This was such a fun book! It was clever and quirky and a really fast read. I especially liked the animals. They were great! My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

Scalzi is a master at literary popcorn. When you want something that feels like a party, is easy to snorf down, and that you can justify as not being bad for you. That's what we have here. Charlie is fun, quippy, and likeable. There are big anti-capitalist themes we don't have to reach for. Honestly, I could have used more cats, but Scalzi always comes through with the laughs and just enough feels to make me not feel like an idiot for giggling so much.

This was a marvelously funny read that I really enjoyed! There were times that I found myself laughing out loud, but mostly there was just a smile on my face from start to finish. If you are a fan of the Bond movies, especially the older ones, you will enjoy this tongue in cheek look at modern villainy.

I really liked Charlie from the get go. He is a nice guy, down on his luck after losing his business journalist job. At the start of the book, he is trying to get by on a substitute teacher’s salary, while fending off his siblings who want to sell the family home. Charlie is pretty smart, especially about business, but doesn’t know what to do with his life. Then his estranged uncle dies, and leaves Charlie everything, and his life is turned upside down and sideways as he discovers what his uncle’s business really is.

There is a great cast of characters, from your usual thugs that just want to do their jobs, to the villains that seemingly run the world, to the people who worked for his uncle. Charlie manages to hold his own against them though, and even at times out smart them while he is dodging bullets and bombs. I loved his uncle’s island lair, which of course comes with an active volcano. All of the fun and villainous tech that you come to expect in a Bond movie is there as well, but with a twist, like the satellite destroying laser gun that will also make it rain when used for good.

The plot is very fast moving, with wonderful dialogue between the characters. I loved the part where Charlie is having a zoom meeting with one of the other villains and he hangs up on him because he didn’t make the call private. It was perfect. There are lots of double dealings amongst all of the villains, including Charlie, but the final twist at the end was a little unexpected. This is a short book, but it packs quite a lot into it.

The animal characters in the book, just added to the fun. I loved Charlie’s cats, Hera and Persephone, who were both very smart and looked out for Charlie. The dolphins were pretty much what I would expect dolphins to be like if they could talk to us humans, crude and rather rude, but willing to negotiate and help out when needed. There are other animals that get pulled into this complex web of villainy, but these are the most fun ones.

Overall a really fun time. This is the first book that I have read by this author, but I don’t think it will be the last. If you are looking for a fun, fast read with lots of villainous deeds and plots, then you need to add this one to your list of books to pick up next month.

This is probably the funnies thing a read in a while. If Starter Villain was a movie, it would be a delightful action comedy, with witty dialogues and unpretentious humour. In fantasy books I usually read, good jokes are rare (and most authors can’t write them at all), but here pages are literally oozing with puns, funny banter and remarks. This is the first Scalzi’s book that I’ve read, but of this I’m certain: this guy knows how to write entertaining dialogues. What is more behind all this comedy author hid some serious questions and satire on our world. For example: how should we treat animals if humans turn them into intelligent spieces? And what if (and this one is my favourite) some of them decide to form a union? If you liked Glass Onion metacommentary and mocking of Silicon Valley techbros, whose only contribution to the world is their enormous ego and family money, you’re gonna have lots of fun with this book.

Charlie's life is going nowhere. After his divorce he came to live with and take care of his dad who has passed away. Charlie is living in his dad's house which belongs to Dad's estate. His three siblings are anxious to kick Charlie out and sell the house for their share of the proceeds. Charlie wants to own the local pub but his visit to the bank for the loan doesn't look promising. When he arrives home a strange woman is on his porch. She has come to offer him a business proposition of sorts. Charlies estranged uncle has died and she is asking Charlie to stand up for him at the local funeral home service in exchange for some financially beneficial rewards. He agrees.
Here begins one of the most bizarre, hilarious sci-fi adventures including Bond-ish criminal organizations, sentient cats, unionized dolphins, a volcano lair, and a world ruling wannabee secret organization.
A quick read and one of the most fun ever!
The cover art is priceless!!!!!

Scalzi is one of my favorite authors because he writes stories that are just so freaking FUN!
This one reminded me of Saturday Morning cartoons with villainy - complete with volcano lair - sneaky dolphins, cats with human-level intellect, and one of the most likable protagonists that I’ve read in a while.
The satire works so well in this twisty-turny plot and the ending left me grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

I only have one issue with this book but I’ll leave it out of my review until I’ve checked the published version.

Speaking of, thanks SO much to Tor Publishing and NetGalley for providing me an E-ARC in exchange for my honest review! Starter Villain comes out in September! I think you’ll want a copy!

