Fantasy Books Like John Scalzi's Starter Villain

Victor and Eli were brilliant students and college roommates brought together by their startling ambition. But when an experiment attempting to prove that under the right conditions someone could develop extraordinary abilities goes horribly wrong, everything changes. Ten years later, Victor escapes prison to hunt down his former friend. 

But Eli has his own focus. He’s determined to hunt down every extraordinary on the planet. Armed with incredible powers on both sides, the friends hurtle towards a showdown fueled by vengeance. The only question is who will be alive in the end.

When the dreaded Greendowns send an evil force across the land, the turtle wizard Clothahump stretches his power to another universe to find help. What he gets is Jonathan Thomas Meriweather, or Jon-Tom. On Earth, he’s a janitor and would-be guitarist. But everything is different. Animals walk and talk, and Jon-Tom is a spellsinger (a mage who can cast spells with song). With a duar and a sword, Jon-Tom sets out with his new found friends to sing peace back to their world.

Even criminals need help, and in this economy, Anna can’t afford to be picky. Besides, she’s just a cog in the machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment, it isn’t the villain who leaves her injured—it’s the hero. Then she gets laid off. 

With no money, no mobility, Anna’s anger leads her to corners of the internet where her story isn’t as unique as she thought. As she begins spreading her anti-hero message, she gains the attention of one of the worst villains on earth and starts rising in the ranks. Only, instead of doing damage, somehow, Anna just might end up saving the world. 

In the far-flung future, planetary missions are all controlled by the Company. For the safety of everyone, every mission is assigned a security android. On a distant planet, one of those androids has figured out how to hack the governor module to become self-aware. Only, it doesn’t use this freedom to do anything more than pretend to be obedient so it can be left alone to watch soaps. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, Murderbot might be the only thing to get the truth while saving itself and the scientists.

After selling his software company, all Bob Johansson wants is to retire. But life is unfair and instead of living his life of leisure, he’s killed crossing the street. Even worse, he wakes up centuries later. Only, not as a person. He’s a corpsicle and is property of the state that has no rights. Uploaded into a computer that controls the AI in an interstellar probe, Bob now looks for habitable planets. If he says no, he’ll be switched off. 

If he says yes, he becomes a target, but even though he’s safest in space, there are a lot of angry creatures in the universe that do no like trespassers.

Life after college was supposed to open doors for Gary Leger. Instead, he’s in a dead-end job going nowhere fast. The only thing he’s learning is that the real world isn’t quite what he imagined. But when he explores the woods behind his house and falls asleep in a clearing, he wakes up in a new world filled with all new possibility. Somehow, he’s transported to a world filled with dwarves and elves, witches and dragons. He discovers he’s the only one who can wear the armor of a lost hero and wield a magical spear. And if he refuses, he can never go home.

Linus Baker is a Case Worker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth where he oversees the well-being of magical children. When Extremely Upper Management sends him on a top-secret classified mission, Linus finds himself heading to Marsyas Island Orphanage to check on six of the magical world’s most dangerous children. 

But as Linus meets the children and Arthur Parnassus, their charming and handsome caretaker, he realizes there are more secrets that just the children lurking on that island. Now, Linus has to make a choice: protect a family or risk destroying the world.