Starter Villain

By John Scalzi

Now a New York Times bestseller!

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, 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.

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Published Sep 19, 2023

288 pages

Average rating: 7.63

395 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Groundhogcat
Oct 24, 2025
8/10 stars
This was an enjoyable book. A spoof on villain stories. Really enjoyable. My only complaint was I wish there was more cat action.
MRYBRY
Sep 20, 2025
10/10 stars
If there is only one book you read, it needs to be this one. I laughed and I gasped and I laughed some more.
Lindsey B
Jun 24, 2024
8/10 stars
4.25 stars - I adored this book, even more than I thought I would, and highly recommend it for those in search of a short, fun read.
WineforReading
May 12, 2024
7/10 stars
Witty, light-hearted and sarcastic. I never would have read this on my own but so glad I did.
JT Penguin
Jun 24, 2026
7/10 stars
I liked this book! It was a cute, fluffy pallette cleanser. I loved the spy cats and the unionizing dolphins. I literally LOLd when Charlie was shutting the laptop on Roberto! And the ending was so cute and had little hearts in my eyes!!

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