Starter Villain is absolutely delightful from start to finish. From the fantastic cover to the comedy to the wild plot, I enjoyed every part of this book. I laughed so many times, but it also kept a good rhythm of action and story telling. The human characters were fun, but we all know that Hera is the real star of this book. She, like this book, is perfection.

Thank you to Tor Books and Netgalley for giving me an advanced copy of my current reading obssession, Starter Villain.

Charlie works as a substitute teacher and wants more out of his life. Living with his two cats in his dead father's home and arguing with his stepsiblings about the house, Charlie dreams of a life with more substance. When his uncle dies and he's asked to stand up for him at the funeral, Charlie doesn't know what he's getting into. The funeral is just the start of the wild ride Charlie has in store for him for the future.

I don't want to say too much about this novel, but I absolutely loved it. It's about the other side of being a "Bond" villain and also toxic masculinity. The cover is also to die for, honestly that's what drew me to the novel first. I was excited for this novel before the National Book Festival, but after listening to John Scalzi talk I couldn't wait to read it. If you get a chance to listen to him talk in any way, go do it! Starter Villain was my introduction to Scalzi's work, but it won't be the last.

Starter Villain is out now and you need to get a copy for the betterment of yourself. Honestly you'll have such a fun ride during it. I'll be pushing this into the hands of friends (online and in-person) for quite awhile.

Published by Tor Books on September 19, 2023

Starter Villain is more a crime/conspiracy novel than a science fiction novel, but John Scalzi writes science fiction so it needed an sf hook. Which is, talking cats.

Scalzi has written dramatic science fiction that is notable for its pathos. Some of his work is lighter. Starter Villain is meant to amuse. It made me smile consistently. I even laughed out loud a couple of times, but it’s not the kind of work that puts a reader through a gamut of emotions.

Scalzi focuses the novel on a decent man who happens to like cats, probably a man who is a lot like Scalzi. Charlie Fitzer is unlike Scalzi in that Fitzer lost his career as a writer — a journalist who covered the business world — when the economy tanked. Fitzer is working as a substitute teacher and falling behind on his bills. His father bequeathed his childhood home to a trust for Charlie and his half-siblings but gave Charlie the right to live in the home provided he paid the insurance and utilities. His half-siblings believe their father’s intent was that Charlie should get back on his feet before the house is sold out from under him. They are irked that Charlie is making insufficient progress toward that goal.

Charlie has a wealthy uncle he hasn’t seen since the uncle had a falling out with his father at his mother’s funeral when he was five years old. Charlie learns from watching a financial network broadcast that his uncle has died. His uncle’s assistant, a woman named Mathilda Morrison, shows up unexpectedly to tell him that he’s in charge of his uncle’s funeral. Charlie responds dutifully. The only other people who show up at the funeral are the designees of wealthy criminals (think oligarchs) who want to stab the uncle’s corpse to make sure he isn’t faking his own death (again).

After someone blows up Charlie’s house, Mathilda explains that his uncle was a successful criminal. She provides temporary housing for Charlie and reveals that his cats have been genetically modified, enabling them to communicate by keyboard. Charlie’s uncle used modified cats to spy on his enemies, Charlie, and pretty much every important person who owns a cat.

Charlie is soon introduced to a criminal organization to which his uncle belonged, or joined and left, or never joined, depending on who is telling the story. Ian Fleming loosely based SMERSH on rumors of the organization and loosely based Blofeld and his cat on one of its members. The plot concerns the organization’s belief that Charlie, as successor to his uncle’s criminal enterprise, owes the organization billions of dollars because his uncle either stole property belonging to the organization or competed unfairly with its members or breached an agreement to tithe his profits to the organization. Charlie takes a casual approach to their demands but proves to be a smarter businessman than any of the criminals, all of whom have a sense of entitlement but no business sense at all.

While I prefer Scalzi when he’s telling stories with more drama than talking cats can provide, I can’t fault the entertainment value of his lighter fare. His novels are often a roadmap for how to behave decently even when surrounded by people who behave selfishly. Charlie is easy to like and Scalzi rewards the reader’s interest in the character. The plot is surprisingly coherent for a book that features talking cats and unionized dolphins. Starter Villain moves quickly, seasons a pleasant story with amusing moments, and reaches a satisfying resolution.

RECOMMENDED

"Starter Villain" was a great time! Funny and irreverent from the get-go, with a protagonist who was easy enough to relate to, and VERY easy to pity due to the sheer amount of nonsense that happens to him in close succession. Scalzi's worldbuilding is timely and hilarious, and as intricate as the infrastructure in a spy movie. As a fan of action-comedies, and a cat person, I greatly enjoyed this book, and rooted for Charlie through the very end!

