Kicking and Screaming (1995)

After college graduation, Grover's girlfriend Jane tells him she's moving to Prague to study writing. Grover declines to accompany her, deciding instead to move in with several friends, all of whom can't quite work up the inertia to escape their university's pull. Nobody wants to make any big decisions that would radically alter his life, yet none of them wants to end up like Chet, the professional student who tends bar and is in his tenth year of university studies.

In Kicking and Screaming, consciousness is carried by machines — a plane of “screamer‑infested wasteland”. The story fights on E8/E11 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing paranoia, identity, war, technology, trust.