Starter Villain

Inheriting a family business is never easy – and this one includes a hidden volcano lair, minions, talking cats and supervillains. Starter Villain is a Hugo Award-nominated, page-turning adventure from New York Times bestseller John Scalzi.

An enormously entertaining comedy

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

In this clever, fast-paced thriller , Hugo Award winner subverts classic supervillain tropes with equal measures of tongue-in-cheek humour and common sense . . . The result is a breezy and highly entertaining genre send-up

This story of snark with a heart reminds readers that the logical conclusion of “dogs have owners, cats have staff” is that cats are management and never let anyone forget it . . . Readers of humorous fantasy are sure to love Scalzi’s latest as much as those cats; it’s also for those who enjoy seeing superhero stories folded, twisted and mutilated, and anyone wishing for a righteous villain lair surrounded by intelligent sharks. Highly recommended

Irreverent and subversive . . . James Bond-level bad guys set in the everyday trudge of corporate life a la The Office

Funny satire . . . the cats are the real heroes (obviously)

Scalzi again examines tropes in a tale of an ordinary individual being cast into an extraordinary situation with his trademark quick pacing, clever banter and ability to find humour in desperate situations . . . With a large print run and a clever premise, Scalzi’s latest will appeal to his legion of fans and draw in new ones

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.