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 272 / Genre: Superhero Sci-Fi

Charlie Fitzer’s life is in the dumps when his estranged uncle dies and leaves him his billion dollar business. A business full of unbelievable tech and highly questionable associates. But Charlie has nothing to lose—literally—seeing how his house was just blown up by said associates. Charlie’s new adventure includes supervillains, a secret evil lair hidden under a volcano, talking cats, and foul-mouthed dolphins. This book was just plain fun and I really enjoyed it. It’s short, fast, and the perfect palate cleanser when you just need a laugh and break from reality.

Thank you @NetGalley and @TorBooks for the advanced copy of this book. I loved it!

John Scalzi is back with another light-hearted story in Starter Villain. Charlie Fitzer is your typical down-on-his-luck former business reporter and substitute teacher whose billionaire uncle dies leaving him a supervillain empire. After his uncle's funeral, attended mostly by people trying to make sure he is actually dead, Charlie's house is blown up. Charlie is visited by his uncle's assistant, Mathilda, learns that his cat is genetically modified, can talk and has been spying on him, and is whisked away to his uncle's volcano lair.
This is a lot to take in for a guy who was just trying to scrape together enough money to buy a bar. Danger increases when he is invited to a group of supervillains, the Lombardy Convocation. They want him to join, but they'd be just as happy if he died.

Scalzi is always entertaining, and Starter Villain is no different. There is a lot of sly humor, social commentary and some actual thought-provoking ideas. Charlie turns out to be cleverer than anticipated and makes some astute observations and deductions along the way. The supporting characters, particularly the animals, are lovingly rendered and very likeable. Scalzi is as good as anyone at developing likeable characters. This helps you connect with them whether they are involved in unusual labor negotiations or trying to escape a building literally coming down around their ears.

There are a few surprises along the way but this story is more about the journey than the destination. It's fast-paced, funny and has some genuine feeling. The stakes never feel too high and you'll get some good laughs along the way.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.

This is the sort of novel you can down in a day. It's fun, it's light, it's clever. It has cats who run things (which is eerily funny since that's the second book with very intelligent cats I've read this year). I wasn't quite sure where it was going at the start, despite the many many reviews which do apparently spoil the start of the book. But this is a fish out of water tale that isn't hurt by knowing going in that our hero is pretty much an anti-hero, and his uncle's bequest is anything but a simple inheritance.

Pro-union, anti-establishment, and with some great cracks at modern bro-tech culture, I found this absolutely charming. 4.5 delightful stars, and it's such a quick read you might as well start it now!

Starter Villain is a witty and hilarious good-time. Charlie, a down-on-his-luck substitute teacher, finds out that his estranged uncle has passed away, leaving Charlie his business endeavors. Those businesses turn out to be an entire villainous enterprise, complete with a volcanic island lair and network of weapons and spies. Charlie has to learn the ropes quickly, as there are other villains creeping in, hoping for an opportunity to bring Charlie down.

I was a big fan of the TV show "Chuck," and this book gives all those vibes plus some chuckle-inducing Gru/Austin Powers satire. Here's a taste of the humor: the villain enterprise considered training sharks to guard the volcanic lair, but sharks ended up not being smart enough to train. So instead, they trained dolphins. But the dolphins ended up being too smart, and have now decided to unionize in order to strike the unfair labor conditions of the island.

If that bit of nerdy, quirky humor made you smile like I did, then you will love this book. It's full of heart, lovable characters, and cats. It feels less like sci-fi and more like a thriller/heist, twisty and gasp-inducing. I thought the middle lost a little of its steam, but the ending was perfect. I wish Scalzi had left room for a sequel!

This book was all kinds of fun! When I saw this cover, I just knew that I needed to have this book in my life. I have appreciated John Scalzi's humor in the past and I just had a good feeling about this book. I am happy to report that I was not disappointed. The book was funny and kept me on my toes because nothing was impossible in this quirky little tale. And if you are wondering if cats play a role in this story, I can assure that they do indeed.

Charlie is down on his luck. After losing his journalist position and getting divorced, he moved back in with his father, who has now passed, and is trying to make ends meet by working as a substitute teacher. When his estranged billionaire uncle dies, he is asked to stand up for him at his funeral where the mourners seem rather enthusiastic. Before long Charlie is swept away by a world of supervillains who all seem eager to outmaneuver him.

The story was rather exciting and kept me guessing until the end. I loved the fact that there were some pretty big surprises in the story. Charlie was at a serious disadvantage in the world of supervillainy so I was really hoping to see him succeed and he did hold his own - at least most of the time. The humor worked into the story was incredibly well done which took the story to the next level. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this fun little book to others and cannot wait to see what will come next from this talented author.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Tor Books.

The nihilistic, anticapitalist millennial in me loved this book. It's a hilarious, easy, self-contained read. The characters are likable, and the banter between them is so sharp.

