Starter Villain

‘Laugh-out-loud funny, intricately plotted and big-hearted’ – SFXWarning: anti-hero in training. Risk of world domination.Locus and Hugo Award-winning author John Scalzi brings us Starter Villain, a turbo-charged tale of a family business with a difference – as Charlie discovers upon inheriting it. This one comes with a hidden headquarters, minions, talking cats and villainous rivals worthy of James Bond. Inheriting his late uncle’s business proves complicated. It’s also way more dangerous than Charlie could ever have imagined. Because his uncle’s supervillain status was a secret – until now.Divorced, broke and emotionally dependent on his cat, Charlie wasn’t loving life. Although they weren’t close, news of his Uncle Jake's death didn’t help. And that was before Jake’s rivals (seriously vengeful ones) ambushed his funeral. Now Charlie must decide if he should stay stuck in his rut, or step up to the family trade – enemies, minions, hidden volcano lair and all.Even harder to get used to are the operation’s sentient, talking, computer-savvy cats – and the fact that they’re management. If Charlie does say yes to all this, his lifeline could become a death wish. Because there’s much more to being an Evil Mastermind than he suspected. Yet could this also, finally, be his chance to shine?‘Talking spy cats and unionised dolphins – what’s not to like?’ – New Scientist‘Prepare to be delighted and surprised’ – Daily Mail‘The book had me hooked from page one’ – London Weekly News

Scalzi’s latest is a light-hearted story with a likeable fish-out-of-water protagonist and a lot of very smart cats. There’s also a dolphin labour dispute, some truly awful techbros, and a volcano island lair . . . Who could resist?, Laugh-out-loud funny, intricately plotted and big-hearted enough to touch even the grumpiest cynic, Starter Villain establishes Scalzi as SF’s leading humourist, Prepare to be delighted and surprised, Satire aplenty . . . Charlie has to handle the lethal machinations of rival villains and also a pod of talking dolphins with militant trade union tendencies in a novel that gleefully skewers the vanity and inanity of a certain kind of plutocrat, Fun, short and tightly plotted

John Scalzi is one of the most popular and acclaimed SF authors of his generation. His debut, Old Man’s War, won him science fiction’s John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His New York Times bestsellers include The Last Colony, Fuzzy Nation, Lock In, Redshirts, which won 2013’s Hugo Award for Best Novel, The Last Emperox and The Kaiju Preservation Society. Material from his widely read blog Whatever has also earned him two other Hugo Awards. He lives in Ohio with his wife and daughter.