A giddy, thrilling, exhilarating rush of a book that isn’t afraid to go dark or complex 

“Imagine a war where all the soldiers are actually paying money for the chance to fight in it”

Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman is a fantastic novel that springs from the author’s monstrous hit of Dungeon Crawler Carl and positions itself as its anti-narrative. The resultant novel is a giddy, thrilling, exhilarating, and fun escape that isn’t afraid to go dark or complex as the situation demands, whilst skewering capitalism and xenophobia. I am thankful to Ace Books and Penguin for my copy of this blast of a book

Dungeon Crawler Carl had an Earth that was transformed into a multi-level survival death arena by otherworldly corporations for a game show and views, and we follow Carl (and his cat, Princess Donut) as they try to survive the increasingly challenging and dangerous levels against hordes of other creatures and humans. Matt Dinniman flips the script on its head here by having Earth-based gamers be the aggressors, sending over remotely controlled mechas to annihilate the colony on the planet, New Sonora. New Sonoran Oliver, his sister Lulu, and their friends, along with their agriculture system/ nanny/ educator AI, Roger, find themselves in the thick of these machinations and find that they have to fight their way to survive, even as the Apex Corporation, the brain behind this “eviction,” has schemes and more than a few tools up their sleeves.

“And all it took was an invasion from another planet to get you to realize that I’m always right”

What stands out immediately is the electric pace of the book. Events start happening almost immediately, and it doesn’t take much to get a sense of the world-changing stakes at play. The author, however, balances it out by having interludes of a video narration, allowing us to get a sense of the characters while also building some connections to this group of colonists. As Oliver and his friend grapple with their new reality, they come to realize that they are willing to fight for their way of life and that they do have a few allies to help them out. The pace remains constantly high through the book, even as things get increasingly desperate and dark as the violence escalates at both ends. While on the surface, it does seem like Operation Bounce House doesn’t bring anything new to the table amidst all the action, digging a little bit deeper introduces a lot of nuances of the colony and the world that has been established.

“Miserable people are fond of laying blame on someone else for their problems. Sometimes they’re right but usually not. Usually, the responsible party is themselves. Or nobody. Sometimes things aren’t good and that’s all there is to it”

Like DCC, there is an AI system here that begins to play a prominent role. However, in this case, there is a bit of Dune-like reimagining of what AI actually means, and that is all the more relevant given how fast AI is proliferating currently. While Roger, the AI in question, comes across as a rather strict tutor/ business manager, there are hidden protocols and layers to the AI as the situation gets dire. The commentary is not just limited to AI. The establishment of New Sonora has a US-Aus vibe to it – a new world for opportunity and for prisoners as well. Now that the colony is flourishing (relatively), capitalism and corporations want their pound of flesh. Allied to the fact that the residents of New Sonora have been modified slightly to fit in with the environment, xenophobia becomes an easy excuse to justify the actions against them.

“It is the one thing I admire about humans the most: the ability to compartmentalize, the ability to lie to yourselves and to actually believe those lies”

Which brings us to the simmering undercurrent of darkness and anger that Matt Dinniman permeates through the book. The book is action-packed, the group dynamics are fun, and feel very lived in with some details and nuances packed in, and some of the reactions and fightbacks are often unintentionally funny as well, but this is peppered with the losses from the battle that happens as well as losses that New Sonorans faced as they set up the colony including a whole lost generation. That loss is reflected among all of the inhabitants and provides an element of darkness to the book. The anger in some of the book’s writing is also forced through an examination of capitalism and how, sometimes, lives are just numbers for corporations and nothing beyond that. In a way, these themes are similar to what Dinniman does in DCC as well. DCC starts off as a rather fun, even silly, book, but it steadily escalates into something serious and desperate and downright angry in situations.

“They don’t care about us, the actual people on the ground. We’d already been written off. It was all about the outrage, about being the loudest at the protest parade”

The anger in the book eventually carries over to the ending as well. The desperate anger of the colonists combined with the cold-blooded logic of the AI system is a deadly combination that plays out in an increasingly violent and chaotic fashion. While the stakes for the players from Earth are low, given these are remote controlled mechas, the stakes for the colonists are life and death. The ending is violent, desperate, and frenetic while at the same time depicting how deep some of the conspiracies go, forcing Oliver into choosing from options, none of which seem optimal. In a way, the ending is neat enough while going through enough bittersweetness and pain that it is worth it. It does go boom in a way that is satisfactory while playing out a quieter resolution at the backend.

“The Rhythm Mafia will be waiting for you, prick”

Operation Bounce House is quite unputdownable from the start. It steps on the gas and never lets go, even as it adds nuance and color to characters through some interesting narrative mechanisms. While there isn’t anything new or ground-breaking with respect to the story, the author introduces enough parameters and darkness to make it stand on its own. It does feel cinematic, and the momentum of the book doesn’t come at the cost of allowing some interesting complications to be thought of related to capitalism and AI. Matt Dinniman even throws in some trash talk and humor to keep things going despite some of the heavy losses and themes covered. This is overall a tremendously well-paced, thrilling book that also demonstrates how Matt Dinniman has grown as an author – he is able to use some of the themes and frameworks from DCC in an engaging, refined manner. The situational humor, along with the sense of literalness of the AI system, introduces an element of softness that makes us these characters and will definitely play well when (not if) it is adapted for the screen.

Rating – 4 Mechas on 5

Operation Bounce House is available now – you can order your copy on Bookshop.org