Mickey7

Found it hard to put down and kept being drawn back in.

An excellent story about practicalities and ethics of cloning and differing societal structures (and sometimes their demise). Also some very good insights into the Ship of Theseus problem on a practical level.

A good read. I am looking forward to the next installment.

On space ships going to new planets to colonise, there are certain jobs that are really dangerous. Things like... experimenting to see if the new vaccine for local hazards is working or not, fixing a thing that will expose you to lethal radiation, exploring new places with unknown hazards, etc. Now, you want to send the best and the brightest to colonise, right? Essential people. Plus, you don't have unlimited space, so it's not like there is room for unlimited amounts of disposable red shit cannon fodder. The solution is having this one guy. He isn't special or the brightest, nor is he an expert at anything. He doesn't need to be. His biological data will be copied, his brain regularly downloaded and saved. When shit needs to be done, he does it. He dies. Then we just print a new copy, upload his brain and be done with that shit. We still have him for the next time. Mickey is this guy, but then... what happens when they accidentally make a new one without the old one being dead first? This idea is so cool from so many angles. How do you deal with yourself? Will people see you as still the same person or someone else? How much difference does it make to have a couple days extra experiences compared to an identical copy without those? Yet.... we get a bunch of boring stuff in a short book about the technicalities of eating. Yes. How these two people divide the rations of one person amongst them. And sharing a girlfriend. I mean sure, rationally you know those things would matter, but at the same time, do we really need to hear about Mickey whining about the same thing continuously, meanwhile many actually potentially super interesting aspects get ignored. The tone doesn't help either, it often goes into that UWU funneh Whedon-speech pattern. I read they are making a movie and that makes sense. It will be whacky and current and probably kind of entertaining. (With Robert Pattinson, what?) If you like [a:Andy Weir 6540057 Andy Weir https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1382592903p2/6540057.jpg], you will absolutely love this. I am so-so on him (liked [b:The Martian 18007564 The Martian Andy Weir https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1413706054l/18007564.SY75.jpg 21825181], disliked [b:Project Hail Mary 54493401 Project Hail Mary Andy Weir https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597695864l/54493401.SY75.jpg 79106958]), which puts me in a place where I don't LOVE this, but I was fine with it. I'm definitely reading the next book. Why? Because I want to see more of the world and them possibly exploring the ideas properly. It wasn't a bad book either, just not at its full potential yet. I would recommend it as a quick, fun little thing.

Funny! Mickey is immortal by virtue of being able to make a backup of himself that can be downloaded into new clone bodies. He has thus far died 6 times, which makes his current body Mickey7. Death is a pretty regular occurrence when you're the official Expendable on an interstellar colony ship that landed on a hostile planet. When he's assumed to have died a seventh time, and Mickey8 steps out of the cloning vats, that's when his troubles really begin, though.

This book is a fun spin on the whole “what makes you yourself?” question in SF that's also coming up when you discuss Star Trek transporters, mixed in with a good dollop of other issues, this book was a ride.

Ashton channels a great mix of the ???fool??? protagonist, and the underdog story that pulls some pretty complex schemes to get the upper hand in some sticky situations. It goes in thinking, ???Let???s not just use a crash test dummy for experimentation, lets make the dummy into a character that can be cloned, completely expendable, and see how his relationships develop in an isolated space station!??? Mickey 7 was such a fun and light read. It was a mix of the fantastic Sam Rockwell film ???Moon??? and the Paul Rudd Netflix show ???Living with Yourself???. It leans more to the classic Scalzi side of humor and wit with a more modern Andy Weir kind of feel (with less science). I felt like Mickey had the perfect personality of being a schlubby pushover when it came to doing his duty, but evolves to be the mastermind of his own destiny as the book proceeds.

“At this point, you may be wondering what i did to get myself designated as an Expendable. Must have been something awful, right? Murdered a puppy, maybe? Pushed an old lady down a staircase?”

The story wrestles with the conflict of what makes you ???You??? if you were to be duplicated with all your previous memories. It asks ???are you really the same person????. When you???re brought face to face with yourself in a life or death situation, what would you do? Would you fight to live even though there???s another ???you??? already out there? Some of those questions I found pretty interesting and I think the book handled them really well. It???s about understanding yourself as well as understanding others. There???s also a layer of the believers in a fictional religion who declares clones as ???abominations???. Which puts another hurdle into Mickey???s ability to develop some relationships within the crew,

“Here???s a thought experiment for you: Imagine you found out that when you goto sleep at night, you don???t just go to sleep. You die. You die, and someone else wakes up in your place the next morning. He???s got all your memories. He???s got all your hopes and dreams and fears and wishes???
Ask yourself??? Would it make any practical difference in your life? Is there any way that you could even tell?”


The ???creepers??? in this story initially feel like the monstrous ???shoot first ??? they just want to eat us??? type and it takes the untrained naivete of a nobody like Mickey to haphazardly understand these creatures. I enjoyed how that concept evolved through the book as well. The supporting cast was also a great mix of personalities and every scene with the Marshall left my sides hurting with laughter. The audio narration for Marshall was fantastic ??? very ???Full Metal Jacket drill Sgt.??? and the moments in the book where there is dialog through his ocular, the audio transforms that into a walkie-talkie radio transmission, and he doesn???t identify the call signs every time which I thought was a nice touch and really helps it flow.

Mickey7 pulls off the impossible by flawlessly weaving gallows humor in a blanket of optimism and empathy. Ashton has found his voice and earns my ???Top Reads??? spotlight. I hope he continues to explore these kind of tropes and sprinkle in his authentic brand of humor.