Divorced substitute teacher Charlie's life changes dramatically - and in rather unimaginable ways - on the death of his billionaire uncle Jake.

Charlie gradually learns that his uncle dealt in 'the sort of technologies and services that bring disruptive change' and then sold them to interested parties.

Turns out Jake was the super-villain, Charlie is now a starter villain, and all sorts of villainous organizations are jockeying (with extreme violence) to take over!

Great fun!

Hands down one of my favorite reads this year!! I had such a fun time being in this world. Imagine finding out you’re basically an heir to a villainous empire?! I couldn’t stop reading this when I picked it up. And the cats?! I love them and want one for myself. Thank you for giving me a chance to read this. I do own a physical copy now. John Scalzi has become one of my favorite authors.

Charlie finds himself at a crossroads, with his life seemingly stuck in neutral. A divorced substitute teacher, residing in a house his siblings are keen on selling, his primary ambition is to secure a loan and fulfil his dream of opening a pub downtown. The odds, however, rest in the hands of the discerning bank.

Unexpectedly, Charlie's life takes a whimsical turn when his long-lost uncle Jake passes away, bequeathing his supervillain enterprise, complete with an island volcano lair, to Charlie.

Yet, the reality of becoming a supervillain doesn't align with the extravagant imagery of giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had made formidable enemies, and now they set their sights on Charlie. These adversaries are not your run-of-the-mill villains; they are powerful, soulless entities backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

Despite his uncle's more old-fashioned and principled approach to villainy, Charlie must navigate the treacherous waters of real-world villainy. The narrative unfolds into a delightful, light-hearted tale, featuring a relatable fish-out-of-water protagonist and a cadre of remarkably intelligent cats. The story takes unexpected turns, introducing elements like a dolphin labour dispute, insufferable techbros, and, of course, a volcano island lair. The book is peppered with laugh-out-loud moments and clever twists, making it an enjoyable and entertaining read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wish I could write "the dolphins unionize" and leave this review at that, but I suppose something more substantial is probably best.

Charlie is down on his luck. His marriage fell apart, his career is underwhelming, his siblings are fighting over his childhood home, and he can't get a loan to buy a beloved pub in his neighborhood. At least he has his beloved cat Hera, who came to him when he needed her most.

When his uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business to Charlie, he's unsure what to think. Planning the funeral was a bizarre enough experience, like the aggressive messages left on flowers and the man who tried to stab his uncle's corpse "just to check if he's really dead."

Now Jake's enemies are Charlie's enemies, and Charlie will have to outmaneuver the guys trying to sabotage his uncle's business. Things get worse when he discovers he can't even throw his enemies in the lava pit to send a message since lava is denser than water.

Don't even mention the fact that Jake trained cats to become spies.

Starter Villain was a delight from beginning to end. I've only read two other Scalzi books and keep meaning to pick up his other titles. Scalzi's sense of humor is close to mine, so if you don't like sarcasm and banter between characters, this won't be your cup of tea. But Lorelai Gilmore raised me, so this book is one of my 2023 favorites.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.75/5 stars

Hilarious, crazy, and an all around FUN read!

Scalzi has somehow managed to create one of the most relatable characters and dropped them into the most ridiculous, unbelievable storyline in a way that is so seamless it seems almost plausible. The humor is top notch, and ***THE CATS***

Definitely recommend to anyone who needs a fun read and a good laugh.

I have heard a lot about John Scalzi, but had never read any of his previous work until this one, and what a delight it was!

This is super fun (beginning with this amazing cover) and a fast read. I didn't know anything about the plot, and was pleasantly surprised by where it went. It was great to be introduced in the villainy world along Charlie and his
sentient cats. A lot happens to him in a short time and I loved the reason why this all came down.

I wish we had more of the cats, Persephone especially. The dolphins were also great and made me laugh quite a bit.

This is a very entertaining read and I would recommend it, no doubts.

5 stars = Outstanding!

This was amazing! Hilarious! Everything I hoped it would be and more. Would definitely read again. I'd love to get a listen to the audio version because Wil Wheaton narrates, and that would be incredible. Scalzi fans should definitely pick this up. And if you've never read him before and you like quirky, funny scifi, absolutely pick this up! (Language, violence)

Dogs have owners, cats have staff. Or they are the staff that keep the organization running smoothly. John Scalzi fans will be delighted with this fluffy adventure. (That's a cat name, right?) Scalzi, who wrote Old Man's war 15 years ago and had lots of wry comments about aging then, continues to innovate and please readers with what in a more comprehensible world used to be called science fiction. Short and sweet and oh how I wish we had such companions!

