Collecting And Reading

Author: Matt Dinniman

Operation Bounce House is a riot – literally. It is essentially a gamer’s paradise. It’s reminiscent of Titanfall, Helldivers, or any other extraction shooter.

But you experience it from the POV of the characters on the ground. Those you have been misinformed about. The real people, misattributed as wrong-doers to comply with societies goals.

It brings a lot of fun, chaos, violence, sexy times, artificial intelligence, and meshes it with morality, ethics, and the misguided narratives pushed onto society by propaganda though misdirection.

And despite all that, it is fine.

I feel like coming straight into this off the back of the latest Dungeon Crawler Carl book (Parade of Horribles) was a mistake.

I expected so much more, I expected more fun, more depth, and a deep-rooted love for the characters in Matt Dinniman’s standalone.

Don’t get me wrong, it delivers some fun, it delivers a little bit of depth, but I had absolutely zero attachment to the characters, which is where I maybe found myself falling out of favour with this one.

Matt can write characters, and character development SO DAMN WELL. But this kind of felt like a flash in the pan. Weirdly, I’ve no idea how else he could have hooked me into the characters.

It starts slow, and builds, but the building is more around the violence, and gamer-verse aesthetic.

Perhaps I’ve become detached and hollow to violence (I’d like to think not), but I think that I just couldn’t connect with these farmers.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some fabulous and hilarious moments; the trolling and trash-talking, the weird alternate OF and farmgirl aesthetic, the Chicken and the Pig.

It was fine. I’d recommend not going straight into this after reading any DCC as you may not have as much of a good time, but for a standalone, it’s ok. Not a miss, but not a hit either.

3.0/5.0