entire council of them, many in inherited seats. This council (which may or may not have inspired Spectre) mets annually to discuss their nefarious plans and ensure they maintain control of the world from the shadows. Unfortunately for Charlie, it seems like they 1) had beef with his uncle, and 2) may be equally cash-flow poor. Uncle Jake might have had… questionable business practices - but at least they created innovation. These characters have simply inherited control of vast resources, without really learning how to take care of them.

So we’re talking relative and pragmatic morality here. Charlie is effectively set up to contrast these other villainous nepo-babies. Where they focus on money and control, he emphasizes his employees’ experiences. Where they trivialize lives, he prioritizes eve his cats. Power and influence, then, are a function of what you do with them.

EvilCorps are just like the rest of them

To that end - what does Charlie actually do with this Evil Organization he’s inherited? And how well does Scalzi explore the pragmatics of being in charge?

It turns out that evil organizations still comprise of people, which means Scalzi gets to write an amazing satire of new hire orientation for a new CEO and villain. You’ve got the day-one tour. You’ve got the overwhelming flow of assignments. There's also the orientation presentation, complete with stock photos. And of course the internal politics, including cetacean labor disputes and surprising cross-cultural naming conventions.

Scalzi gets these broad strokes right, and he also gets the underlying vibe. If you’ve ever joined a new multinational company and looked in awe (and perhaps slight shock) at the complexity of keeping everything running, Charlie’s onboarding will feel very familiar. Weirdly, so does Charlie’s experience in eventually taking over the corporation. I just finished a business school course and many of his choices (listen to the pros, make decisions carefully) come straight out of those leadership playbooks. Somehow, that makes the whole thing ten times funnier - because it really drives home how much this is really just like any other MegaCorp.

Reader's notes & rating (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

I had such a great time reading this, both because I love trope deconstruction and I’m a bit of an org Econ nerd. I would happily recommend it for both a laugh and a think, especially for those of us who like to think through the implications of all those evil empires. Four stars, would happily read again!

Read this if...

You have re-read the Evil Overlord list multiple times since discovering it

You’re in the mood for a humorous and medium-weight look on villainy vs evil…

…but not a Very Deep one - a Goldilocks zone of laughs that make you think

Skip this if...

You don't want to read about a villain protagonist on principle, even one who lucked into it

You prefer your villains Dramatic instead of Pragmatic

You are misled by the cover into thinking that there will be cats wearing suits - they are impressive but don’t seem to wear clothes, generally

I really enjoyed Starter Villain, and then I put it aside for a couple of weeks (*cough*months*cough*) because I had other reviews that need to be written sooner, and when I came back to write this review, I had a warm fuzzy feeling, but nothing of substance to say. That’s not the worst thing I can say about a book – that all I remember is a good feeling. So I reread Starter Villain, and that was not a chore. I enjoyed it again, though I still don’t have a whole lot of substance to say about it.

When Charlie Fitzer hears his estranged uncle Jake, a billionaire parking garage magnate, has died, he doesn’t realize his life is about to get real weird. Charlie is at a low point. His marriage has ended, he was laid off from his journalism job and not able to get another one, he’s substitute teaching, and living in his late father’s house that his older siblings want to sell. He is probably going to get turned down for a loan to buy the neighborhood bar. On the plus side – he has a great cat named Hera and acquires an adorable kitten, which he names Persephone.

“You went the goddess route,” Morrison said, as she closed the door behind her. “What is ‘the goddess route’?” I asked.
“When people name cats, they usually do it in one of three categories: food, physical characteristics or mythology,” Morrison explained. “So, you name your cat Sugar, or Smudge, or Zeus. You went with mythology.”


He learns there is a bequest and a request from his late uncle. Following that, a strange funeral, attempted murder, and an explosion. The bequest is taking over his uncle’s evil empire, headquartered on an island in the Caribbean, complete with nefarious dealings, a host of enemies, and labor disputes with dolphins. He also finds out his uncle made cats a necessary accessory for all the cool evil billionaires.

The truly remarkable thing that Scalzi does here is tell a satisfying story about a villain with a volcano lair versus evil billionaires without ignoring, taking on, or solving the systemic issues that allow evil billionaires to actually exist. As he did with Kaiju Preservation Society, Scalzi is taking a contemporary setting, making it sci-fi enough to be fantastical, and then letting his every-person main character fight the bad guys that his every-person readers wish they could fight. There’s an underlying thrum of anger, but it isn’t quite the soul cleansing fire of rage.

