Starter Villain

By: John Scalzi

Narrated by: Wil Wheaton

Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place.

Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.

©2023 John Scalzi (P)2023 Audible, Inc.

Wanted a sequel

As with just about all of John Scalzi’s novels, this one was highly entertaining with several moments of humor tossed in. My only complaint was that the book concluded with everything tied up neatly. 3/4 of the way through, I found myself hoping that the book would leave itself open for Mid-Level Villain and Veteran Villain …. Alas, we’ll have to await a new topic.

A book about cats

My late friend Brian Hague turned me on to John Scalzi's series "Old Man's War". Buying this book was a no-brainer and didn't disappoint. I wish i could've shared commentary with my friend.

Wheaton nails it!

Ok, I’m a John Scalzi fan. The man has great wit. His new entry into the world of scfi and fantasy “Starter Villain” is the whackiest of my Scalzi experiences. The book cover, the cat in an executive suit, makes me chuckle. And the blurb, “Inheriting your uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might think.” Now, add to this delightful temptation is Wil Wheaton narrating Scalzi’s words. Wheaton does snark well.

Charlie Fitzer, our seemingly hapless protagonist, starts the story informing us that he just wants to buy a pub. He’s living in his childhood home after his wife left him. His dad got sick, died, and Charlies has no job, and he wants that pub bad. To get it, he needs to put up the house as collateral for a business loan. He owns nothing but his cats.

Life changes when an unknown woman approaches Charlie and asks him to attend his uncle’s memorial service. There will be a big financial incentive if he agrees. The memorial service that Charlie attends is the best memorial service scene ever written. I wish I was there.

Of course, this is when Charlie discovers he inherited a holding corporation of villainy. It becomes sillier when the cats get their part in the story. Once Charlie begins to delve into his uncle’s business affairs, Scalzi channels Austin Power’s Dr. Evil.

There are dolphins, whales, unions, villain convocations all fodder for Scalzi’s tale. I enjoy snark when it’s done well. Wil Wheaton’s voice added to my listening pleasure.

An absolute gem!!!

Fantastic plot, characters, pace and narrator. I perfect experience. My only ask is that if this is brought to a screen of any size, please don’t screw it up.
PS my cats greatly enjoyed hearing this story.

beautiful

if you like intelligent animals communicating with humans angrily, you will love this book. it is one of my favorites.

The finest whimsical fiction

Might be the most enjoyable thing I’ve read this year! The pacing was great, the whimsical fantasy elements were superb and I really enjoyed the characters!

This time, I'm going to need a sequel.

If you read that title in Wil Wheaton's cadence, you get extra points.

This is absolutely an inspired work. John Scalzi is a master at keeping it light while completely immersing you in a story and Will Wheaten. is the only person who could have read this correctly.

I'm going to say it, and you guys can beat me up if you want: This book is as good or better than Old Man's War. It is absolutely succulent fruit for as many sequels as Scalzi cares to make.

Another fantastic ride from John

Absolutely loved this book. So much fun. As always a fun and hilarious joy ride of a book.

Judge the book by its cover...

I judged the book by its cover and was pleasantly surprised. I don't read or listen to a lot of fiction books. I usually stick to books about business or security. This unexpectedly managed to be a book about both while containing humor that's right up my alley.

If you're the type of person who thinks a picture of a cat in a suit is funny, you'll probably like this book.

Unique and entertaining

Short, and fun. Great characters. The writing style and sense of humor match perfectly with the narrator.
I love how the author thinks up such out of the box story lines. I can't wait for his next idea!