Category Archives: Kirsty rambles on about life, the universe, tv, and everything!
Starter Villain by John Scalzi – Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
Inheriting your mysterious uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might imagine.
Sure, there are things you’d expect. The undersea volcano lairs. The minions. The plots to take over the world. The international networks of rivals who want you dead.
Much harder to get used to… are the sentient, language-using, computer savvy cats. And the fact that in the overall organization, they’re management.
About the Author
John Scalzi is one of the most popular and acclaimed SF authors. 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, The End of All Things and Redshirts, which won 2013’s Hugo Award for Best Novel. Material from his widely read blog Whatever has also earned him two other Hugo Awards. He lives in Ohio with his wife and daughter, and many cats. @scalzi
What I Thought
I have read and really enjoyed a couple of John Scalzi’s books before. Redshirts and The Kaiju Preservation Society. Starter Villain falls into the same category of creating a loving pastiche of the relevant genre, with a richly imagined world and entertaining plot to hang the humour on.
In Starter Villain we follow Charlie, a divorced substitute teacher who finds out about the demise of his estranged uncle, and along with his cat Hera gets thrown into a villainous world of volcanic lairs, assassination attempts and more. But it’s okay because Hera knows all about it and can …talk!
Dr Evil, Goldfinger and Thanos all get a nod but I got Gru from Despicable Me vibes too. Can mild mannered Charlie draw on his villainous side and keep his uncle’s businesses afloat when really all he wanted to do was run a pub?
Not only do we get sentient cats but we get unionised dolphins too. And supposedly dogs make the worst villains because they will betray you for a head rub and a treat. Not sure Daire is expressing Villain in the picture above tbh!
Although I was gifted a copy, in the end I did end up downloading the audiobook too because it is narrated by Wil Wheaton who does a great job at capturing Charlie’s incredulousness at what is happening to him.
There is a lot of action, explosions and peril. There’s even a villainous conference alongside an entrepreneurial one. Is there overlap between members?
Charlie faces off against henchmen, CIA agents and whales and at the end does he decide to stay and take over the family business? Does he even survive? There’s no saving of cats in this rather the cats do the saving.
In the afterword, John Scalzi mentions his experience of cognitive challenges post Covid and how he found writing this book took more effort than previous books would have taken. As someone living with Long Covid myself it is so important for people to be aware of some of the challenges that can face people who don’t bounce back from COVID-19 infection and I thank John for speaking out and hope he is feeling much better now. As ever he’s written a brilliant book and if you are a fan of Bond Villains or Austin Powers do be sure to pick this up.
Thanks to Black Crow PR and U.K. Tor for the gifted copy for the purposes of an honest review. Check out the rest of the tour using #StarterVillain
To everyone who could make someone else’s day worse, but tries to make it better instead.
John Scalzi – dedication of Starter Villain
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#42for22 – 2022 Reading Challenge
On the 22nd of December, what better day to share our 2022 reading challenge – hosted by Jay (@jkkenobi) Stacey (@svmitche) Catherine (@catrad) and me (@kirstyes). Yes, we are back for the 4th year. This time using the hashtag #42for22.
We’ve all gone for one word prompts which you can use to inspire your book choice in any way you choose. And we have used Michelle’s initials in memory of her – again to be used how you wish. Our entire challenge last year was dedicated to Michelle who passed away in 2020. We still miss you Mich.
As ever, if it is on Goodreads it counts.
If it is audio, e, paperback or hardback it counts.
If it’s a re-read or a new read it counts.
Ideally you’d pick one book per prompt but if you are short of time and still want to take part, if a book fits two or more prompts, pop it down.
If you find one book that fits all 42 prompts together we want to know what it is!
Here’s the challenge image made by Catherine.
And the spreadsheet can be downloaded from Dropbox here.
There are 9 days of the year left and I have two books left to read for our 2021 challenge #42forMich, and nine books left to read to hit my Goodreads challenge of 150 (this will be my lowest total since 2015!). I am actually part way through 9 books so the hopes is I get at least all of them all finished. Wish me reading luck.
I will aim to do a wrap up post and tell you briefly about my favourite books this year on the 31st (famous last words).
Hope everyone has read some awesome books this year and here is to reading some brilliant ones for this challenge next year.
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Fireborn by Aisling Fowler – #TheWriteReads #UltimateBlogTour Book Review
About the Book
Lyra. Lucy. Percy. Once in a generation, a hero emerges whose story enthralls readers worldwide.
Fireborn is an epic quest, perfect for fans of the His Dark Materials and The School for Good and Evil series, that will spin readers into a magical world like no other–and introduce them to an unforgettable new heroine named Twelve.
Ember is full of monsters.
Twelve gave up her name and identity to train in the art of hunting them–so she says. The truth is much more deadly: she trains to take revenge on those who took her family from her.
But when Twelve’s new home is attacked, she’ll find herself on an unexpected journey, where her hidden past is inescapably intertwined with her destiny–and the very fate of her world.
About the Author
Aisling was born in 1985 and wishes that she had grown up in a magical, mountainous kingdom, but was actually raised in Surrey on a diet of books and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Her early ‘adventure’ stories involved surprisingly little action and her first novel (3 pages long) was politely declined by publishers at age 11. After earning a BSc in Biology and working as a support worker and then a nurse, the idea for her debut novel, Fireborn, came to her as she moved back and forth between London and the US. Now based in Hackney, when she is not reading or writing, Aisling loves cooking and plotting adventures (for herself as well as her fictional characters). Fireborn will be published by HarperCollins in 2021.
from https://www.rcwlitagency.com/authors/fowler-aisling/)
What I Thought
Well. What a ride this book was.
When a book is this good it becomes tricky to write a review but here goes.
I love the magic and adventure of middle grade books and this is a world to get immediately engulfed in. Truly a case of starting In Media Res (in the middle of the action) and learning about the world as we read. There are early hints that Twelve is at the Hunting Lodge under false pretences, and based on unfortunate circumstances, and that is solidified in her position as an outsider, as one set apart from her fellow Huntlings, each named for a number until they pass their training and earn their place and the right to choose a new name. In their pledge they agree to forsake their previous lives in order to serve all seven clans in Ember and fight the monsters that threaten them all.
Of course monsters do not always come with fangs and fur but in all manner of guises, amongst those you know and even within yourself. Flashbacks in nightmares unwind the horror in Twelve’s past, but is her anger directed in the right way?
We have wolves, goblins, witches, talking trees, and new and untold horrors. Beware the deathspinners and The Croke!
But on side of light we have stone guardians and squirrels 🐿 as well as unexpected allies who help Twelve and some of her fellow Huntlings survive through the Frozen Forest way before they were ever meant to enter it. But do they all make it?
Warriors and Clans make this setting an imagined prehistoric world with added magic and myths. This was a truly gripping and pacy read and I loved the relationships between the Huntlings. It’s great when there is some animosity in the team, definitely adds to the tension. Twelve is also an internally conflicted character and her backstory is really quite chilling and it comes back to haunt her. Along the way she learns some lessons and even makes some friends because alone is not the way to win a war and it looks like one is coming.
There were some unexpected twists and turns and some things that I guessed at and it’s the mark of good writing when both are satisfying.
I definitely recommend getting your hands on a first edition because I think this is going to be big – 5,6,7…12 big!
Releases 30th September and will no doubt be the start of the next epic adventure series.
Thanks to Dave at The Write Reads and the publisher (Harper Collins Children) for the gifted copy for the purposes of this honest review. Do check out what everyone else thinks – spoiler, they are all loving it too.
kirstyes 