CW: death of parents in past, family estrangement, mutilation of dead body, threats of murder and physical harm, bombings, missile attacks, animal endangerment, animal cloning, on page murder and physical violence, tech bros.

I received this as an advance reader copy from Tor Books and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.

This book was an absolute delight. Not even halfway through I started telling everyone I knew about it. SO clever, perfectly paced, funny, witty, AND enough twists to keep it from being predictable. I do hope this is the start of a series. This may make my top 5 of the year.

I’ve enjoyed quite a few of John Scalzi’s books over the last few years, so it was a definite treat to be asked to review a copy of his latest novel, Starter Villain.

Starter Villain introduces readers to Charlie, a former business writer and current substitute teacher. Charlie lives with his cat, Hera, in the house his dad left him and his half-siblings. He’s been trying to get back on his feet for a few years, and things have not been going well. He wants to buy the neighborhood pub and take over as operator, but his current financial situation doesn’t encourage the bank to loan him the several million dollars he’d need to make that happen. In short, he’s hit a dead end.

Then, his uncle Jake dies.

Uncle Jake had not been present in Charlie’s life for decades, barely a thought in Charlie’s mind since the wedding gift he sent contained a (painfully accurate) prediction of how long the marriage would last. But Jake was rich. Jake was rich, and Charlie is his last living relative. Soon, one of Jake’s business associates arrives to inform Charlie that he has inherited his uncle Jake’s business empire. No, not the parking garage empire, although technically that too. The real business.

Uncle Jake was a supervillain.

Before he really knows what’s happening, Charlie is whisked away to his uncle’s volcano hideout to learn the ins and outs of being a modern villain connected to an organization that inspired the creation of James Bond and SPECTRE. His uncle was deeply involved in a cutthroat world of anti-satellite weapons, superintelligent cats, and unionized dolphins, and now it’s up to Charlie to face down all of Jake’s rivals. It’s going to be a long week.

Starter Villain is a quick, fun read with all of Scalzi’s standard humor (and references to his own cats, the Scamperbeasts). It was highly enjoyable, and I’m very grateful to the folks at Tor Books and NetGalley for giving me an eARC in exchange for a fair review. It’s out in the world on Tuesday, September 19th.

This review originally appeared here: https://swordsoftheancients.com/2023/09/05/starter-villain-a-review/

If you like Kaiju Preservation Society, this is for you.

Scalzi excels at taking fairly ridiculous ideas and then writing about them in such a way that, while you don’t forget that the idea is ridiculous, you do accept that the story around it is not. In this case, the ridiculous involves hyper intelligent cats and villains with volcanic island lairs. There’s also loosely connected criminal organisations with fingers in big tech pies, the need to unionise, the reality of trying to move seriously large sums of money garnered from illegal businesses, several double-crossings and whether the term “villain” can be reclaimed.

It’s fast-paced, it’s wonderfully well-plotted, it’s just the right level of “this is completely outlandish AND YET…”. Charlie is a bit like Jamie from Kaiju, and he’s the sort of character that I wouldn’t usually enjoy at all - early 30s dude, lost his job, failed marriage, struggling, etc. The fact that he didn’t lose his job due to incompetence is helpful, as is the fact that Charlie is entirely self-aware about when he’s clueless and has no trouble relying on the appropriate people when necessary, whether that’s a human woman or a cat.

I really enjoyed reading this.

Starter Villain was such a fun ride! From sentient cats to unionizing dolphins, there were so many pleasant surprises along the way. I loved the chaotic world John Scalzi created, and definitely want to check out his other books after how often I was laughing maniacally at this one.

This is the perfect read for a vacation: it's a shorter length, fast-paced with action, and has an endearing cast. The plot is ridiculous, but that's part of what makes it good. There are lots of twists and turns, and none of them feel too contrite. The reason this book isn't a perfect 5-star is because there were too many moments where I felt that Charlie was too much of a passive voice in his own story. I can see that being part of his characterization and the ending, but there were moments where I wish someone would simply tell the man an actual full story!!!!

Anyway, this is a great read for anyone who loves a literary fiction superhero book, cats, and unions. Oh, and to laugh.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the arc :)

Devoured this in a day... really fun read, human characters were delightful in their imperfections, the non-human characters were just plain delightful, and the playfully vicious presentation of unethical business practice and disaster capitalism was perfect.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Pub Date: September 19, 2023

4+ stars
If sentient typing cats and sentient swearing dolphins sound up your alley I highly recommend this book! It was short, funny, and didn't take itself too seriously. Enough detail that you aren't lost but it moved quickly. It was a lot of fun.

