Operation Bounce House

This was my first Matt Dinniman book that was not Dungeon Crawler Carl, I was not disappointed. That being said, it was at times hard for me to shake the feeling that Carl was going to come into play at some point…he did not. Way to stay in your lane Carl.

I don’t mean that as a knock on the book. It is closer to the way I cannot take J.K. Rowling’s detective books at face value because Harry Potter is still sitting in the room. This was a milder version of that and by the end of the book it totally faded for me. What did not fade, and I do not want it to, is what I have come to expect from a Dinniman book: sudden violence, the occasional obscene beat, and a pace that has me continually wanting to keep reading.

As far as characters go, Oliver, his sister Lulu, and Roger were the ones I stayed with. Roger is a robot, and watching him grow as a character was one of my preferred plot lines. It also felt oddly current, given where we are with AI right now. I am keeping this spoiler-light on purpose here. What I will say is that every good book lets people change, and here there was a pride in Oliver and Lulu later that I did not feel at the start. That shift is what made them land well as characters for me.

If you are coming from Dungeon Crawler Carl universe and asking whether there is action: yes there is. It is not the same loot-box, dungeon, MMORPG loop, but I did chuckle a bit when the word loot box showed up in the book, and yes there are loot boxes, but not THOSE type that we are used to. Operation Bounce House is wave-based. For any video gamers here you can imagine the difference in story between a wave based encounter and an open world MMO. The structure of how the fight develops is different, but still wildly fun and entertaining.

If I have any “complaint” I could have done without the Rhythm Mafia interlude chapters. I also understand why they are there, and could see how they added a nice touch, but I found myself skimming them to get back to the story. They gave me the same slight sidestep feeling as the Pineapple Cabaret chapters at the end of the DCC books, but mixed in throughout the book. I get the function. I still could have skipped them.

Dinniman’s style is easy for me in a way that is hard to fake. It is relaxing to read without being empty. I finished this in three days, not because it is short, but because it kept pulling. It also helped that I had three beautiful Florida pool days in a row to get through it. Even without the pool, I was glad to go back to an author I already trusted and watch that hold up in a different setting. I read the hardcover and have not listened to any Dinniman audiobooks, but I have heard they are excellent. If that is your format, I would not talk you out of it.

This is an easy Take My Money. His books already take up a lot of shelf space in my apartment. This one earned its spot.