Plot summary
Charlie Fitzer, ex-business reporter, spouse, and caregiver to his now-deceased father, is in reduced circumstances. Now living with his cats Hera and Persephone in the old family home co-owned with his half-siblings who are keen to sell it, he barely makes a living as a substitute teacher. He aspires to acquire a revered local tavern whose owner is retiring but is denied a bank loan.
When his long-estranged uncle Jake Baldwin, billionaire owner of a parking lot empire, dies, Jake's assistant Mathilda Morrison approaches Charlie with a proposition: represent Jake at the memorial service, and he will receive enough money from the estate to buy out his siblings, get his loan, and realize his dream.
The funeral is attended by various dubious individuals who have a bizarre obsession with confirming Jake's death; one attendee, Tobias, even attempts to stab the corpse. Afterwards, Charlie's house is destroyed by a bomb. An intruder, later found to be a government agent, is blown up with it, and Charlie is framed for the deed. Mathilda and Charlie's cats reveal that Jake's parking lot holdings were a front for his real career as a supervillain. Mathilda was his chief assistant, and cats Hera and Persephone are genetically modified super-intelligent spy cats, who had long kept watch on Charlie for Jake. Moreover, Jake had enemies, who are now Charlie's enemies: the Lombardy Convocation, an organization of rival villains with whom he has long fought a private war.
Charlie, Mathilda and the cats take refuge on Saint Genevieve, Jake's Caribbean island hideout in Grenada, powered by geothermal energy from an active volcano and guarded by intelligent dolphins. Charlie's companions brief him in preparation for an unavoidable meeting with the Lombardy Convocation at the Grand Bellagio Hotel on Lake Como, Italy. There he is pressured to join and pay a substantial membership fee or face severe consequences. However, a private meeting with Anton Dobrev, head of the Convocation, ends up with the latter apparently dead, the hotel burned, and Charlie once again being framed.
Back at St. Genevieve, Charlie and his allies prepare for the inevitable showdown. He retaliates for an attack on the island by Roberto Gratas, the new head of the Convocation, by destroying his enemies' spy satellite with a space laser, severing their communications with a pod of genetically enhanced whales used to attack the island. An apparent accommodation is reached: Charlie agrees to hand over Nazi war plunder stored by Jake in exchange for peace. The plan takes a turn during the meeting to access the treasure when Gratas betrays his associates and kills them. However, the cache is discovered to be empty, and Gratas's retaliatory efforts against Charlie's staff are foiled. Charlie's dolphins, having pledged allegiance to him after settling a strike on terms favorable to them, suborn the enemy whales. Gratas attempts to eliminate Charlie but is stopped and taken out by the dolphins.
Concluding that he is unsuited for a life of villainy, Charlie learns he was a stalking horse in a plot by Jake, his allegedly deceased ally Anton Dobrev, and Mathilda to dismantle the Convocation. As part of his exit, Charlie is exonerated, awarded a safe house for his cats, gains ownership of the tavern, and is eventually reunited with his cats, who also retire from the supervillain business.
Reception
Terrence Miltner in Booklist notes that the author "again" (as in The Kaiju Preservation Society ) "examines tropes in a tale of an ordinary individual being cast into an extraordinary situation with his trademark quick pacing, clever banter, and ability to find humor in desperate situations." He concludes that "[w]ith a ... clever premise, Scalzi's latest will appeal to his legion of fans and draw in new ones. [6]
Publishers Weekly calls the book a " clever, fast-paced thriller" that subverts classic supervillain tropes with equal measures of tongue-in-cheek humor and common sense. ... Scalzi balances all the doublecrosses and assassination attempts with ethical quandaries, explorations of economic inequality, and humor ... The result is a breezy and highly entertaining genre send-up." [7]
Marlene Harris, in a double-starred "Pick of the Month" review in Library Journal , calls the novel a "story of snark with a heart [that] reminds readers that the logical conclusion of 'dogs have owners, cats have staff' is that cats are management and never let anyone forget it." She characterizes the book as "[c]ombining the sarcastic humor of Scalzi's Redshirts with an origin story for James Bond–like supervillains operating with the competence-porn-level efficiency and work ethic of Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots." She concludes that "[r]eaders of humorous fantasy are sure to love Scalzi’s latest (after The Kaiju Preservation Society ) as much as those cats; it’s also for those who enjoy seeing superhero stories folded, twisted, and mutilated and anyone wishing for a righteous villain lair surrounded by intelligent sharks [sic: dolphins]. Highly recommended." [8]
Kirkus Reviews calls the book "one of many available stories about a good-hearted Everyman thrust into fantastical circumstances, struggling to survive as a fish out of water, and, while well executed for its type, the plot doesn't go anywhere that will surprise you." It "serves as a follow-up of sorts to Scalzi's The Kaiju Preservation Society (2022) in that both are riffs on genre film tropes. The current work is fluffier and sillier than the previous novel and, indeed, many of Scalzi's other books, although there is the occasional jab about governments being in bed with unscrupulous corporate enterprises or the ways in which people can profit from human suffering." The reviewer concludes the novel is "[f]un while it lasts but not one of Scalzi's stronger books." [9]
John Michael Scalzi II is an American science fiction author and former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He is best known for his Old Man's War series, three novels of which have been nominated for the Hugo Award, and for his blog Whatever, where he has written on a number of topics since 1998. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2008 based predominantly on that blog, which he has also used for several charity drives. His novel Redshirts won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel. He has written non-fiction books and columns on diverse topics such as finance, video games, films, astronomy, writing and politics, and served as a creative consultant for the TV series Stargate Universe.
