Review of STARTER VILLAIN by John Scalzi

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cover of Strater Villain by John Scalzi, cover art by Tristan Elwell

I started reading a different novel that was too depressing, and I decided I needed something lighter before I could plow through that one. Scalzi to the rescue! Starter Villain starts off with a protagonist in such a bad place, it could have read like that other depressing book, but Scalzi zips us through to wild events fast enough, and then things really get fun. Scalzi doesn't hesitate to take potshots at our economic/political system and some of its more nefarious participants, and I'll bet there are those who will find it heavy-handed, but they are probably the ones who need to read it most. Our protagonist enters the world of corporate villainy only far enough to give us a glimpse of how it works, but his arc resolves without him becoming so morally compromised that we demand a tragic ending. The book's resolution, while a bit predictable, is satisfying. In a way, this novel should be more depressing than some intimate portrait of family trauma. It's a portrait of family trauma laid on top of destructive and pointless late stage-capitalism no one can fully escape! But it has talking animals. And it's very funny.