Starter Villain was published by Tor Books in September 2023. Charlie Fitzer is a recently-divorced substitute teacher and failed journalist living in his dead father’s house. When his estranged uncle Jake dies, Charlie inherits what turns out to be a supervillain empire — a legitimate business operating in the shadowy world of billionaire adversarial capitalism, complete with a volcanic island base, a staff of genetically-enhanced cats who can type (and who have opinions about management), and dolphins who serve as the backbone of the world’s encrypted communications infrastructure.
The novel is Scalzi at his most purely comedic: the premise is absurd, the execution is antic, and the satire targets billionaire-class self-importance, Silicon Valley disruption rhetoric, and the specific peculiarities of people who build secret lairs inside volcanoes. Charlie is a reluctant villain — he has no interest in world domination, finding it ethically questionable and logistically exhausting — but must navigate a world of competing supervillains who take themselves very seriously indeed.
Beneath the farce is a sharp critique of billionaire capitalism: the supervillains differ from real-world billionaires mainly in being more honest about their motives. They build death rays rather than social media platforms, but the underlying logic — accumulate power, eliminate competition, reshape the world according to personal preference — is identical.
Collecting Starter Villain
First edition (Tor Books, New York, 2023): Hardcover with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $15–$30
- Signed copies: $30–$60