Overdrive: A Lighthearted Tale of AI, Flying Cars and Milkshakes

by Russ Olsen

There are no secrets in a small town. That's a problem for Anne, Grant and Syd because they have some earth-shattering secrets that they must keep. Armed only with a flying car, some film props and a super-intelligent AI, can our heroes stay ahead of the town grapevine and the police? Can they get to the bottom of a crime wave that threatens the very existence of one of them? Will they ever find the perfect milkshake?

If you like your flying car with a bad paint job and a mismatched door, your AI with a subtle sense of humor and your fun mixed with some real drama, welcome to the world of Overdrive.

221 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 14, 2025

Reviews

[Jane Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overdrive is a light-hearted romp hovering between science fiction and fact. Although a flying car ( and the challenges of ‘driving’ it) may be the most flashy plot element, it’s the AI with an attitude that really caught my attention. Far more advanced than ChatGPT, the AI has the ability to develop itself - and it is not unrealistic how it does that. The relationship between humans and an AI is a very topical subject - the novel remains in a humorous vein, but the emotional attachment of the human characters to the AI is a very contemporary theme. Lots of fun.

[John W. Cross · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has a flying car!

I will admit I usually don’t read a book with a low number of reviews. There’s so much available it’s just to risky I’ll get a clunker. I read this one because I too have been waiting for my flying car since I was a kid. Once I started reading the chase sequences had me hooked. I kept reading later than I planned and couldn’t put it down. Great 1st effort by the author!