I am giving up on John Scalzi. I want to love these so much, just look at that cover! But the quirky and humorous style just isn't for me. I prefer a bit more of a serious sci-fi and Scalzi is definitely known for his quirky take on the genre. His ideas are always different and unique, but the writing style just isn't for me.

Charlie, a down on his luck reporter turned substitute teacher, inherits his estranged uncle’s massive wealth and parking garage empire - along with his less savory but much more profitable businesses. What follows is a fantastical romp through the world of billionaires-turned-super villains, complete with super secret lair on a volcanic island, talking cat management, and unionized dolphins. John Scalzi’s trademark humor makes this a fast, fun, and unputdownable read.

John Scalzi delivers a fun and vulgar riff on Despicable Me in Starter Villain, minus the yellow squeak-box Minions.

Divorced, laid-off journalist turned substitute teacher, Charlie, is just about destitute and dreaming of owning a bar when he's able to finally live out the true American Dream -- inheriting a shitload of wealth from a relative he never even knew! In the wake of his estranged uncle's death, Charlie finds himself insanely wealthy, but it comes with a catch. His house is blown-up and he's framed for the murder of a government operative, leaving him no choice but to embrace the conditions of his uncle's bequeathment by taking over the parking magnate's secret business as a villain, replete with volcano lair, hired goons, and a fleet of ships named after a trio of Hollywood Jennifers, like Lopez and Lawrence, and who wouldn't want to catch a ride aboard either of those?

It's not all smooth sailing, despite the trillions of dollars Charlie suddenly finds himself in possession of. For one thing, the dolphins are on strike. Then there's the cabal of villains made up of a number of the globe's insanely wealthy elite, who are demanding Charlie's presence at their forthcoming convocation or else. Oh, and there's the fact that Charlie has absolutely no freaking idea how to be a villain or what to do with all these crazy resources suddenly at his disposal.

Scalzi keeps the proceedings light and breezy, despite the heavier intonations of murder, bombings, and attempted assassinations, never letting the darker elements outweigh the brightly silly escapades he's so clearly having a ton of fun with here. And what's a Scalzi book without Wil Wheaton narrating? These two are a perfect match, their sensibilities perfectly simpatico with one another. Wheaton fully captures the wit, irony, and sarcasm inherent in Scalzi's style and keeps the story moving fast with his quick-fire reading. Between the two of them, Starter Villain is a laugh-out-loud escapist delight.

This was extremely well written and EXACTLY what I needed.

This is my first John Scalzi and I could not have been happier. It was soooo overly dramatic and not dramatic enough! Literally perfectly paced.

Hera is just amazing and I wish I could have a cat that could talk back to me.....Just perfect.

We liked Starter Villain by John Scalzi. the characters were of course engaging and the thought of super-intelligent cats dolphins, and eventually whales was great. we loved the plot, that its all a double cross and there is no treasure was great. We loved that once started we didn't want to put it down and that it made it a very fast read! So so many enjoyable moments and moments that made us laugh out loud

Every time I saw something in regards to this book I became more and more interested in picking it up. First there was the cover; that's just brilliant and I love it. Then I saw an interaction on Instagram between the author and publisher which was funny and endearing in a teasing way. And then I saw the synopsis and I was sold. I knew I had to read it.

And I'm so glad I did because it was such an enjoyable time and very well executed. The story was clever, funny, and flowed well. Things that happened made sense within the world. While the groundwork for certain elements was laid out, there were things I didn't see coming until in hindsight.

And something that shouldn't be surprising but was a relief to find out was that the story was as advertised. While I was taken on an unexpected ride, it was the one I signed up for.
So many books are being mis-marketed or the synopsis is just this side of a lie; I'm so glad this book didn't pull any of those stunts because it was the story I wanted to read.

The last bit of positive feedback l'd like to give is that the characters were well written. The main characters were likeable and believable as people. They were quick but not quirky. The side characters were great and distinguishable as individuals. And of course the cats, which I can give no notes on because they were just perfection.

While I was excited to read this book, I think I was equally nervous. Partially because l've already bought three of John Scalzi's books without reading more than the first chapter of an earlier release, so if I didn't like Starter Villain I wasn't holding out much hope for Redshirts and The Kaiju Preservation Society. But beyond that it's always a gamble reading really popular male authors particularly within the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genres because you never know if you're going to get someone who writes women that boob boob-ily while boob-ing about, or if the author will just treat them as people. I'm relieved John Scalzi seems to fall into the latter category. Not once did I get the Men Writing Women vibe.

