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.

Excellent book!! Fast paced and funny with plenty of good characters, and even more bad ones (in a villain way). I enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down. To think all it took to make me want to read it was the cover. Well worth it! Delightful read!

Reminds me of the Zoey Ashe series, an adult child inherits their parent's evil empire and chaos erupts. Irreverent and well done.

Charlie, a divorced ex-journalist, doesn't have a lot going for him. He’s working as a substitute teacher, living in his father’s house with just his cat to keep him company. When his estranged uncle passes away, Charlie is the only heir to his fortune-but that’s not all he will inherit. Turns out his uncle was a supervillain with his own volcanic island and talking dolphins. Determined to carry on his uncle’s legacy as a stand-up villain, Charlie must go up against the less scrupulous villains and save the world (or at least save himself).

Though outside my usual genre, I can’t help but be captivated by Scalzi’s writing. Brimming with humor and wit, you can’t help but root for Charlie as he navigates the world of villainy. As a cat lover I also appreciated the intelligent spy cats, the perfect sidekick to any new villain in training. This is a great light-hearted book to breeze through on vacation or in the precious quiet moments as kids head back to school this fall.

I have never read John Scalzi before, which is surprising because he checks all the reading boxes for me: Science Fiction – check; Witty Prose – check; Talking Cats-check! Okay, I didn’t know I was looking for that last one but after reading Starter Villain I am solidly thinking all world building can have intelligent spy cats!

This book was fun – combining elements of Austin Powers and James Bond in the most atrociously funny ways. The dialogue is engaging and the characters well thought out and likeable. I want this to be a series but as far as this small book goes, it hits all the HEAs and leaves the reader wanting to have another adventure with Charlie and Hera!

This was my first Scalzi novel and I'm impressed! I went into it with no expectations and was a bit surprised by the amount of stupid fun I had while reading. Suspension of disbelief required, but totally worth it for this ride. Great. Will definitely recommend.

I haven't read John Scalzi before, but after "Starter Villain", he will be added to my TBR pile. The story of Charlie, a substitute teacher heavily in debt who discovers he is the heir of a parking lot magnate, "Starter Villain" offers humor, danger, and plenty of twists and turns as he enters the world of villainy, replete with island lair, lava pits, and spy satellites. Luckily, Charlie has his faithful cats, Hera and Persephone, by his side as he navigates this strange new world.