I try very hard to apply the verb reading to books I listen to as audiobooks, but the word still lands jarringly, even with my heroic internal efforts to cushion its crash. Surely part of the trouble is eyes vs. ears, but I also suspect that it has to do with the fact that when I listen to a book being read, it's no longer just me and the author. There’s a whole nother layer: performance.
I have just finished listening to Wil Wheaton read John Scalzi's Starter Villain. The tldr; is that you should definitely listen to this - the book and the performance are both outstanding. The audiobook is only on Audible, but the print version is everywhere. If you look for it, don't read the summary - it gives away too much.
Many of my latest reads and listens have been science fiction, and Starter Villain is a delightful return to something closer to home. It's entertainingly fanciful but grounded in our current reality - not speculative, not fantastical, not dystopian. Oh, Scalzi definitely makes clear his opinions on modern society (and economics) in this tale, and his send-ups are by turns scathing and insightful and downright funny. The plot has some lovely twists and turns and many crosses of both the double and triple varieties. It's a romp, and I loved it.
Wil Wheaton couldn't be more perfect here. I think he is a sturdy reader, even if not my absolute favorite, and really seems to be upping his game. This story is particularly well-suited to his stylings - he bounces along with it, expressing outrage and sheepishness and curiosity with natural aplomb. It feels a lot like raptly listening to that one pal of yours who is the most excellent teller of stories, ensconced at your local dimly lit pub, while the afternoon fades into evening and the evening fades into texts from your spouse wondering where you are. A really excellent performance.
For the more sensitive among you, I have a confession that may shock you, so please be ready with your clutchable pearls: I am the kind of person who will abandon a book if it doesn't grab me in the first chapter, possibly two if it's been recommended to me. And an audiobook reader has about the same measure to prove their capabilities. So I don't actually read many outright bad books. Who has the time? That said, I've had a string of good-but-not-great books lately and this one was like, ahhhhhh Scalzi - here's a real writer again. It was a joy to read.