Starter Villain

A cat in the business suit stared me down out of the cover for months before I bought the paperback. Like the Mona Lisa, this cat seems intelligent, and her eyes followed me everywhere I went on the Internet.

As it turns out, this story is as good as the reviews promise. A classic Scalzi standalone sci-fi mystery full of mob bosses and insanity. It's hilarious, relatable, a real fish-out-of-water story.

The main character, a washed up journalist turned substitute teacher who is as broke as he is clueless, faces hurdle after hurdle with a stoic wit. First he buries… show more.

It's funny, it's inventive and the cats and dolphins are just fabulous.

Sardonic humor, reminiscent of Douglas Adams, a plot you can lose yourself in entirely--Starter Villain ticked so many boxes for me. It's a fantastically fun read.

What happens when Charlie Fitzer, a former journalist and divorcee down on his luck inherits his great-uncle's evil empire?

Hugo Award-winner John Scalzi (Redshirts, Old Man's War) had me at his knowing depiction of cats and their ways of communicating. His other characters aren't bad, either, including the viewpoint character who receives an unexpected and highly daunting inheritance, and most especially Matilda Morrison, a woman of extreme agency. Known for his humorous take on various literary genres, Scalzi here provides action that is laugh-out-loud funny,

 It's worth the price of admission just to read his dolphin scenes or… show more.