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Starter Villain

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Starter Villain

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 Feel-Good Funny Witty Cats
All stars
Most relevant  
Scalzi - safe bet. WW narrating - safe bet.
That doesn't mean it isn't entertaining as hell, it's just that you know you'll get your money's worth at a bare minimum.

And you get so much more than the minimum *evil villain laugh*.
John Scalzi is such a clever writer. It comes across with such ease, as if he wrote it in one take. It's a breezy read with fantastic twists, humour, self awareness and cats.

Wil Wheaton may be considered by so many as a fantastic voice actor, but that would be under selling how much he adds to the story. It was if it was written with his cadence and tone in mind.

Pure joy.

You just know it's going to be good

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Will Wheaton is one of the best audible narrators I’ve heard! & a unique and funny sci fi

Brilliant and Creative

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How does he make outlandish ideas seem so plausible? Wil Wheaton got the tone just right as usual

So Good

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The story and audio are great. The author continues his version of villains as he did in redshirts. Damn funny and enjoyable.

Great take

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Narrated wonderfully, this was a delightful listen. of course Cats are spy's and Dolphins are jerks... but this does them justice. an original tale that will be sure to make you smile.

a good laugh and totally enjoyable

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The Scalzi / Wheaton combo hasn't failed me yet. An original, light hearted villain novel with some appropriate sci fi with an awesome narrator.
Highly recommend

Fantastic as always

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I really enjoyed this book. It’s a fun, easy listen And I certainly don’t regret the purchase. I’ll be looking for more from this author. Plenty of laugh out loud moments. Although, I’m feeling slightly paranoid about my Cat now.🙂

This is a fun read/listen

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Best book I've read/listened to in a very long time. I love a little bit of villiany.

Well worth the listen

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I love how scalzi is able to take something pretty seriously and flip it on its head. Making villains terrible people and then making them worse.

Another great scalzi book

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Enjoyed thoroughly can’t really say anything without spoiler alerts Would thoroughly recommend To anyone who enjoys writing outside the box

Quirky good

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