Book Summary:

Charlie's life has hit a bit of a dead-end. His career as a reporter is (probably) over. He's recently divorced, and now he's living in the house he grew up in. Which his siblings aren't too thrilled about, mind you.

Then Charlie's uncle, whom he never met, passes away. In doing so, he left his supervillain business (yes, really) to Charlie. Naturally, this comes with all sorts of complications. Though there is a nice lava pit, so there's that.

My Review:

Oh, my goodness. I knew Starter Villain would be a delightful (not to mention hilarious) read, but it still managed to surprise me! This book is brilliant. It's clever, witty, and has a sense of humor that I love.

Think about it. Supervillain business. Cats. Dolphins. Oh, and a substitute teacher taking charge of all of it. It's so much fun. Throw in the desire to overthrow a few multinational corporations (IE, other supervillains), and you have something going for you. That something happens to be chaos, but it works.

Ironically, I think it's all the side details and elements that I loved the most about this book. The core plot is fun, don't get me wrong. But it's the details that sell this book. Okay, all the twists help, too. What I'm trying to say is that Starter Villain is a blast and a half to read. It's not like your typical superhero/villain book – it's better.

Highlights:
Supervillainy as a Business
Cat Spies
Pro-Union Dolphins

Hey bookbots! Time for a #bookreview of STARTER VILLAIN by @jscalzi ! Thank you to the author, @netgalley, and the publisher @torbooks for the e-ARC and the finished copy.

If you have ever read John Scalzi books you will know that he has a penchant for mixing sci-fi with hijinks to create fun stories that make you regularly cackle. This one will not disappoint and most importantly, CATS are sentient characters in this one!!!

😻😻😻

Charlie is down on his luck - divorced, laid off from his journalism job, and living in his old childhood home after moving back to take care of his ill father before he passed away. Battling his three older siblings for the rights to the property he resides in and living off of a meager substitute teacher salary with his recently acquired cat, Hera (i.e. the cat started coming over and Charlie did not stop it). When his estranged uncle who was a parking garage tycoon dies, a letter is posthumously delivered to Charlie by his uncle's former, very assertive assistant Morrison. At the funeral, Charlie starts to suspect his uncle was not just in the vehicle storage industry as his "mourners" try to stab him to confirm he is dead. From there, Charlie learns even his (now 2) recent cats that he has acquired have been by design of his eccentric, mysterious uncle who has been watching him all these years and whose "business" Charlie is about to inherit...

So much sarcastic commentary on capitalism, absurd wealth, American hierarchy, greed, inheritance, our obsession with tech and more are scrawled on these pages with wit, humor and style.

One of my favorite jabs was Scalzi's description of the tech/finance bros at the conference on their bluetooths/speaker phones and how "They were all performatively "Doing Business" for the benefit of all the rest of them." What a chef's kiss dig on American corporate culture's authenticity problems. When Charlie compares the conference to a cult, Morrison counters, "cults are more fun."🤣

If you like sentient cats, swearing dolphins, secret societies, and generally enjoy funny books, this just might be your jam.

💚SMASHBOT💚

“We have cats because they amuse us and because otherwise our clothes would lack the texture only cat hair can provide.”

2023 is the year I’m realizing I enjoy science fiction. I have never given the genre much chance before because I just assumed it was going to be too science-y for me. I’m so glad I’ve decided to give it a try because I really am digging it.

I’ll be honest, the cover actually turned me off of this one. I like cats and all, but I’m not really a cat person. But after reading some early reviews, I decided to give this a try. I was a big fan of the banter and dry humor. The premise was wild but fun. However, there are so many F-bombs throughout that I really struggled to read. If the story weren’t so entertaining otherwise I would have DNF’d, and that’s the reason for my lower star rating.

Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

Read if you like:
Mafia stories
Rooting for the underdog (or maybe I should say cat?)
Lots of dead bodies
Quick wit and dry humor

John Scalzi has done it again. I didn't think I liked scifi horror until I read his books, this one hands down is one of my favorites. We will be purchasing this for our collection.

