Starter Villain

"This novel is pure entertainment, very skilfully executed. Charlie Fitzer inherits his deceased uncle’s business, which is – although the optics of the word is not always ideal – villainy. The FBI are almost immediately after him, so he relocates to the volcano island lair (which exists for purely practical reasons). He is soon swept up in managing a labour dispute with the dolphins, but the real problem lies beyond his island’s borders: the other villains. His uncle was not popular, and now, neither is Charlie. Oh, and his pet cat turns out to be part of an intelligent cat spy network. While laying this groundwork, Scalzi pokes plenty of fun at the tropes of villainy, wryly exploring the practicalities of really making it work as a business. Then the thriller gets underway, as negotiations between the villains begin, and we are caught up in the urgent need to understand who is double-crossing who. Lives are at stake. And everyone has zippy one-liners. This is very tight writing. The denouement makes satisfying use of apparently-trivial earlier details, and keeps you guessing until the very last reveal. Yes! With The Kaiju Preservation Society . A very similar vibe – if you enjoyed one, you’ll like the other. I think Starter Villain is my favourite of the two."

"The cover of John Scalzi’s Starter Villain features a cat wearing a suit – blue tie, white shirt, dark jacket – and yes, believe it or not, there’s a good reason. Charlie isn’t particularly close to his uncle Jake, so he hears about Jake’s death on TV. He later learns that Jake has left him a business – a supervillain business. Jake was part of a sort of supervillain secret society, and he had enemies. Now, those enemies are Jake’s problem. Trying to explain where the cats fit in, or the dolphins’ work stoppage, or the volcano? It’s all too much. But Scalzi’s command of the balance between a genuinely compelling story and infectiously whimsical imagery means that it doesn’t really matter if it doesn’t make logical sense. It’s just a delight."