Family Book Swap: Starter Villain

Title: Starter Villain

Author: John Scalzi

via Amazon

Charlie Fitzer is down on his luck.  Once happily married and gainfully employed as a business reporter, he is now divorced and working as a substitute teacher.  He moved back into his childhood home to take care of his ailing father, now deceased.  His financial situation is dire.  On the bright side, he has two cats who clearly adore him.

Charlie's world gets turned inside out when he learns an estranged billionaire uncle has died.  Charlie is his only living relative so much to Charlie's own shock, he is placed at the head of an international financial empire that extends way beyond owning parking lots.  He becomes, in effect, a supervillain based in a remote Caribbean volcano cave.

The story that unfolds is a combination of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Doctor No and The Cat from Outer Space.  The ties to James Bond are the most obvious with direct references to Goldfinger, Blofeld and SPECTRE.  But the Douglas Adams narrative elements are many: a lovable loser who learns his world is not at all what he thought it was; animals (including dolphins) who turn out to be a lot more intelligent than expected; Ford Prefect- and Zaphod Beeblebrox-like characters plus a generally irreverent sense of humor.  We're talking laugh out loud funny.  As for the cats, well, some surprises are worth preserving for anyone intending to read the book.

Scalzi is a well-established scifi novelist. He has won several Hugos in various categories, including Best Novel.  Starter Villain has been nominated for that award for 2024, the winner to be announced in Glasgow on August 11th.  The fantastical elements aside, the basic premises of the billionaire playground world are surprisingly believable.  The typically incompetent super rich play by their own rules with minimal accountability to anyone besides, only occasionally, each other.  Sounds about right.  

I'm not sure how I feel about the ending.  It's not all tied up quite so neatly as one expects which I suppose it's a good thing.  Fortunately, Charlie is certainly better off than when the book started and the most important characters are still devoted to him.  There's just enough of a crack in the door to allow for a sequel but perhaps better to leave the story as it is.

Overall, it's definitely a strong book.  I'll be keeping an eye out for Scalzi's other work and certainly will check in for the Hugo results in August.