Preview
  • Starter Villain

  • By: John Scalzi
  • Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
  • Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (10,426 ratings)

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Starter Villain

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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About the Creator

New York Times bestselling author John Scalzi is celebrated for his sharp, whip-smart sci-fi. With novels such as Redshirts, Lock In, The Collapsing Empire, and The Kaiju Preservation Society, Scalzi’s uncanny ability to craft new worlds and technologies has earned him three Hugo Awards, three Locus Awards, a Heinlein Award, and the Audie Award for Original Work. His works have been translated into over 30 languages. Adding to his long-form fiction triumphs, Scalzi acted as a creative consultant on the Stargate Universe television series and as a writer for the Emmy-winning Netflix series Love Death + Robots. From 2010 to 2013, Scalzi served as president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and in 2016, he received the Governor’s Award for the Arts in Ohio. He currently resides in Bradford, Ohio with his wife and (several) pets.

About the Performer - Starter Villain

About the Performer

Wil Wheaton loves to tell stories. He’s been doing it his whole life.
By age ten, he had already been acting for three years. In 1986, at age 12, he earned critical acclaim as Gordie Lachance in Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me; at 14, he began his four-year turn as Wesley Crusher on the hit TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, which led to his portrayal of a fictionalized version of himself on CBS’s The Big Bang Theory.
He currently hosts The Ready Room, the official online hub for all things Star Trek Universe.
An accomplished voice actor, Wil has lent his talents to animated series, including Family Guy, Teen Titans, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. His video game credits include four installments each of the Grand Theft Auto and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon series, as well as Fallout: New Vegas, DC Universe Online, Broken Age, and I Expect You To Die 2.
His audiobook narration of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list and was one of Goodreads’ 10 Best Narrator and Audiobook Pairings of All Time. He has also lent his voice to titles by John Scalzi, Randall Monroe, Joe Hill, and Bill Gates. Wil’s narrations regularly appear on Audible’s bestseller list.
He has contributed columns to Salon.com, The A.V. Club, The Wall Street Journal, LA Weekly, Playboy, The Washington Post, and the Suicide Girls Newswire.
In his New York Times bestselling Still Just a Geek, an older, somewhat wiser Wil revisited 2004’s Just a Geek with all-new reflections that show just how far he’s come. In this vulnerable, honest memoir about trying and failing and trying again, Wil opens up about love, trauma, tragedy, and confronting the worst parts of himself. Equal parts funny and poignant, Still Just a Geek weighs the folly of youth against the pain of experience—and celebrates all the strange, awful, beautiful adventures in between.
In recent years, Wil has opened up about his CPTSD from surviving childhood abuser and exploitation. He has earned recognition as an outspoken mental health advocate, chronicling his own journey in his blog and as a public speaker for NAMI. His powerful, candid essay about his struggle with chronic depression and anxiety garnered national attention.
Though he keeps trying to retire from on-camera acting, his cameo as The Traveler in Star Trek: Picard’s second season delighted fans, sparking speculation about his character making appearances elsewhere in the Star Trek Universe. Wil was a finalist in the 2023 Celebrity Jeopardy Tournament, where he won 250,000 dollars for the National Women’s Law Center.
Wil lives in Los Angeles with his badass, irrepressible wife Anne, their rescued dog and cat, and five arcade cabinets.

What listeners say about Starter Villain

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

A Toxoplasmosis-Induced Fairy Tale

I, too, am impacted. All kittening aside, I enjoyed this story. Being transported to the lair by Scalzi and Wheaton was a fantastic ride. I particularly liked the original use of tropes. Imaginatively repackaging them is my favorite thing about reading or listening to Mr. Scalzi's books. Though not as deep as The Collapsing Empire series, this story is as relevant to current issues. Go dolphins! Seriously, use your credit; you won't regret it.

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18 people found this helpful

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

Great story. Meh narration.

As stated above. The story is great. Funny, witty, and I love the cats. And the dolphins.

Wil Wheaton’s narration lacks a bit. He gets very squeaky when excited, and it can be hard to tell who’s talking (his character voices aren’t terribly distinct, which is ok, but he changes it up just enough and then switches around so it’s not always clear).

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12 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Satisfying , with cats

Swearing dolphins & mercenary cats are delivered in a way that I think dolphins & cats would approve of, from what I know about dolphins & cats. Billionaires would not approve of how they’re presented; I approve of how they’re presented. For featuring villainous billionaires, the overall tone was lighthearted snark, which I enjoy generally and in this story in particular.

Sort of a content warning: It’s an odd book because the villains, who one might expect to perpetrate death & destruction, don’t really do so when one would expect. There is still death & destruction (& much dolphin swearing) but I didn’t find most of it particularly problematic or upsetting. I was more concerned that the main character didn’t seem to know how to make friends & resented his job. But given the poor pay of US teachers, and worse conditions for subs, I am sympathetic. But a guy who is kind to stray cats should have more friends & that’s my biggest quibble with the story, not the occasional violence.

Worldbuilding: fantastical secret lair & talking animals worked for me. It’s Glass Onion meets the Incredibles. Subscriptions are one of the purest evils, at least the way they are now.

Narration: Lively and entertaining. I didn’t agree with all choices for tone, but overall a pleasant listen. if you like Wheaton generally you’ll like it.

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7 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Story is engaging. Narrator get too over-the-top

I'm enjoying the story. I have listened to and enjoyed all of John Scalzi's books. I find the storyline of this book to be engaging and fun. However, the narrator during certain moments (expressing frustration, surprise or disagreement by one or more of the characters) starts screaming/screeching as a way of characterizing these emotions. I wish he would take it down a couple of notches :-(

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Lives up to the hilarious premise

Starting listening as soon as it dropped this morning, and it kept me laughing all day. Aside from the usual “he said” nonsense, the story moved along very well. Wil Wheaton proves again to be the perfect Scalzi narrator.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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The cats!

I liked the understated power of the cats; and the humans who serve them. I have 6 cats and know how it goes.

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3 people found this helpful

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More

Wheaton voices Scalzi universe with energy and emotion. Fun listening a cool story. Do more!!

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Enjoyable read

If you took a Bond novel, turned it upside down and shook until everything but Blofelt’s cat came out, then added a good dose of Gen Y sensibility and humor you might come close to being as entertaining. Plots within plots within plots will have you wondering if you were Scalzi’s catspaw the whole time. My only complaint is that I finished it and have to read it again, and few authors beyond Tolkien and Pratchett inspire me to instant re-reads. Well done, highly recommended. Follow the author on Blue Sky social.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fun and simple

This was a fun story. Not serious or sensical, but it hums along really well kept me entertained the whole time. Wheaton does his thing. Like many, I think his performance in Ready Player One was outstanding and contributed greatly to the book’s success. Wil doesn’t have much range though, especially with the tone of voice and squeaky edginess he tends to give to the main character, and it’s starting to get on my nerves. That’s my only gripe and it’s minor.

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So funny and entertaining!!

I loved the story and also wil wheatons narration! We need more cat-centric novels if you ask me lol

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1 person found this helpful