Adam Stemple is a Celtic-influenced American folk rock musician, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is also the author of several fantasy short stories and novels, including two series of novels co-written with his mother, writer Jane Yolen.
Lavie Tidhar is an Israeli-born writer, working across multiple genres. He has lived in the United Kingdom and South Africa for long periods of time, as well as Laos and Vanuatu. As of 2013, Tidhar has lived in London. His novel Osama won the 2012 World Fantasy Award—Novel, beating Stephen King's 11/22/63 and George R. R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons. His novel A Man Lies Dreaming won the £5000 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, for Best British Fiction, in 2015. He won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2017, for Central Station.
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The Dragon Waiting: A Masque of History is a 1983 historical fantasy novel by American writer John M. Ford. It won the 1984 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. This book, set in an alternate history, contains such plot elements as vampirism, the House of Medici, and the convoluted English politics surrounding Edward IV and Richard III. It also deals with the fate of the Princes in the Tower.
Safehold is a science fiction book series by David Weber, currently consisting of ten titles, the latest released in January 2019. The series is mostly set around the 31st century, on a distant world dubbed "Safehold" where a group of humans are in hiding from the Gbaba, an alien enemy responsible for the end of all other human civilization.
Redshirts is a postmodern science fiction novel by John Scalzi that satirizes Star Trek. The book was published by Tor Books in June 2012. The audiobook of the novel is narrated by Wil Wheaton. The book won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel and Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
Yoon Ha Lee is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, known for his Machineries of Empire space opera novels and his short fiction. His first novel, Ninefox Gambit, received the 2017 Locus Award for Best First Novel.
Naomi Kritzer is an American speculative fiction writer and blogger. Her 2015 short story "Cat Pictures Please" was a Locus Award and Hugo Award winner and was nominated for a Nebula Award. Her novel Catfishing on CatNet won the 2020 Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book.
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Rebecca F. Kuang is an American fantasy novelist. Her first novel, The Poppy War, was released in 2018, followed by the sequels The Dragon Republic in 2019, and The Burning God in 2020. Kuang released a stand-alone novel, Babel, or the Necessity of Violence in 2022. Her latest release is Yellowface, a satirical novel which was published in 2023. Kuang holds an undergraduate degree in international economics with a minor in Asian Studies from Georgetown University and graduate degrees in Sinology from Magdalene College, Cambridge, and University College, Oxford, and is currently pursuing a PhD at Yale University.
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The Cygnet and the Firebird is a fantasy novel by Patricia A. McKillip, a sequel to her earlier novel The Sorceress and the Cygnet. Despite a mixed reception, it was nominated for the 1994 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature. It was first published in hardcover by Ace Books in September 1993, with a paperback following from the same publisher in September 1995. The first British edition was published in paperback by Pan Books in July 1994. It was subsequently combined with The Sorceress and the Cygnet into the omnibus collection Cygnet, issued in trade paperback by Ace Books in March 2007. It has also been translated into French.
The Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City is a parody fantasy short story by John Scalzi. It was first published on Tor.com on April 1, 2011, and presented as an excerpt from a nonexistent larger work.
The Kaiju Preservation Society is a science fiction novel written by American author John Scalzi. It was first published in hardcover and ebook by Tor Books, and audiobook by Audible Studios, on March 15, 2022; British hardcover and ebook editions were released by Tor UK on March 17, 2022. A large print hardcover edition was issued by Thorndike Press on July 27, 2022, and a trade paperback edition by Tor Books on January 24, 2023. The book has been translated into Italian, Spanish, German, and Japanese.
Karen Osborne is an American author of fantasy and science fiction, active in the field since 2008, with most of her work appearing since 2016.
Spear is a 2022 fantasy novella by Nicola Griffith. Drawing on Arthurian mythos, the book refashions the story of Percival and the Holy Grail but makes the character of Percival a woman. The protagonist of Griffith's version is Peretur, a girl raised alone in the wilderness by her mother, who develops a magical ability to communicate with animals. She sets out to explore the world dressed as a boy and seeks to join the service of King Arturus as a knight. At his court she becomes involved with his search for the Holy Grail and discovers that her own heritage is connected to it.
When the Moon Hits Your Eye is an upcoming science fiction novel written by American author John Scalzi. It is due to be published in hardcover and ebook by Tor Books, and audiobook by Audible Studios, on March 25, 2025.
