Operation Bounce House

Someone recommended Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl to me a little while ago. While waiting to get a hold of it from the library, his newest book, Operation Bounce House, came out, so I decided to give that a try.

In Operation Bounce House, the people of New Sonora become the target of a corporation's new game, Operation Bounce House, where human players can pay to build mechs and fight against the evil "New Sonoran terrorists." Only....there are no terrorists, just a bunch of farmers who are trying to peacefully live their lives. But unknown to the game's creator, Oliver Lewis and his sister still have functioning bots who help them on their farm, including an advanced AI named Roger who coordinates the worker drones. And after they come under attack, Roger initiates their defensive mode. These farmers aren't going to just lay down and die while Earth steals their land: they're going to fight!

While I, overall enjoyed Operation Bounce House, I have to admit that the premise and plot made me very uncomfortable. I can see something like this happening, potentially even here on Earth right now. The way the Earthers talked about the New Sonorans being "other" and "subhuman" is a known propaganda tactic used in wars (I remember reading about how soldiers in the World Wars would call the enemy by different terms to make them not-human in their heads). So yeah, be warned if you're reading this book: it is very uncomfortable at times. 

 Plus, you know, a lot of people die. It's not a happy book.

But as I said, I still did enjoy the book. Dinniman is a really good writer, particularly in a cinematic sense: I could picture the action really well (and think this would make a fantastic TV series or movie). I loved all the characters and how they all worked together to try to stay alive (and how they decided to stick it to the game company). The worldbuilding was really interesting, how the main characters were part of the "orphan generation" because all their parents who were born on-world died (and how the fix ended up the thing the Earthers used to claim the New Sonorans were "subhuman," even though they were the same with the exception of that one change in their genes so that they wouldn't die like their parents did). 

I also liked how so much only happened because the Earthers were terrified. The very thing they feared would happen did happen only because they attacked New Sonora. Had they left the planet alone, nothing would have happened.

Operation Bounce House is a fast, addicting read (I stayed up really late to finish it last night). If you're okay with the dark subject matter, it's definitely worth checking out. But do be aware of the subject matter as it is an uncomfortable look at where our culture could go.

The Secret Garden

I remember enjoying the movie The Secret Garden when I was younger, but I never did read the book. So when I saw it recently at work, I decided to give it a try. After all, it's a children's classic (the edition I saw was an Oxford Children's Classic). I thought there must be a reason that it's still in print.

The Secret Garden is, if I'm being charitable, the story of the friendship between three young people: Mary Lennox, the spoiled orphan who finds herself suddenly alone at her uncle's Misselthwaite Manor after her parents dies of cholera in India; Colin, his sickly (and spoiled) son; and Dickon, the sweet animal charmer. The three of them get into Colin's mom's walled garden that his father shut up when she passed away 10 years ago, and bring it back to life. Though if I'm being more realistic, it's the story of two incredibly spoiled and privileged young people somehow becoming good friends because they won't put up with each other's shit while Dickon tags along. And while that is a less charitable explanation, it's also very true. Both Mary and Colin were incredibly spoiled because they were only children whose only companionship was servants who gave into their every whim. Mary's mother just wanted to party and forget about her, while her father was too busy governing or something. Colin's father didn't want to even look at him because he was the reminder of his wife who died in childbirth (and even had her eyes). Both of them had servants tending to their needs (and servants who would never say no to them), so they both grew up to be terrors.

But after Mary's family passed away in India, she found herself shipped off to her uncle's house in England. There, the servants had no time for her, and sent her to amuse herself outside. Having grown up without any real experience with the authority of adults, she does as she pleases and finds her way into the locked garden (while fully aware of the history of why it was locked and forbidden in the first place). At night she sometimes hears someone crying, and though the servants tell her it's just the wind on the door, one night she takes it upon herself to go see what's going on and so discovers Colin. Contrary to everyone's expectations, Colin takes a liking to her, and so their friendship starts. But where he is used to getting his way, so is she; when he has a tantrum she is the first person to ever stand up to him and just tells him off.

While I found the beginning of the book a bit slow and hard to get into, I did like how Mary grew as a person. She starts taking an interest in her surroundings and the people around her, and slowly finds herself liking more and more people. And while Colin has a similar arc to her, he remains a kind of overbearing child, lecturing the others and leading their activities. Unfortunately the latter part of the book seems to switch to be about him; the book ends with the servants seeing him and his father (and so learning of his recovery) and ignores Mary (I was really hoping to see the three of them together at the end, actually becoming a family, because that's what both of them needed. Not just Colin).

I liked Dickon, but he is a much more minor character. He doesn't grow or change at all in the book - he remains the same sweet and rather saintly boy who everyone, human or otherwise, trusts.

The book also took a bit of a weird turn when the children started talking about Magic in relation to Colin gaining strength and recovering. While I think it was supposed to be a nod to children's games, it felt a lot like we were being preached at (especially with Colin lecturing about the subject). I felt like that was a rather unnecessary addition in the book, as just going outside and starting to move around was magic all on its own. 

While a bit tough to read at times (and sometimes a bit odd), I do like the book's message about getting outside and getting fresh air. Just reading it made me want to go out and start playing in my own garden (though I admittedly have to wait awhile still as my garden is still currently sleeping under a blanket of snow)!