TL;DR: I had a great time with this and would recommend the book to those that are interested.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. Also shoutout to me for buying a copy of this book before reading it.

I'm a huge Scalzi fan and this didn't disappoint. I really appreciate that his books are somehow very down to earth despite the fantastical settings. Starter Villain was such a delight to read, I've recommended it to so many patrons at my library who have all enjoyed it.

Shockingly funny. The story starts with a rather mundane seeming premise and then snowballs from there. The main character makes it possible to handle all the absurd situations in a way that makes them feel potentially real. Highly recommend if looking for a book that makes you laugh over and over again.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Starter Villain and highly recommend it to anyone looking for intelligent and humorous entertainment. The book is enjoyable and imaginative, but also comes with a moral lesson - be kind to cats!

An enjoyable play on all things super villain. Talking cats, dolphins forming a labor strike, lasers, and a fast pace that readers will enjoy. Pair that with Scalzi's sarcastic humor and you get a exciting page turner.

John Scalzi's latest novel is an engaging and witty romp starring Charlie Fitzer, an ex-journalist working as a substitute teacher, who discovers that his estranged uncle has died and left him his supervillain business. Suddenly, Charlie is thrown into the world of comical James-Bond-style villain societies, talking cats, laser death rays, dolphin labor disputes, a volcano island lair, and lots of double and triple twists. The book is chock full of laugh-out-loud dialogue as well as Scalzi’s thoughts on modern-day billionaires and who is actually running the world making this both an enjoyable and intriguing read. This is a short book that will appeal to a wide range of readers; I highly recommend it. 4.5 stars- absolutely loved it.

Witty, bizarre, and laugh out loud at points, this latest offering from John Scalzi was a quick romp that stayed with me long after I finished. Filled with twists, reveals that became more bizarre the further in I got, and a delightfully barmy premise, "Starter Villain" was a huge amount of fun.

This was my first John Scalzi read and certainly won't be my last. Fun and fast this was a really great read and I look forward to checking out more from him in the future.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

Smart, funny full of dark humour. If you wand James Bond feels with talking dolphins, missile firing whales and The Cats are amazing.
And the crash course on becoming a villain. Brillian

4/5 gnomes

I first found this book on NetGalley and read the first two chapters, then I came back to it for my book club and ended up buying a copy of the book to finish it (to make sure everybody read the same thing.)

The characters and humor really make this book shine. You really feel for Charlie and the fact that his life isn't exactly going great. Then things turn very intriguing when his uncle dies. That might just have been the funniest funeral scene that I've ever read (also seriously contemplating some of those flower arrangements and vases for the future for reasons.)

I love that Charlie is thrown into this world of villains. Hera is my favorite and very much a surprise. The expectations versus the reality of it all when it comes to villainy are a great read. Also, all of the animals and implications that they have in the story are extremely entertaining.

I truly was surprised by all the twists and turns and the end will really make you smile. Overall, feels like a well lived in world that has a lot of stories to tell.

Oh this book! What a needed delight! Fun. Quick read. Quirky. Humor. A well much needed fun read!
Charlie's life is a downward trajectory - stale job, stale living situation, just stale.
His uncle dies - Charlie stands for him at the wake, though they haven't seen each other in almost 30 years. The funeral arrangements - one of the best parts of the book. Honestly this entire book is enjoyable. Spy cats. Dolphins about to strike. Smart and chilling.

This was such a fun read! It starts out innocently enough, and then starts to build, and you can just see that the main character is in over his head but not so over his head that he can't handle it. I love that he just rolls with the weirder parts of things, and the construction of the overall story/plot is just so well done. Love Hera and Persephone, and the hilarious side bits with the labor dispute and really just everything. If you like fun, you should like this. If you like stories about evil villains like Hench or Vicious, you should LOVE this book.

It's also a quick read--I started it at about 11:30pm and finished it before 3am. And yeah, I shouldn't have stayed up reading it, but it was that good that I just couldn't put it down. Definitely going to propose this for my library's student book club in the future.

