Title: Starter Villain   
Author: John Scalzi    
Genre: Scifi    
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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.

The snark and sarcasm in this made me laugh. And, of course, the cats. Because who doesn’t love super intelligent cats? This was a solid read, if you’re looking for pure entertainment in a not-believable premise. It was entertaining and creative and an easy, quick read. Pure fun, but not a lot of depth. And the dolphins were…underwhelming to me.

John Scalzi isa bestselling author. Starter Villian is his newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Tor in exchange for an honest review.)

• book review
• books
• reading