This is the first review that I’ve done where my first reading was actually the audio book. Because I skipped my Audio Round Up for November last year, I never got to talk about this one at all. So let’s talk about it.
About the Book
Title: Starter Villain
Author: John Scalzi
Series: none
Genre: Science Fiction, Humor
Pages: 264
Edition Read: Audio Book
Narrator: Wil Wheaton
Dates Read: November 29 – 30, 2024
Blurb: 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.
Review
The first thing I have to say about this book is this: it’s one of the funniest books I’ve read in a very long time. Literally, I laughed out loud numerous times.
My husband said I had to read this one, that I would really enjoy it. We went on a small road trip last November and thought this would be perfect to listen to on the way, especially since it’s a fairly short book. I had only read one of Scalzi’s books before and really enjoyed it, but this one takes the cake. It was so entertaining.
Charlie’s character is so down on his luck, you have to root for him throughout the story. He’s not a bad guy at all, he’s just had a series of misfortunes that have led to him pretty much losing everything. Fairly handy that this villain business falls into his lap, but he is so completely out of his depth. Each new revelation about what is going on is astounding as it is hilarious. As the blurb says: spy cats. A dolphin security force (fun “fact” – if you give dolphins the power to communicate with human speech, they are incredibly profane, which I didn’t see coming and was one of the funniest parts of the book).
Wheaton, as always, is a superb narrator for this book. His reactions to each increasingly ridiculous and incredible discovery of Charlie’s uncle’s true business is absolutely spot on perfect. This is the third audio book of his that I’ve listened to and it’s always such a treat.
Overall, this book is both lighthearted and deadly serious, quirky and heartfelt, and an absolute blast to read.
GoodReads rating: 5 stars
Categories: Books I've Read
Life With No Plot 
I need to read this book!
It’s so funny.