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, hyper-intelligent 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.
Starter Villain by John Scalzi will be published on September 19, 2023. Tor Books provided an early galley for review.
This one had me at the word "supervillain". That alone told me I would likely enjoy this book. And it was right. I did!
Scalzi writes in a way that is approachable, relatable and humourous. What starts out as a fairly normal contemporary tale spirals directly into the world of the fantastic. Even so, he uses this world full of secret cabals and questionable corporate leaders to shine a satiric yet honest look at our own world. There is often truth in fiction.
I very much enjoyed the worldbuilding here. I like the cast, both major and minor characters. Although the story wrapped up quite neatly as a one-and done, I would be down for another visit to Charlie and company if Scalzi decided to go that route.
No comments:
Post a Comment