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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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Texts From Dad: The Coronavirus Chronicles by Peter Barber – Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
Hilarious account detailing 57 days of Coronavirus lockdown by ways of daily texts to his daughter that ended up going viral.
Bringing a smile by taking a different view. Introducing humour and leading the reader through a slow realisation that we have all been affected in the funniest ways if only we would stop to think about it.
After the first page a smile will creep across your face, by page two you will be hooked.
Written by a technophobic old fart that has trouble programming a dishwasher who was pushed into writing a blog using modern technology during forced isolation. Funny or insane? You decide.
Laugh at him, or with him. Either way, you will probably end up laughing at yourself too.
About the Author
Peter is a Carnivore with vegetarian tendencies (sometimes meat needs a garnish). BBQ enthusiast, father to a wayward daughter, husband to a fiery Greek philosopher and muse. Owner of two unfit overweight dogs, part time writer and full-time couch potato.
What I Thought
First things first the title and cover are slight misnomers. Rather than actual text messages these 57 entries are more like blog posts (or at least they are very long texts hence the author’s complaints of tired thumbs!). They detail musings on the first days of lockdown from Boris’ Blunders to The Tribulations of Trump, each accompanied by a pencil sketch which I assume the author drew. Nb. It was his daughter Charly – see her comment below.
Thankfully the author shares similar views to me on Brexit and how the government has handled the pandemic response otherwise I think I would have struggled to connect with this. There were a couple of comments re China that maybe could be considered non PC but on the whole I got and understood the humour.
There are even a few more serious moments/reflections touched on but due to the end date this didn’t reach the BLM movement and instead has more hopeful references to seeing a reduction in racism etc at the start of lockdown.
I was a little surprised that there was no mention of the weekly clap for keyworkers as that was such a striking part of my own experience but this is one person’s account and a generally lighthearted one at that.
I do wish that more careful editing had taken place to transition from the ‘text’/blog format to the finished book.
This account will definitely kick start reminiscences now and in future. It takes us from 24th March to 18th May so does focus mainly on the early stages of lockdown and the humour to be found in that situation. And there is a lot of humour in it. Very British humour at that – including a fart joke or two. I did find myself chuckling along but then I do enjoy a dad joke and a pun.
I was gifted a copy for the purposes of an honest review.
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I Swapped My Brother on the Internet by Jo Simmons – Blog Tour Book Review
Synopsis
‘I can get a new brother? On the internet?’ Jonny muttered. ‘Oh sweet mangoes of heaven!’
Everyone has dreamed of being able to get rid of their brother or sister at one time or another – but for Jonny, the dream is about to become a reality with SiblingSwap.com! What could be better than someone awesome to replace Ted, Jonny’s obnoxious older brother.
But finding the perfect brother isn’t easy, as Jonny discovers when Sibling Swap sends him a line of increasingly bizarre replacements: first a merboy, then a brother raised by meerkats, and then the ghost of Henry the Eighth! What’s coming next?! Suddenly old Ted isn’t looking so bad. But can Jonny ever get him back?
About the author
Jo Simmons began her working life as a journalist. Her first fiction series for children, Pip Street, was inspired by her own kids’ love of funny fiction, and two Super Loud Sambooks followed. In addition to children’s fiction, she co-wrote a humorous parenting book, Can I Give Them Back Now?: The Aargh To Zzzzzz Of Parenting, published by Square Peg. Jo lives in Brighton with her husband, two boys and a scruffy formerly Romanian street dog. I Swapped My Brother on the Internet is her first book for Bloomsbury.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/joanna_simmons
About the Illustrator
Nathan Reed has been a professional illustrator since graduating from Falmouth College of Arts in 2000. He has illustrated Christopher Edge’s How to Write Your Best Story Ever and the Elen Caldecott’s Marsh Road Mysteries Series. His most recent picture book is Samson the Mighty Flea by Angela McAllister. He was shortlisted for the Serco Prize for Illustration in 2014. When he’s not illustrating he can be found with his two boys and a football on Peckham Rye Common.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanreed_illo
Website: http://www.nathanreedillustration.com/
What I thought
From the phrase Oh sweet mangoes of heaven, to this sentence in praise of naps, I knew I was going to love this fun and charming book.
Of course I love and adore my sister and never once wanted to swap her!!! Um… whilst that is true now when we were younger we fought so much that I’m sure both of us may have been tempted to try the service offered by Sibling Swap. Johnny and his brother Ted have just had a fight when he spots their advert and he fills out the form not really thinking about the consequences. What follows is a series of swaps with siblings that aren’t quite what he’d bargained for. I think my favourite was the ghost of Henry the Eighth and adults will love the little history nods in that section. And if you are a fan of 80s film Splash you’ll love Mervyn the Merboy.
Kids are going to love the silliness, burping, adventure but mostly… The Hanging Pants of Doom!!!
The story was naturally far fetched – especially the Mum’s reaction to her missing older son- but it made me smile a lot and comes to the inevitable realisation that perhaps our siblings aren’t altogether bad after all.
Definitely one to read out loud at bedtime with the whole family enjoying. (Note – parents may wish to study Meerkat noises before reading).
Now – which one is Fred and which is George again?
Thanks to Faye Rogers and Scholastic for the copy of the book for the purposes of this honest review.
kirstyes 