The beginning of the novel introduces us to Charlie, a broke substitute teacher squatting (with his cat) in his late father’s house with dreams of owning a local pub. He learns of his estranged billionaire uncle’s death but brushes it aside because he hasn’t seen his uncle since his mother’s death when he was 5. Without giving away too much plot away (much more fun for you to discover), let’s just say that his uncle came to his wealth in more sinister ways that Charlie could ever imagine and with Charlie as his heir, Charlie is now a novice villain in charge of an evil empire filled with talking animals and private island lairs (and enemies).

This was a funny and smart book that fully entertained me. If you are looking for something light but with intelligence to it, I highly recommend. I hadn’t read any other Scalzi books but now I am certainly going to look into his backlist!

4.25 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for the ARC to review

Does Scalzi ever disappoint?! This was so chaotic and funny and I loved it! The moment the book started I was grinning ear to ear! What would you do if you inherited a business that had some interesting clients?!

Starter Villain by John Scalzi is everything I enjoy about this author's other work. Charlie is far from thriving when he's notified of his estranged uncle's death. Things take off from there with a very atypical funeral experience, increasingly wild circumstances, and, of course, explosions.

Charlie is quite similar to Scalzi's previous heroes. He's far from perfect while still managing to have a bumbling charm that makes you root for him.

If you're looking for a quick, entertaining read that feels like an action comedy movie, check out STARTER VILLAIN.

This was so much fun! This book exactly fit the niche I was craving for my next read after coming off a more serious novel - light-hearted but not stupid, funny, some pointed satire, a little adventure, some twists, really easy to get into the story, and an extremely fast read. And because it's a short and quick read, the pacing keeps the story moving, so I found myself enjoying the entire novel and not putting it down. I'm finding I really enjoy Scalzi's sci-fi romps! 4.5 stars.

This book was preposterous and fun. It had all the elements I have come to expect from Scalzi: action, adventure, hijinks, clever characters, and outlandish but entertaining plots. Like many of his stories, this one makes a reader feel good; he always has a likable ‘Everyman’ protagonist and usually strong female characters as well. This book is no exception; I truly enjoyed the story.

This wasn’t as good as I hoped. Premise-wise I really liked it and some of the parts made me laugh out loud, like the super smart cats and the unionizing dolphins. But mostly, I just thought that it drug on and had a lot of lulls in action for a book about super villains. I think it would make a great movie though and I look forward to seeing it if it ever gets made.

Starter Villain is a book for anyone who is a cat devotee in real life and depicts who is really in charge of your life regardless of how much they manage to convince you otherwise. The furry masterminds living around us are more than able to engage in a spot of planning with their brethren in order to stave off some truly evil supervillains who are seemingly coming after protagonist Charlie since he was left his uncle's business not too long ago. But with some of the most intelligent species on the planet having been trained in the latest high-tech espionage techniques, if anyone can keep Charlie, his family and the good guys of this planet safe then it's his marvellously mad menagerie.

With enough action, originality and fast-paced antics throughout the narrative, you can always rely on Scalzi to pen a mile-a-minute, bonkers and utterly enthralling tale oozing with fun and evil in equal measure. The witticisms and humour we are used to from Scalzi pour out of every nook and cranny lending some real belly laughs to the mix and furiously interspersed twists and turns frequently catch you off guard. The cast of characters are exceptionally drawn too whether they be human or, as most are, true animals. A lot of times satire simply doesn't work in a book, but Scalzi's feline frenzy is a must-read for ardent ailurophiles and those who enjoy their fiction with more than a touch of delightful eccentricity and idiosyncrasy. Mad, bad and oh so rad.

This one is a hard one for me to rate, on one hand, I absolutely loved the cats. On the other, I didn’t really enjoy much else about this book. I couldn’t connect with Charlie like I had hoped. However, I do think this book will be widely loved.

John Scalzi is an author that I’ve been wanting to try for a few years now and Starter Villain was the perfect book for me to jump into the author’s works. This story is told in first person by Charlie who was a great character with the perfect balance of intelligence and humor. Charlie’s estranged uncle passes away leaving him a surprising business to run and as it turns out, Charlie’s cats are involved. And they’re sentient. And so are the dolphins. Yes, this was one strange adventure, filled with a canvas of fun villainous characters.

I found this one immensely entertaining. If you’re looking for a light, funny read, I definitely recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Books for a copy provided for an honest review.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi is delightful. Charlie is a down on his luck reporter who is working as a substitute teacher. He is barely making ends meet after a divorce and living in his childhood home that his siblings are trying to evict him from. Charlie sees on the news that his billionaire uncle, who he hasn’t seen since he was five, has passed away. Next thing he knows, he is thrust into being a heir of the villain business. Running covert operations that can ruin the political environment and kill tons of people does not come naturally to him. Complete with intelligent cats, talking, on-strike dolphin operatives, assassination attempts, and witty banter, this book delivers. I laughed out loud, got sucked into where this was going, and became attached to several characters. This is a quick read that entertains. I enjoyed every moment of it. 5/5 stars. This will be published on September 19th, 2023. Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for allowing me access to an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review will be found on Instagram and Goodreads indefinitely.