![Photo shows the upper body of a long-haired grey and white cat in a grey suit with a blue tie in front of a dark grey background. Text reads, \"Meet the new boss. Starter Villian. New York Times Bestselling Author. John Scalzi.\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/StarterVillain.jpg?resize=194%2C300&ssl=1\")
By John Scalzi\n\u00a9 9\/19\/2023, Tor Books
\n268 pages
\nASIN: B0B9KVXCQ6\n
<\/p>By John Scalzi
\n\u00a9 9\/19\/2023, Tor Books
\n268 pages
\nASIN: B0B9KVXCQ6\n
This was a fun little romp. I wouldn\u2019t call it a cozy anything, but author John Scalzi created a story about villains that actually has a feel-good energy. Yes, there\u2019s murder. Yes, there\u2019s criminal activity. But there\u2019s also a huge helping of snark that had me grinning at almost every page, a \u201cweakling\u201d main character who wasn\u2019t nearly as weak as the villains expected, and talking cats. Everything you might want from a darkly amusing story about the bad guys.<\/p>\n
Charlie, the main character in this tale, starts out at the bottom of the heap, so it was fun to watch him get thrown into the deep end of the dolphin bay, so to speak, and have to learn his way out. He\u2019s a likable sort, and since he\u2019s also the main source of hilarious snark in the tale, I loved him. I don\u2019t want to give anything away, and telling almost anything else about his role in this story would do exactly that. Just \u2026 trust me. You need to read it for yourself.<\/p>\n
There were some great twists at the end, which I didn\u2019t *exactly* see coming, but which worked out perfectly for the story, and made total sense in hindsight. I will say that there was a chapter just after the denouement where the characters who were in the know, so to speak, caught Charlie up on all the stuff he didn\u2019t know. It was a bit cliche, but it helped me understand too\u2026not everything that happens is clear until that moment when you see the explanation and can say \u201cOh! THAT\u2019s what that was!\u201d Still, it didn\u2019t detract from my enjoyment of the story overall.<\/p>\n
While there is almost nothing serious about this story, it did seem to be a poke at the big players in our world in the current day. Whether that was the author\u2019s intent or not, I can\u2019t say. For me, that made the story more fun. Overall, Starter Villain<\/em> is a light, darkly humorous read that will keep you turning pages until the end. Definitely recommended.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By John Scalzi \u00a9 9\/19\/2023, Tor Books 268 pages ASIN: B0B9KVXCQ6 This was a fun little romp. I wouldn\u2019t call it a cozy anything, but author John Scalzi created a story about villains that actually has a feel-good energy. Yes, there\u2019s murder. Yes, there\u2019s criminal activity. But there\u2019s also a huge helping of snark that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8n0kX-1o3","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5342,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/19\/lock-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":5335,"position":0},"title":"Lock In","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"March 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"By John Scalzi \u00a9 8\/26\/2014, Tor Books 337 pages ASIN: B00IHCBE1C My last Scalzi read, Starter Villain, was light, snarky, and filled with feel-good stuff, even though it had some dark overtones. 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