Starter Villain by John Scalzi (book review).
‘Starter Villain’ by John Scalzi is a standalone near-future science fiction action thriller with a significant dose of humour. Former journalist Charlie Fitzer now works as a supply teacher in his hometown of Barrington. He returned there to care for his dying father, whose will left him the right to live in his house rent-free, provided he paid the running costs. He owns only a quarter of it; his three elder half-siblings, who desire their inheritance in cash, share the rest. Charlie dreams of owning the local pub that has recently come onto the market. The snag is that his only assets are less than fifty dollars in cash, his dad’s old Nissan Maxima, and an orange and white cat named Hera, who walked into his home one day. Charlie is an ordinary person with ordinary dreams who is currently down on his luck.
Ordinary that is, except for having a recently deceased reclusive billionaire uncle, Jake Baldwin, owner of multiple car parks. Not that it made any difference to Charlie since they had not talked to each other since he was five years old.
On his way back from the bank, where he sought a loan to buy the pub, he finds a stray orange and white kitten. He decides to call her Persephone and takes her home to Hera. Mathilda Morrison, Uncle Jake’s assistant, is waiting on his porch. She has a favour to ask: to stand at his uncle’s funeral at the local funeral home. Charlie is kind-hearted enough to agree.
So far, relatively normal. Charlie gets to the funeral early, only to find rude messages on sent-in floral arrangements like ‘See you in Hell’ and ‘Dead? LOL okay’. Charlie has the rude messages removed.
The funeral is attended by men in overcoats. The first two individuals to pass by the open coffin take his uncle’s pulse and snap a picture of Charlie. Another stabs his uncle. From there, things spiral out of his control. Let’s just say his home is blown up with a CIA corpse inside it early on in the chaos.
Full disclosure here: I love cats. I love them so much that I’ve written a novel about a robo-cat. Of course, Hera and Persephone got my special attention. Hera is the practical, no-nonsense cat who remains aloof until action is needed, like helping to save Charlie’s life. Persephone oozes adorable attention-seeking kittenhood from the get-go. Their characterisations are so typically cat-like that one might think they were made, not born. They would be right. These cats are genetically engineered to be spy cats. In fact, every major villain in this story has a cat to suit their character in Blofeld-style.
Charlie finds himself being sucked into Uncle Jake’s real business, being a super-villain. These are not the nasty super-villains beloved in so many stories and films; rather, he ran a business to ‘seek out, fund and create the sort of technologies and services that bring disruptive change to existing industrial and social paradigms, and offer them, on a confidential basis, to interested businesses and governments’. Hera, that no-nonsense cat, types that his Uncle Jake was a villain. Yes, Hera is intelligent enough to type intelligent responses on an ergonomically-designed computer.
Those inventions, by the way, include genetically modified cloned dolphins who guard a volcanic island in the Caribbean. They are on strike when Charlie arrives on the island. There is also a ground-based laser weapon that can destroy satellites.
Mayhem and chaos ensue as Charlie battles to stay alive while other super-villains attempt to kill him. The reason? They see him as Uncle Jake’s heir, and they hated Uncle Jake. It is their way of exacting revenge on the dead man.
The situations Charlie finds himself in are ludicrous, except John Scalzi has cleverly and logically built up to them. He has a way of making the fantastical seem credible. It is the craziness of these situations that contributes to the hilarity. Another contribution comes from well-placed situational jokes. A third contribution comes from the clear intent of the book to rip off the social stupidity of old Bond-like villainy.
But there is one thing I cannot forgive Scalzi for: calling the head of the Feline Intelligence Division, a black and white shorthair cat, Mrs. Tum-Tum.
Is there more to this novel than a good-hearted action-adventure techno-romp? Short answer is yes. ‘Starter Villain’ actually makes some very valid points about our society’s class system and the standoff world politics today. They give pause for thought for those readers who want deeper insights into life, the universe, dolphins, and cats.
‘Starter Villain’ is one of those rare novels that cater for a wide range of readers. It is multi-layered, going from light-hearted funny to deeply thought-provoking. It makes science fiction look like fantasy while remaining science fiction. Above all, it is an entertaining read with lots of laughs.
Rosie Oliver
October 2023
pub: TOR, 2023. 272 page hardback. Price: $28.99 (US). ISBN: 978-0-76538-922-0.
check out website: www.tor.com