This story was a hoot. I read it because of the amazing cover but the book was great fun. It starts out as a normal novel, with the main character being a former journalist made redundant who is now substitute teaching and struggling financially. His estranged uncle has unexpectedly left him an inheritance but there are a lot of stipulations.

Fairly straightforward, right? Well, then things get interesting. It turns out the uncle was an immensely wealthy man who operated on the shady side. He is a villain, but he also had his own code of honor. Our protagonist gets whisked off to an island which is a base of operations for an incredibly complex semi-criminal network.

The character is appealing and smart and rises to the occasion of having to meet with a sort of summit of bad guys -- he holds his own. And then there are the cats -- in this new world he is inhabiting, cats are sentient being who communicate by typing quite literate missives.

The whole thing is tremendous fun with wonderful dialogue and lots of action. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and Tor; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this book, but was charmed by what I got. I have previously read some of Scalzi's Old Man's War series and really enjoyed the humor and perspective of those stories, which carry over (in a very different way) to Starter Villain. It's a fairly lighthearted read with a snap of satire and sarcasm, and by the end, if you're a cat owner you'll be torn between giving your cat a side-eye and a hug.

Charlie’s had a rough couple of years. He’s gone from being a happily married business reporter at the Chicago Tribune to an unemployed divorcee. (Journalism jobs aren’t exactly growing on trees these days.) When his long-lost uncle dies, Charlie doesn’t think much of it. But then his uncle’s assistant shows up and tells Charlie that he can inherit a lot of money that he could really use. Suddenly, Charlie finds himself in a world of James Bond type villains. He has a volcanic island lair, sentient dolphins with attitude and a group of villains trying to figure out if he’s a new member or a sucker to eliminate. Fortunately, he has some allies to help him navigate this strange new world. Filled with Scalzi’s signature fast paced humor, this is a quick, delightful read.

John Scalzi seems to write two types of books. One is epic war space battles. The other is humorous sci-fi/fantasy. Starter Villain is the humorous type.

Our main character is a bit down on his luck. He lost his job as a journalist. He is divorced. He moved back home to take care of his father, who passed away. All he has left are some half siblings that resent him because he was the “other” family and because he is making it so they can’t sell the house.

But then his uncle dies, a billionaire that stayed away after a fight with his father at his mothers funeral. But the billionaire uncle didn’t make his fortune from parking lots, he was a villain. And our MC just inherited the family business.

Starter Villain is the perfect combination of humor and hard hitting reality to keep you reading. I flew through the book enjoying it all. I especially appreciated the found family aspect. And the ending was perfection.

Starter Villain is a perfect sci-fi read even for those who do not typically read science fiction.

Honestly, all I needed to see was that John Scalzi wrote a book called "Starter Villain" with a cat on the cover and I knew I was in for a good time! This was a blast from start to end; I cackled at parts and thoroughly enjoyed Charlie's attempts at understanding exactly what he had inherited. I would read a whole series about Hera and Persephone!

Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC!

The Kaiju Preservation Society was one of my top three reads from 2022 so my expectations for Starter Villain were high. Scalzi knocked them out of the park! He’s going on my auto buy authors list and I look forward to reading his back catalog while I wait for his next release!

Starter Villain by John Scalzi will be published on September 19, 2023. Tor Books provided an early galley for review.

This one had me at the word "supervillain". That alone told me I would likely enjoy this book. And it was right. I did!

Scalzi writes in a way that is approachable, relatable and humourous. What starts out as a fairly normal contemporary tale spirals directly into the world of the fantastic. Even so, he uses this world full of secret cabals and questionable corporate leaders to shine a satiric yet honest look at our own world. There is often truth in fiction.

I very much enjoyed the worldbuilding here. I like the cast, both major and minor characters. Although the story wrapped up quite neatly as a one-and done, I would be down for another visit to Charlie and company if Scalzi decided to go that route.

I knew I would like this book based on the cover alone - but it was even better than I had imagined. The story is fun, the characters are engaging, and the cats are fabulous!

"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, hyper-intelligent 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."

The best cover art EVER has arrived, all others are just pretenders.

I almost DNF'd this book.

I'm giving it 3.5 rounded down to 3, because my annoyances were not outweighed by the delights of the book.

It feels very similar in tone to Project Hail Mary, with a nothing narrator too smart-ass for his own good, a general everyman (but with skills!) pulled into a strange situation he has to figure out for himself. Morrison—the only human woman in the book—felt very much like the hyper-competent what's-her-face from that blighted book. In charge and ready for action, even as Number Two in the villain org.

