It has been almost a year since Nicholas Grant and his army of a million clones overthrew the British government and herded the survivors into Citadels, miles-long prisons where the rich live in rooms with electricity and running water and the majority live in giant indoor slums. The only free people in the country are the Underdogs, a small group of survivors in the countryside led by Dr Joseph McCormick, a former mathematics lecturer, whose followers consist largely of teenagers who fled from Oakenfold Special School during the takeover. Ewan West, an autistic sixteen-year-old with pathological demand avoidance, leads other Underdogs on missions to the citadel New London to try to weaken Grant's authority, but they are hopelessly outnumbered by the clones. As their numbers dwindle, all seems hopeless, until they discover a seventeen-year-old girl named Shannon who has knowledge that could destroy Grant forever.
Books in the series:
- Underdogs (May 30, 2019)
- Tooth and Nail (June 18, 2020)
- Acceleration (February 3, 2022)
- Uprising (TBA)
Underdogs contains examples of:
- Abandoned Area: When the Underdogs travel through the countryside, they stay in the homes of people who were forced out on Takeover Day. The houses have been invaded by insects but are otherwise usually just as the owners left them, since Grant has little interest in anything outside the Citadels.
- Air-Vent Passageway: In Acceleration, Ewan, Jack, and Kate are being pursued by clones on Grant's airship. They escape by knocking out a panel in a bathroom wall, sliding down a large pipe in the wall, and then crawling into a vent. They travel through the vent until they reach the room where 400 hypnosis victims are being held, which they break into by kicking out a grille.
- Antagonistic Offspring: Shannon turns out to be Grant's daughter, who ran away from her luxurious quarters in the Citadel to fight against her father.
- Arm Cannon: Some of the clones have biorifles built into their arms. When the clone dies, the weapon also dies, so the Underdogs can't steal it.
- Because I Said So: Ewan gives this answer to a question from Mark Gunnarsson about his strategy because he's too exhausted and overwhelmed with grief from Raj Singh's death to give a proper answer.
- Bitch Slap: When Ewan and Kate break into the inner slum of New London, Kate wants to search for her nonverbal brother James, but Ewan insists that they focus on the mission. They get in a fight, during which Kate slaps him.
- Bulletproof Vest: In Tooth and Nail, Ewan shoots 14-year-old assassin Oliver Roth four times in the chest and leaves him in a burning room. He assumes Roth is dead, but in fact he was wearing a bulletproof vest, and survives with burns.
- Character Tics:
- Jack Hopper, who has Asperger's, rubs his thumb against his fingers.
- Gracie Freeman, who has global developmental delay, spends much of her time twirling her hair between her fingers.
- *Cough* Snark *Cough*: When McCormick, who will soon have surgery, says he's feeling better and the others don't have to worry, Jack says, "Cough-cough-load-of-rubbish-cough."
- Dead Man Writing: McCormick writes letters to every Underdog that are only supposed to be opened in the event of his death. That happens at the end of Tooth and Nail. Ewan reads his letter, which names him as McCormick's successor and offers leadership advice and encouragement.
- The Door Slams You: Roth enters the secret passageway leading to the Underdogs' hideout. He sees a door disguised in the muddy wall and is about to open it when Simon flings it open, hitting him in the face. Before Roth recovers his senses, Simon grabs his gun and opens fire, hitting but not killing Roth.
- Driven to Suicide: Most of the dead Underdogs were killed in the line of duty, but there are a few exceptions, including 28-year-old Mike Ambrose, who killed himself.
- Eco-Terrorist: Grant hopes to reduce Earth's population, which is currently at nine billion, down to three billion in order to fight global warming.
- Expelled from Every Other School: Ewan was kicked out of six mainstream schools before he ended up at Oakenfold. The other kids would make fun of him because they liked to see him explode. They would stop laughing after he smashed the classroom up, but then he'd get kicked out and the cycle would start again at a new school.
- Expendable Clone: Grant's clones aren't even full people - they have greatly simplified minds and emotions, no vocal cords, and a lifespan of about four months. Although the Underdogs angst about hurting or killing people, they feel little guilt about killing clones. Grant's technologist, Nathaniel Pearce, has the ability to make more humanlike clones, but he and Grant agreed to keep them simple so they wouldn't be tempted to treat them like people.
- Eye Scream: In Acceleration, Pearce cuts Jack's left eye out with a knife.
- Fainting: The Underdogs find Shannon right after she stabs assassin Keith Tylor to death, then passes out. She stays unconscious while they transport her back to their base. Lorraine Shepherd, a nurse, thinks she was faking some of it, since faints typically only last a few minutes.
- Family Versus Career: Ewan's mother became a stay-at-home mom because of him. Because of his problems at mainstream schools, she kept having to go in in the middle of the day so many times that having a regular job became too inconvenient.
