Publishers Weekly
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Bestseller Dinniman (the Dungeon Crawler Carl series) creatively tweaks sci-fi tropes in this addictive war story. Two-hundred years after human colonists left Earth to settle New Sonora, the planet’s residents are considered “subhuman” by those back on Earth because of the minor, invisible genetic alterations they needed to survive. With the aid of advanced robots, the New Sonorans have established a peaceful agrarian society, but this achievement is threatened by propaganda, manufactured by the powerful Apex Industries, falsely labeling New Sonorans terrorists. Apex launches Operation Bounce House, a video game in which Earthers pay to remotely pilot war machines that attack New Sonoran settlers. The resistance to this onslaught is recounted from the perspective of Oliver Lewis, a rancher and musician, who chooses to fight the overwhelming forces, despite the absence of any planetary defense systems. The stakes are sky-high, and the Ender’s Game–esque plot moves at a rapid clip, but Dinniman still makes space for character development (partly through excerpted interviews with Oliver’s band) and manages to inject the tale with his signature humor. Fans will not be disappointed. (Feb.)

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

When a bunch of corporate assholes mark their planet for destruction, a garage band of colonists must defend their home world with the power of rock. Slightly sidestepping his frenetic litRPG—literary role-playing game—doorstoppers, here Dinniman takes on capitalism, propaganda, xenophobia, and violence as entertainment. Thankfully for readers, it’s all wrapped in the usual profane, adolescent humor, and SF readers will have a ball. A couple of hundred years after they left Earth, the inhabitants of the interstellar colony of New Sonora weren’t expecting much in the way of new threats, especially after a mysterious illness killed almost everyone between the ages of 30 and 60. That disaster left only the young and the old on the populated planet, where farming is enabled by highly accelerated AI and people are generally cool with each other. But when drummer Oliver Lewis stumbles across a foul-mouthed killer mech piloted by a child, he realizes that something’s definitely fishy. Earth, it seems, has classified the New Sonorans as non-human and scheduled their destruction as a paid, five-day combat game. Apex Industries, led by lead mercenary Eli Opel, has reverse-engineeredEnder’s Game and is turning loose its players with real bullets and bombs on the population of New Sonora. The resistance is a weird bunch, led by proto-slacker Oliver; his little sister, Lulu; and his ex-girlfriend, documentary filmmaker and burgeoning revolutionary Rosita Zapatero, as well as the other members of Oliver’s band, the Rhythm Mafia. Thankfully, they also have Roger, the last functioning AI on the planet, though Oliver’s grandfather permanently programmed it to nannybot mode as a dying joke. Call the book overlong—the battle scenes often feel like watching someone play a videogame—but the humor and the execution are cutting without being mean and there’s almost always a point. A disarmingly heartfelt space adventure that dares to suggest genocide might be a bad business. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal
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On the colony world of New Sonora, farmer Oliver Lewis worries more about malfunctioning agriculture bots than politics, until Earth brands them as terrorists. They have been independent for decades, but after Apex Industries declares them no longer human, they invite gamers to design war machines to eradicate them. Suddenly caught in a high-tech invasion waged by remote players, Oliver joins his family, friends, and a fleet of honeybee drones in an explosive fight for the freedom of their planet. Unlike Dinniman's popular "Dungeon Crawler Carl" series, this novel is a standalone, but as another notable addition to the LitRPG genre, it's sure to become a fan favorite. The prose is accessible and packed with momentum, skillfully balancing humor with horror, and brutality with surprising heart. Dinniman's social commentary on xenophobia, corporate greed, AI, and dehumanization is chilling, yet it never overwhelms the plot's adventurous sense of action. The novel's ragtag band of characters share strong chemistry, and though they are terrified, nothing will stop them from defending their home. VERDICT With wit, spirit, and imagination, Dinniman's new sci-fi novel will also resonate with fans of Ernest Cline and Catherynne M. Valente.—Andrea Dyba