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Starter Villain

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Starter Villain

Written by: John Scalzi
Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
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About this listen

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.
Adventure Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction Superhero Funny Witty Feel-Good Cats
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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.

Wheaton’s improvements bolster masterful comedy book

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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!

Truly a joy

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

Great storey!

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This was an unexpectedly great listen. I wasn't sure what to expect and got a sold story about death, quarter life crisis, billionaire villains, and cats with hidden depths. The narration is good and suits the material. The material is fast paced, humorous, compelling, easy to listen to and hard to put down. If you like and/or own cats you'll probably get extra appreciation out of some aspects of this. There is a lot to like.

Actually a pretty good time

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I really appreciate the originality of the story I was laughing out loud most of it . so hard to put down it's funny entertaining and heart warming

very funny

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

so much fun!

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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!

Scalzi and Wheaton do it again!

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

Funny and silly

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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.

Over the top fun

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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.

Great book. Wish it was a series.

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