- Flipping the Bird: Roth is fond of doing this. In Tooth and Nail, he gives his boss Iain Marshall, Grant's second command, the double finger while Marshall is walking away. Later, he flips off Ewan after locking him in a burning chamber.
- Groin Attack: During a fight between Ewan and Pearce in Acceleration, Ewan rams his knee into Pearce's groin and then wrestles his knife from him.
- Hassle-Free Hotwire: In Tooth and Nail, Mark, Kate, and Simon flee after their raid on Oakenfold in a car that Mark hotwires in a few seconds.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In Tooth and Nail, Raj is trapped behind an AME, a force field that causes anything made of metal to explode. He can't go through safely because of an operation on his spine when he was twelve. His capture is imminent. He knows the name of a town near the Underdogs' base, and he's sure that if he's captured he'll give it away, so he commits suicide by running through the field, causing an explosion that rips his body into several pieces. Later, McCormick has explosives sewn into his stomach so he can commit a suicide bombing in order to destroy the AME computer.
- Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: Attempted in Acceleration by Simon Young, a teenager with Down syndrome and selective mutism, who signs something to Ewan so Rubinstein won't understand. Ewan doesn't know British Sign Language, so he waves his hands around so as not to look stupid in front of Rubinstein. Rubinstein says, 'Your friend was saying, "She looks trustworthy". I don't know what you were saying back, though. Maybe your BSL's more advanced than mine.'
- I Have No Son!: In Tooth and Nail, Grant has Alex Ginelli's father held at gunpoint until Alex gives up the location of the Underdogs' base. Alex gives a fake location. Thinking Alex really did betray his friends, Dean Ginelli says, "You don't need to use me as leverage anymore. I no longer consider him my son." Once Grant realized Alex lied, he has Dean put to death.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Daniel Amopoulos, the last Underdog to die before the start of the series, was captured and interrogated before he was killed. He was tough, but he broke down and told the torturers the names, ages, and diagnoses (if applicable) of all his surviving teammates. Luckily his abysmal sense of direction prevented him from telling them where the Underdogs' base was.
- Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: In Acceleration, Ewan, Jack, and Kate disguise themselves as the three apprentices of mechanic Oli Sharp so they can get onto Grant's airship and destroy it. Sharp murdered his three actual apprentices in order to give the Underdogs a chance.
- Let the Past Burn: In Acceleration, the Underdogs burn Shannon's childhood home, where she was neglected by Grant to the ground.
- Military Brat: Ewan's father, Major George West, taught him skills and coping mechanisms that serve him well as an Underdog.
- Molotov Cocktail: In Tooth and Nail, Mark turns a whisky bottle into a Molotov cocktail, which he hurls at a tank full of clones. The tank is surprisingly undamaged, but the clones die, by either burning or asphyxiation.
- My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: After he's shot in the chest, Joseph McCormick thinks about all his most important experiences while he bleeds out.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Grant tells McCormick that they're alike because they're both willing to kill for the greater good.
- Poster-Gallery Bedroom: Roth decorates his room with death metal posters.
- Replacement Goldfish: The original Shannon Grant killed herself on Takeover Day. Her father had her cloned, with as many of the original's memories as would transfer and none of the simplifications that usually apply to clones. The new Shannon stuck around for a while before killing herself again. Her father repeated the process until the fifth clone broke the cycle by running away.
- Sadistic Choice: Roth once captured David and Val Riley, the only married Underdogs, and gave them a choice: he could kill them both slowly, or Val could stab David to death and he'd kill her quickly. Val chose the latter.
- Sensory Overload: Kate Arrowsmith becomes so overwhelmed by all the noise and smells of the New London slums that she can barely function.
- Shrine to the Fallen: A stone slab in the Underdogs' base shows the names of the team members who have been killed.
- Staircase Tumble: In Acceleration, Pearce lunges at Jack with a knife. Jack doesn't have time to do anything but raise his rifle to block the knife, and the force of Pearce's body causes both of them to fall down a flight of stairs.
- The Starscream: Marshall originally promoted Roth, then aged twelve, to use him to assassinate Grant. He eventually called off the assassination, realizing his own fate relied on Grant's success. Since then, Roth has been using that knowledge to blackmail Marshall so he can live in some of New London's most luxurious quarters, free from adult authority.
- Tantrum Throwing: In Tooth and Nail, Ewan and Shannon use a GPS tracker to learn the location where Grant will be testing his new technology. When Ewan learns that it's Oakenfold Special School, he throws the tracker against the wall, shattering it, then throws a cardboard box and engages in Agitated Item Stomping when it doesn't go as far as he wanted.
- Tap on the Head: In Acceleration, Rubinstein smashes the butt of a rifle into Mark's chin, knocking him out for several minutes.