I believe this is a case of it's me, not the book. Although the premise had a lot of potential, it ultimately fell flat for me. I loved the cats, but this just wasn't really my sense of humor so I was a little bored throughout most of the book. If you like action packed stories full of villains and self aware animals, I recommend giving this a go!

In a science fiction, the usual expectation is aliens and creatures of unknown world, but here we have supervillains and talking spy cats!! Honestly such a fun read. If anyone is looking for something different, this is it!

Oh my I do love a Scalzi novel because they are what I want them to be, both something I am familiar with but also new in the way of telling a story that only Scazli can.

I mean this book has cats that are in (villan) management, talking dolphins who want to go on strike because management stinks and humans have finger (hilarious).
You as the reader and Charlie, the main character get dropped into the story and found out at the same time what is going on.
It's just a blast of a sci-fi story to read and that made me laugh and not want to stop to read. In the end it was just the right length even though I always want Scalzis' books to be thicker.

This book is exactly what you'd expect from Scalzi; Goofy, easy to read sci-fi with a main character that's practically the same as those from his last few books. Conceptually, the story was unique and that's what Scalzi does well. Whenever I open one of his books, I know that I'll at the very least rate it is 'good'.

And that's fine, I love having an author that I can depend on like that. However halfway through the book, I became worried of becoming bored with this familiar formula of interesting concept, cookie cutter plot. I'm conflicted by this, because I think there's nothing wrong with having a guilty pleasure author that I enjoy reading myself but would hesitate to widely recommend. But I want more. Redshirts, Kaiju, Old Man's War, all of them are great. But the main character has always been a sassy dork that does the right thing. They'll face some setbacks, come up against some broadly threatening villain or challenge, and finish out the book with a smile on their face. I'd like to see Scalzi deviate from this a bit in the future. For the time being though, as soon as I see he has another book coming out I'll be first in line to pick it up at the library. That's what you do for your favorite authors.

Listen, I want to know how Scalzi’s brain works. His books are so wildly different and started off of crazy premises that suck me in immediately. And like the others, this one had humor and a great story that kept me flipping pages quickly. So much fun. And the cat on the front somehow represents this books perfectly!

This comedic sci-fi adjacent novel feels very in sync with Scalzi's previous novel, The Kajiu Preservation Society, as a critique of our oligarchy of tech bros and post-Covid society. It's hilarious, so the satire goes down very gently. Yes, the tech bros run the world, yes, they are awful, yes, selling services and subscriptions rather than anything tangible is a terrible way to organize a global economy, yes, private equity is the worst thing ever invented.

However, the novel gives us sentient cat overlords, mutinous dolphins, secret societies, and a volcano lair worth of a supervillain. Charlie inherits the villain business from his uncle, but all he really wants to do is own a house and run a pub in his hometown. He's in over his head, but he's not dumb, and his good heart keeps the reader rooting for him.

Funny and a quick read, but not a lot of emotional depth unless it's despair at the state of global capitalism. Would pair with a Cory Doctorow novel or essay.

Thank you to Tor Books and Edelweiss for the review copy.

Releases week of 9/18/23
Posted to GoodReads on 9/13/23
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5582391753

Starter Villain by John Scalzi stars Charlie who, after finding about his uncle's death, inherits his villainy business with genetically modified cats who can type through a specialized computer, an evil lair on a volcano island, and billions of dollars. Can Charlie handle the villain lifestyle with all of his uncle's enemies coming after him??

I wanted so badly to like this book, but I just couldn't stand reading it. The dialogue of the main character was so infuriating, he didn't take anything seriously, and every time someone would ask him a direct question he just replied with sass. Like I feel like it took a billion years just to see how the plot would move forward it was like pulling teeth.

The premise and the cover of this book are so up my alley (cats and villains?? yes please!) but I just hated reading this. I'm giving it two stars instead of one because I did laugh at some points during this and the plot is creative. I also loved the dolphins and their labor strike HAHA. Otherwise, this book just really was a struggle to read and it took months for me to get through it.

This was such a fun read. The story revolves around a fish-out-of-water narrator who is taking over his dead uncle’s trillion-dollar company. A company complete with intelligent cats, talking dolphins, a volcano lair, and some groundbreaking technology. There was a lot of humor in this book and it was entertaining seeing our narrator become a “villain.” The second half did lose me a little with the whole plot around the Convocation and the humor started to feel a bit repetitive. Overall though, this was a highly amusing read and I was satisfied with the ending. The cats were definitely my favorite part of the book.