Starter Villain was very fun to read. I enjoyed it immensely and would love to see some short stories about the dolphins, cats and whales.

Initial thought on seeing this book: I have to read simply because business cat. Now I have only read one other book by this author but between that one and this cover, I was sure that this would be a good idea.

In this book, we follow Charlie Fitzer. He is an unfortunate 30ish year old man who lives back in his childhood home. Charlie did have a career but it seems like after layoffs his life has never gotten back on track. Now he is a substitute teacher instead of a business reporter and his current life goal is to buy a pub. The description saying that made it sound just like a trivial new life goal but actually there is a sweet reasoning behind it. Charlie doesn't go through character growth too much in this book. But he does show how he is a good person overall. He trusts those who are more experienced than him and knows how to act under pressure surprisingly well. Hera is one of our important secondary characters but it would be spoilers to put that here.

The story revolves around what happened after the death of Charlie's Uncle Jake. Jake was a billionaire who had no other family. After his death, Charlie receives a visit from Morrison, who works with his uncle. She explains that Charlie has inherited something if he will only stand for his uncle at the funeral, which turns out to be a crazier task than he thought. Afterward, Charlie finds himself a new billionaire if he would accept the job of taking over the disruption business. The rest of the book is a funny ride of Charlie trying to stay alive in a world inhabited by evil corporate villains.

The "villain" aspect of the book was taken in an interesting way. To me, at least Uncle Jake sounded almost like a corporate Robin Hood. Almost because he wasn't really giving back to people as much as taking from other billionaires who would be bad. Still, he used his companies to do good work along with making money. There were morally questionable practices sure but that is with most companies on a global scale. It just seemed like there was a lot of good that could come out of his projects as well as weapons.

I really liked the way the book ended. It was super sweet and felt true to who Charlie was. Overall the book was good but it just didn't hit me with the wow of the last book. This was worth the read for the cats. Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me the ARC copy to review.

John Scalzi became an auto-buy for me. I've had so much fun with the Kaiju Preservation Society, the fun was double with this Starter Villain.
When it comes to Scalzi's books you'll know what you're going into (you'll like it or you'll hate the humor). It's fun, witty, irreverent, has clever dialogue, plot twists, and characters that we're not expecting, lots of action scenes, assassinations, betrayal, and plenty of badass-grumpy characters. I loved the main character's moral compass and his actions as he is thrown into the middle of a world of villains. I love Hera's intelligence, Seventy-three's bad mood, and Til's personality. It's as always good fun, playing with the James Bond/The Godfather kinda of villains' cliches and all tropes associated with the theme. Good old fun, perfect to relax, laugh, enjoy a thrilling page-turning adventure, and escape the seriousness of the world.
I'm ready for the next project of this author.
Thank you, publisher and NetGalley for this eARC.

Starter Villain is just as the title describes; an introduction to a Starter Villain! Charlie is a 32 year old man who’s really going through a rough patch in his life. He’s recently divorced, his father passed away, he lost his job and his estranged siblings just want him to sell his father’s house so they can get the payout. Talk about rough! When Charlie’s Uncle Jake passes away, Charlie’s life is blown up (literally) as he’s thrown into the life of villainy that his uncle left behind for him. As his heir, Charlie is now responsible for his uncle’s wealthy estate and all the insanity that comes with it.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s like a grown up version of a spin off of despicable me. Scalzi is so creative with his characters and the witty banter along with the comical dialogue had me laughing out loud multiple times. I would say this book gives off a huge amount of “Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy” vibes. This book could easily be converted into a movie and I would love it! This is my first book I’ve read by Scalzi and if his other works are anything like this then I’ll definitely be picking those up as well! Overall, this renders a 4.5 out of 5 stars for me. I highly suggest picking it up if you want something fun and a breeze to get through!

You know how your estranged uncle dies and you thought he was a billionaire because he owned parking garages but it turns out he was a billionaire because he was a certified villain? Yeah, same. Happens every day. Charlie is in a rut when this happens to him. His house explodes, his uncle’s assistant appears, his cat and the new kitten that he’s adopted are super intelligent operatives, and Charlie has to infiltrate the big gathering of villains.

This is just zany weird fun, with hijinx and cats and labor organizing. I just really vibe with John Scalzi’s sense of humor. And his love of cats. (I’m currently feeding 28 as the neighborhood strays brought us all their babies…) It is one that I’m going to come back to and read on a rainy day when I’m feeling down and need a lift.

Look it's just fun okay, doesn't take itself too seriously and is sometimes a little too relatable. It gives the people what they want, which is, specifically, cats and cartoonish supervillains.