I am well on my way to being a big Scalzi fan— his voice of mild sardonic humor is very appealing and fun. This book is science fiction for the reluctant sci fi reader— more James Bondian in scope. Here’s the jist: Charlie Fitzer went from pretty good business reporter for the Chicago Tribune to laid-off victim of newspaper decline to broke substitute teacher. He was living with his father, whom he took care of until his death, only to learn that his three half-siblings were eager to sell off their deceased father’s only asset, Charlie’s modest childhood home, leaving Charlie homeless and largely penniless. These sibs were the children of his father’s first wife, while Charlie was the only child of the second wife. Out of the blue, Charlie hears on the news about the death of his uncle, Jake Baldwin, his mother’s brother and insanely wealthy parking structure mogul. When Charlie’s mother died in a car accident when Charlie was five, his father and uncle had a terrible argument at her funeral, which is when Uncle Jake left his life. When Matilda Morrison, representative of Uncle Jake’s estate shows up at Charlie’s doorstep with the astounding news that Jake has left his assets to Charlie, with the proviso that Charlie step in and run his secret empire, Charlie’s life is turned upside down.

Thus starts this whirlwind ride of a book, written in a voice I have come to greatly enjoy. Jake was a master villain in competition with the world’s other villains, backer of useful technological solutions, later put to various nefarious uses. Competing countries typically had a subscription service for deadly tech (think massive lasers, for example) in mutually assured destruction cold conflicts, leaving Jake enormously wealthy. Jake outmaneuvered and outsmarted his fellow villains, leaving them jealous and broke. Jake had to devise a way to deal with these rivals, especially once he received his unfortunate cancer diagnosis.

Charlie is supported and thwarted by a great cast of characters, including the aforementioned Morrison, two genetically engineered super-smart cats, genetically altered, cloned dolphins with snarky, trash mouths, and his primary rival, Anton Dobrev. The plot is super twisty turny, with plenty of great humor, and a large debt owed to the James Bond film Spectre, as well as other movies of the genre. This is a rollicking quick read, and may make a Scalzi fan of you, too.