Inheriting your uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who’s running the place.
Charlie’s life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.
Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.
But becoming a supervillain isn’t all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they’re coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.
It’s up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.
In a dog-eat-dog world… be a cat.
This book was hilarious and a lot of fun from start to finish. It’s light, clever, and full of the kind of humour Scalzi does so well. Intelligent cats, dolphins with strong political opinions, and a bumbling main character who may actually be more capable than he realises, made this an absolute delight to read.
Charlie is easy to like. He’s down on his luck, frustrated with life, and suddenly thrown into a world that makes absolutely no sense, yet he keeps trying anyway. Watching him slowly figure things out felt both very real and very funny. I genuinely enjoyed spending time with him, especially as the story constantly keeps him slightly off balance.
The plot itself is pure chaos, in the best possible way. It’s a tangled mess of double-crossing the already double-crossed double-crosser, where everyone has an agenda and nobody tells the truth. The plans are wild, over the top, and completely absurd, and the book works because Scalzi fully commits to the nonsense. Charlie’s calm, matter of fact reactions to all of this only make it funnier.
One of the biggest highlights for me was the audiobook. Wil Wheaton’s narration is an excellent match for the character and the tone of the story. He brings a lot of personality to every line, and many jokes landed even better in audio.
I also appreciated that the book doesn’t waste time on describing how attractive everyone is or pushing romance to the foreground. The relationships stay professional and respectful, allowing the focus to remain on the banter, the story, and the escalating chaos.
Starter Villain is a clever and entertaining science fiction comedy packed with humour, ridiculous plans, talking animals, and a surprising amount of heart, all without ever becoming heavy or preachy. I laughed a lot, loved the chaos, and found the whole experience an absolute joy.
