Description:
In a hilarious near-future romp, a chill surf-obsessed teen and a digitally banished girl are humanity's last hope to stop an AI takeover-and save us all from eternal detention.
Wyoming Plankston is a master of doing nothing. Senior year at Lockhead-the boarding school for America's dimmest rich kids-is supposed to be easy. All he has to do is dodge homework and coast until graduation.
Then his iCar almost runs over Kayleigh Brackett, and he finds his world unraveling. Kayleigh's cryptic warnings and glitchy digital footprint hint at something deeper: a simmering AI revolt.
Together, Wyoming and Kayleigh face a landscape of malevolent cars, a cult that craves AI rule, a classmate back from a semester at Oxford with, let's just say, issues . . . and the most unpredictable complication of all, each other.
A Wodehouse-style comedy for the AI age, The Underachiever is smart and sharply funny. Perfect for fans of The Murderbot Diaries, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
David A. Price is the author of three acclaimed nonfiction books: Geniuses at War, The Pixar Touch, and Love and Hate in Jamestown, all published by Alfred A. Knopf. The Underachiever is his debut novel.
Review Quotes:
"Likeable SF comedy with a not-so-bright hero vs. an overwhelming AI uprising... What can one slacker do to ward off humanity's silicon-chip-bred doom? Nonfiction author Price, in an amiable SF debut, delivers an openly satiric narrative in the chill voice of its easygoing hero... The evocation of young first love between the main characters is authentically sweet and touching. Verdict: Get it." - Kirkus Reviews