Anywho, the good: LOVED the cats (even though they are all management), loved the working-class dolphins hell-bent on a labor strike (for good reason), loved the volcano lair and the anti-capitalist nature of this book, and the idea that there are no good billionaires. There is a zoom conference call between a boomer and a millennial that is delightful in how it juxtaposes the mundanity of technology with evil schemes. There's Nazi treasure, because all supervillains are hot to trot about Nazi treasure, it's a canon event. And that cover is just...weird as hell (it needs a motivational quote to tip it over the edge) and I love it.

The eh: the writing was 90% dialogue, with much of the action happening off page. This is a short book, tightly plotted, but I found that I was wanting more. It was taking the stark writing of The Kaiju Preservation Society and making it more snarky, more dialogue, stripping down the characterizations until people had little depth beyond their stereotypical traits. Charlie himself was snarky, but again, not a whole lot of introspection going on outside of the dialogue, so it felt like something was missing (also, he felt less like a young millennial and more young Gen X, and I kept going "This man is supposed to be 32? He acts mid-40s").

The ehhhhhhh: there is an unintentionally transphobic scene in this book. I say unintentional because Scalzi has been an LGBTQ ally, and I can *see* where he was trying to go with this, but he failed real bad (although it's a bloop and you'll miss it seen). There's a moment when Charlie the lead is looking over the conclave of baddies, and realizes that there is not a single woman there. Except, he says there is not a single *cis* woman there, and I full stopped in my reading going "so is there a trans woman? So there *is* a woman present. Why not just mention her and leave it at that? Or if there is no trans women present, then why not just say there are no women present, why differentiate?" Then Charlie goes on to mention that as far as he can see based on gender presentation, it's all men, and I was like, "le sigh, you're making this worse, kid." Anywho, because I read the ARC, I sincerely hope that this is gone by the final product.

Overall, not a bad read.

It's quick. It's fun. It's a delightful take on supervillains, showcasing that the real monsters are the billionaires and millionaires and industry disruptors around us, aka any dude in a slick suit who wants to make oodles of money and fuck everyone else in the process.

I just wish there had been more, even if there was a reason for the lack of more.

Great read, wonderful writing, and memorable characters. I couldn’t put it down. I’ll be recommending this to my students once it’s released. This is the kind of humor that I hope will grab the attention of high schoolers and help them see how much fun reading can be.

Loved this book by John Scalzi! His take on the super villain was funny, thrilling, and thought provoking. Will definitely recommend to my customers who enjoy such off beat humor such as Good Omens!

A light hearted take on supervillainy. I’m not sure if this is a spoof or a satire, but it mixes elements of both with lots of humour making this a fun read.

Charlie’s dead end life is thrown out of sorts when he inherits his dead Uncle Jakes villainous empire along with his enemies. From a ex-journalist to a super villain boss, the book is all about Charlie trying to bring his head around the change and grasp being the head honcho of a evil enterprise…especially when he realizes that being a supervillain isn’t all that he imagined it to be.

The book really feels like a satire replete with villainous cats, volcano lairs, stereotype villains and ‘tech bros’. The prose is seamless and book is filled with one liners and quips making fun of modern society. It’s literally a laugh a minute riot. The cats and the dolphins which were looking to unionize were absolutely hilarious and a riot to read.

On the flip side, the laugh a minute riot felt like reading a sitcom script for majority of the book. It was a bit frustrating that the there was no plot movement till about 70% of the book. I did feel it might have been better watching this as a TV show/movie, than reading as a book. The earlier jokes were a bit too much on the nose as it stretches imagination for every character to have funny bone and almost all the jokes were a PC (politically correct) satire rather than outright humour.

But after 70%, the plot twists made up for the lackluster earlier segments ending with a satisfying if albeit underwhelming climax. I was hoping for a supervillain overload and a appropriate super-dramatic finish, but author seems to have settled for a sensible finale.

Overall, it was a enjoyable and fun read. One, that I’d recommend to anyone looking for a lighter read or as a palate cleanser between heavier reads.

This was probably one of the funniest books I've read this year. Between the sentient cats that make perfect little cuddly spies and the foul-mouthed dolphins that have some of the most creative insults I have ever come across, I had a good time reading this one, and sometimes, you just need a book that is going to give you a good solid laugh. I also enjoyed the main character and the fact that he is a fundamentally good person, but that he was also creatively sneaky and no pushover. Being a good guy doesn't mean you have to be a dope, and he isn't.