The Last Starfighter novelization was written by Alan Dean Foster.
Alex Rogan is just an average kid, not quite brainy enough to qualify for a college loan and fool enough to get stuck fixing the plumbing in his trailer park. But he is a video game genius - and that makes him not just average but very special indeed. Special enough to be recruited by a friendly alien power and whisked off into space to take part in a war for intergalactic supremacy. There, his unique game skills equip him to be "The Last Starfighter."