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  • Starter Villain

  • Written by: John Scalzi
  • Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
  • Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (268 ratings)

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Starter Villain

Written by: John Scalzi
Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
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Publisher's Summary

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.

©2023 John Scalzi (P)2023 Audible, Inc.
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What listeners say about Starter Villain

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

so much fun!

An engaging story that I wish had been longer. I'm getting my cat a keyboard.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Scalzi and Wheaton do it again!

thank goodness for this team. love the premise. love the delivery. Fun and somehow light hearted and just a little but dark all at the same time.

beware of cats

and dolphins!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Funny and silly

This book is absolutely ridiculous and I’m so glad I read it. 10/10, I laughed all the way through.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Over the top fun

Scalzi has created an other fun romp, and Wil Wheaton's voicework is the perfect compliment. The perfect palate cleanser from the news of the day.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book. Wish it was a series.

The story was great but the ending was a bit of a let down. Would have loved to see more of Charlie and TIL and the others.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Meh

I did very much enjoy it. Nice character and narrator was awesome. Scalzi and Wheaton are a fantastic team as usual.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fun & Fresh Take on Villians

Being immersed in this story felt like diving into a professional-grade daydream. The hilarious host of supporting characters guiding a bewildered thirty-something through a fantastical series of events was reminiscent of Douglas Adams -- but the plot was easier to follow and slightly less unhinged than Adams', making this an ideal casual read. Scalzi's wry humour and laugh-out-loud quotes make this infinitely re-readable (despite knowing how it all ends).

Wheaton has a great voice for this book, although the performance was unpredictable. His timing and intonations were spot-on -- especially when impersonating AI translators -- but his slipping in and out of accents sometimes made it hard to discern which character was speaking and took me out of the action. I'd like to read this again in print and see how the experience changes.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wheaton’s improvements bolster masterful comedy book

Scalzi is again terrific. His ability to write comedy is tremendous, while also being incredibly inventive. As for the narration, I want to note that I recently listened to Scalzi’s and was disappointed by Wil Wheaton’s decision to read the text without differentiating voices. As a listener, this made the experience more difficult and less enjoyable. This time, he made sure to create consistent, separate voices for key characters. This made for a much more enjoyable listening experience. I loved it. Plus, the periodic moments when a silly or adorable section of the book made Wheaton sound giddy just added to the wonderful narration.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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Truly a joy

I like Scalzi's style of first person storytelling, and this may be the best of it. This book was laugh out loud funny at times and simply fun to listen to at others. On top of the story itself was my glee on realizing it is read by Wil Wheaton a man I grew up watching on ST:TNG and have only grown more fond of and gained more respect for in the following years. Between the fun and occasionally silly story telling and Wheaton's performance this book is quickly going on my re-listen list!

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great storey!

Truly enjoyed this book and hated to see it end!! Wil Wheaton was great too!

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1 person found this helpful