Book Review: Starter Villain by John Scalzi

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Tor Books (September 19, 2023)

Length: 272 pages

Author Information: Website

John Scalzi returns to what he knows best with Starter Villain, delivering a popcorny, feel-good novel characterized by his quirky sense of humor and engaging style of storytelling. If you enjoyed his books like Red Shirts or more recently The Kaiju Preservation Society, there’s a good chance you’ll like this one too.

In Starter Villain, we follow Charlie Fitzer who is a former business journalist now barely scraping by on his substitute teacher salary, yet he has some big dreams. In his Chicago neighborhood is a local pub he wants to buy, just to have a worthy goal to shoot for, though the way things are going, it all might as well be a pipe dream. But then out of the blue, he receives news of his uncle Jake’s passing, and shockingly, Charlie stands to inherit his multi-billion-dollar empire built on parking garage management.

The catch? Uncle Jake apparently led the life of an evil supervillain. His garage ownership was simply a front for his real business, which mainly involved disrupting global economies by screwing over other corporations to get a leg up on them. He even had a secret lair on an island inside a volcano, lavishly outfitted with its own death ray, as well as superintelligent cats and potty-mouthed dolphins in his employ—all of which might now belong to Charlie.

However, any heir of Jake’s also inherits his enemies, of which he had many. Immediately after the funeral, Charlie’s house is bombed, leaving him at the mercy of Matilda Morrison, his uncle’s right-hand woman—now his right-hand woman—who quickly gets him up to speed on the dangers in which he now finds himself. For years, Jake had been fending off attacks from the shadowy Lombardy Convocation, a consortium of ruthless billionaires who’ve vowed to kill him if he won’t join them. Now that he’s dead, the group has turned its sights on Charlie, who has no idea how to run an evil empire let alone defend himself against rival supervillains trying to blow him up.

If you’re thinking to yourself, “This all sounds completely ridiculous, but also kind of fun,” you’ve effectively described Starter Villain in a nutshell. John Scalzi has a unique approach to blending science fiction with his clever wit to tell stories that are highly readable and accessible even if you are not a fan of speculative fiction. These are also typically over-the-top, featuring everyman characters who are victims of absurd circumstances, often giving rise to silly plotlines. In fact, it might even be fair to call some of his books vacuous and shallow, but at least no one can accuse them of being boring. Personally speaking, I associate Scalzi’s work with being wildly funny and imaginative, which Starter Villain certainly was, despite it being even fluffier than usual.

Needless to say, while Scalzi sometimes injects a bit of societal commentary on topical issues like politics or the human equation, this is not that kind of book—or if it is, then it’s completely lost in the aforementioned fluff. For this reason, I don’t think it’s anywhere close to being his best or most artful work, but Scalzi’s easy breezy narrative style comes through in the laid-back prose and snappy dialogue. If the goal was to entertain, then mission accomplished.

In short, Starter Villain is a John Scalzi book that only an author like John Scalzi could write. If you’re looking for a diversion, a wholly uncomplicated read that doesn’t take itself seriously and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face, I recommend checking it out.