Is he cut out to be a super-villain ?

I am becoming quite a fan of John Scalzi’s humorous science fiction books – some are more sci-fi than others. Here’s a link to my review of a fun trilogy set in space and here is one to a parody of Star Trek – both highly recommended. Starter Villain is both an homage to and a parody of books with super-villain characters who want to take over the world such as the James Bond novels.

Charlie is divorced and broke. His uncle dies and leaves him his business. At this point Charlie finds out that his uncle is a super-villain and that his business is a world-wide criminal enterprise. The problem is that many other super-villains also desire what Charlie now has and, if he wants to keep the business, and the money, he’s going to have to learn how to function in this new world very quickly – that is, if he too wants to be a super-villain, which is something that he’s not quite sure about. At least he has the secret lair in a volcano and a cat to stroke in a menacing way – or maybe, the cat actually has him….

This book is nuts but it’s clever nuts. It’s funny and a little bit sad in places but it is absolutely not predictable and it goes at a tremendous pace. You need to embrace the author’s world where anything can happen and go with the flow. I loved it.