Review: Operation Bounce House
This is a fun book. I often read SF that’s speaking to bigger ideas and trying to change minds. In Bounce House Matt Dinniman is telling a ripping yarn first. For that to work for me, there has to be enough going on thematically that I care about why that yarn is in the realm of SF. I don’t mind if that leads to tropes, but I do care why we’re in the future.
Dinniman does a nice job with that. He wants to talk about gamer culture, imperialism, immigrants, personhood and a bunch of other ideas that fall nicely into SF. That is a lot to talk about while also setting up a space opera with stakes. In the end Bounce House doesn’t poke at any of those ideas deeply, but they’re creating believable stakes.
The shallow approach works because he gives us a winning cast of characters in a world that’s real enough as long as the pace is high. The pace is high, the stakes are clear, and the whole thing rips along with me in the seat.
Strongly Recommended.