Charlie has no idea what his Uncle Jake has been up to. He has not heard from him since Jake sent a wedding gift predicting the exact day of his divorce. Living alone with his cat, Charlie deals with the humdrum miseries of life as a substitute teacher and the fun unique ones that come from his absent siblings pushing him to sell his father’s house, the only place he can sort of afford to live. When a mysterious woman shows up with news of his uncle’s death, Charlie’s entire life changes. He finds himself inheritor, not to a jumble of parking lots, but to a new life as a super villain. This new life is hardly all spy cats and talking dolphins though, other villains smell blood in the water and Uncle Jake’s old enemies are numerous. Charlie may not know what he is doing, but the only way to win might be to play by his own rules.

John Scalzi's Starter Villain is one of those books that I know how I feel about it, but not how to talk about it without just rambling. The writing is quite good. The humor is on point. And there is this delightful thread of what feels like very real anger towards the kind of people who would use their money and influence to change the world for their benefit and their benefit only with no thought to the harm that it would bring others that, to be fully honest, reminds me that I need to read more Terry Pratchett.

There is a contrast between Charlie, our fish out of water substitute teacher turned super villain with a heart of gold and quite a lot of confusion, and the villains of the Lombardy Convocation, a collection of the sorts who inherited wealth and power and throw their weight around grasping for more, thinking themselves quite clever while they do so. Charlie is just some guy who lucked into all of this. And that is what makes him work as the protagonist. He is just some guy, but he is clever and kind and tries to do right by people regardless of if they happen to be human or not. He is the first one to actually listen to the dolphins and their unionization demands. He worries about what his cats think about him after finding out they have human intelligence.

Charlie is everything that the Lombardy Convocation guys could never be because they are so separated from the rest of humanity by their wealth and power. He can work out a union deal with the hyper intelligent dolphins despite their anger at everything because he cannot help but see them as people, because while he has not been in their exact position, he has been through similar. He goes from being broke as a joke, barely able to pay the bills on a house that is only a quarter his while trying to keep himself and his cats fed to inheriting his uncle's multi-billion dollar villainous venture and all that it entails, but he stays just some guy.

The setting is also a delight with the very deliberate James Bond pastiche to Charlie's uncle's volcano base and the requirement that all Lombardy Convocation members have a cat. The acknowledgements that hyper intelligent animals would necessarily have differences to their normal counterparts and, likewise, needs beyond those of standard animals. The sheer ridiculousness of a villain convention hidden in plain sight and yet so very like an exploitative reality tv show on the inside. It is an elseworld built to the side of what regular people would see, not through magic but through influence and the sheer power of money.

I like Starter Villain quite a bit. Charlie is clever and caring and very human in a book full of spy flick characters and deliberately corporate villain types. I find myself less wanting to chew on the setting than wanting to see a four-part miniseries set in it, show me all the cracks in the villains’ set up half as well as Scalzi does and I would be a very happy watcher. And the book is funny to boot, again, unionizing dolphins and spy film style super villains. It is decidedly different from a lot of what I read, but I also just like Scalzi’s writing. Five out of five, Starter Villain is definitely worth the read.

A quirky and amusing read that fans of John Scalzi will enjoy. I admit this was a little more out there in terms of concepts but it was a quick, easy read that made me laugh. I loved Hera and the dolphins, they were 100% my favorite characters. Charlie grew on me quite a bit but he really cemented a place in my heart during the Zoom meeting. That was certainly a highlight. I think if anything I was a but saddened to learn that Charlie doesn't in the end take over the villain empire.

This isn't the life Charlie had imagined for himself. He had been a business reporter and then business magazines and newspapers had hit a wall and made massive cuts. Charlie is back home in the house he grew up in, taking whatever work he can find to keep body and soul together. Plus feed his cat Hera, his best and sometimes seems only friend.

Then Charlie gets a phone call from a lawyer. His rich uncle has died and left Charlie a legacy. Charlie knows that his uncle had scads of parking garages and that he was rich but he didn't know he was a billionaire. Or that his real empire hid behind the legitimate garages and that he was a super villain, making money from technology and government grants and foiling other villains.

Now Charlie is supposed to take over. He goes to headquarters, which is an island built on a volcanic system. There he finds talking dolphins and cats who are spies, one of which happens to be his cat Hera. There is a cohort of villains who hated his uncle and now they want to take out Charlie and get all the money. Can Charlie foil their plans and stay alive?

This is one of the best books I've read lately. John Scalzi is known for his science fiction, having been a past president of the Science Fiction And Fantasy Writers Of America. His work has won a Hugo and several works are in development as television series. This work is much lighter and Charlie is a hero that the reader will fall in love with. There is lots of treachery and double-dealing but Charlie remains the good hearted person he always was. This book is recommended for fantasy readers.