Sneak Peek for Starter Villain

by John Scalzi

Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Download a FREE sneak peek today!

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 standup, 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, hyper-intelligent 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.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction

30 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 11, 2023

About the author

John Scalzi, having declared his absolute boredom with biographies, disappeared in a puff of glitter and lilac scent.

(If you want to contact John, using the mail function here is a really bad way to do it. Go to his site and use the contact information you find there.)

Reviews

[Brok3n]

It's a boy!

My less than enthusiastic rating for Sneak Peek for Starter Villain is not meant to imply any lack of enthusiasm for Starter Villain itself. I have pre-ordered the latter and intend to gobble it down rapidly tomorrow. My disappointment is only because I had hoped that the sneak peek would get us far enough into the book for something interesting and unexpected to happen, some hint of what is to come, and that really doesn't happen in these first three chapters. So far there is just one very slightly weird detail (having to do with a wedding present), but that's it!

The story is told in the first person by someone called Charlie. Having embarrassed myself by missing the gender ambiguity of Jamie, the first-person narrator of The Kaiju Preservation Society, I paid attention this time. And I found this, among other things:

“Your mother meant a great deal to him, like I said. He was curious about her son.”

"Son" looks unambiguous. Charlie is a boy, at least for now. And I will use boy pronouns for him, until explicitly instructed otherwise.

Blog review.

[George]

Like Kurt Vonnegut novels .. I will defend Scalzi novels to anyone who asks .. and forget I read and enjoyed them in 30 days — something about cats and parking garages…..

[Durval Menezes]

It's impressive how Scalzi can start with the most ridiculous subjects and end up with a great story -- and from this sampler, I can see this is at least his third time doing that (the other two were Red Shirts, and Kaiju Preservation Society). Maybe this is his special superpower...

Anyway, great story. The only thing I didn't like it's that the book's blurb here in GoodReads and elsewhere gives up too much of the story... more than the first 3 chapters to be sure, and that kinda sucks. Or perhaps not, won't be sure until I can read the whole book -- which as of now, I simply can't wait. Yes, it's that great -- or at least this sampler is.

[Bruce Meltzer]

Great start by a great author.

The first three chapters provided a good foundation for the upcoming story. Without knowing the book title, you wouldn't have a clue as to what was about to come. The main protagonist is believable. Scalzi has such an amazing way with making the dialog come alive.

I highly recommend all of John Scalzi's novels starting with Old Man Wars series. Agent to the Stars is a hoot.

Thank you, John, for sharing your amazing talent!

Brujay

[Larry J]

A very good intro.

This was a very fun read and good introduction to what I’m sure will be a great book. Why am I sure? Well, that’s simple, everything John Scalzi writes is excellent. I just hope he reads this and gets it out sooner than September. I don’t like waiting so long and anticipation is highly overrated.

[Martin E Dinner]

Solid start.

Looking forward to the full version.

Yes, the rest of this review is basically filler. Go Amazon! Good job Bezos.

[Mguhin]

Tantalizing sample.

[Bianca]

A great start. I can't wait until the book comes out.

[TONY]

I will listen to the full version! Go Wil Wheaton

[Jeff Miller]

Scalzi being scalzi. This book is so good. I love the voice of the protagonist. Witty and humble. Great fast read. Great job as always!

[Kyla]

Starter Villain was cute, but ultimately forgettable for me. 

The premise is genuinely fun. Inheriting a supervillain empire run by hyper-intelligent cats and unionizing dolphins? Incredible. Hera and Persephone absolutely carried this book, and the dolphin union subplot had some great comedic moments. Those elements were easily the highlight. 
 

The final reveal — that everything was an elaborate plan and he’s sent back to a relatively normal life with cash, a house, and a pub — felt like a stretch. With the uncle worth trillions, it seemed unnecessarily convoluted when there were simpler ways to achieve the same outcome. 

The audiobook didn’t help. The narration lacked distinct character voices, so many characters sounded the same. It flattened some of the humor and absurdity that should have felt more dynamic. 

Overall: fun concept, strong animal side characters, but the story itself felt a little incomplete. Enjoyable in the moment, but not something I’ll think about long term. 

[Elaine Bahr]

The premise lived up to it's promise. Sentient animals, a league of villains, chaos, murder, deception this book had it all. I could relate with the MC and his struggles. Was this the best written book I've read this year, probably not, but it was a delightful parody of every Bond and Minions movie I've seen. Normally, science fiction and fantasy are not my favorite genres. I'm glad I took a chance on this story. This was a nice break from my typical reading list.

[Stef]

Loved it. My only complaint: I loved it so much I wish it was longer!
I was suggested this book after reading Dungeon Crawler Carl, because of the cat I suppose. Not the same genre, but I admit the fun punchlines and sarcasm in this are equally satisfying.

[Nick]

I’ve noticed that Scalzi’s books don’t really develop a plot until about halfway through. For this book, the quality writing just wasn’t enough to save it from a very lack luster plot that develops late.

[Anne Maddox]

Wow. I don’t even know how to describe this book. It WAS funny though.

[Michael Mullen]

Unabridged Audiobook

Oh what fun was this. Twists and turns and a little cat to join you on the journey.

[Davidh]

Funny and cleaver. Listened to the audio and it was very well done. Want more in this universe.

[Chris Hammond]

Very fanciful and far fetched billionaire conspiracy heist thing. Writing style kind of annoyed me

[Jim]

Intriguing start, curious to read the full book. This sneak peek doesn't introduce any of the things full book description does, just the main character. I'd argue the sneak peek needs more to it to set things up.

[Larry]

Super-intelligent cats that communicate via specialized paw-friendly keyboards, asshole dolphins planning to form a union, and a villainous evil organization based on a volcanic island in the Caribbean. What’s not to love?

[Paul Veldhouse]

This book is a great “silent chuckle”. Modern villainy at its most silly, cynical, and intelligent. The main character is incredibly likable and surrounded by a “cats” (pun intended, read the book) of characters that are funny and well drawn.
Loved it. Kudos.

[Tom Comeau]

Well, now I have yo wait for the rest of it.

[Cliff]

Potentially interesting...

...but ultimately pointless.
I've read and loved several of Scaliz's books, but this one left me wondering, why? The cats were good, I guess.

[Andrea Frankel]

DNF halfway. I usually love his books, but this seemed lifeless and pointless.

[Topher]

I am not really sure which shelf to stick this on, as there were no fantastical elements within the preview. We'll go scifi for now, look for the book, and potentially change it later.

[James]

Just the first three chapters.. but I am going to buy this book. Now that I am three chapters in. Also I enjoyed Red Shirts so i know that i like this author before

[Gregg]

Wonderfully warped. A fun read.

[Erin]

I always enjoy a Scalzi book and this one was no different. Very fun, and action-packed. Plus informative about the relative benefits of a supervillain volcano lair.

[Ashlee Earl]

Fun read and creative story. I would def read a second book. I liked the middle but the beginning and end were meh. How it ended was a bit unsatisfying. The cats were a definite win!! 3.5