Mickey7

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.

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.

I went into this book knowing nothing about it other than the genre and I really enjoyed it! The main character feels so real and it was easy for me to empathize with him. I wish that we had gotten more of the planet the characters are on, but otherwise I enjoyed everything else about it. The relationship was already established when the book started so it was nice that it didn't really focus on building that up. I'm super excited to read the sequel!






Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an eBook copy to review

Much appreciation to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for giving me a chance to read this early.

After finding out about Bong Joon-ho's announcement for his next film, a sci-fi thriller starring Robert Pattinson, an adaption of Mickey7, I immediately sought out the source material. There are some unfortunate issues with the pacing, but the story was original and understandably easy to adapt to the screen.

My only gripe with the flow of the book were the chapters dedicated to various flashback, including a few info dumps ones. There were many times where I was itching to zero in on certain characters/situations and the following chapter broke away from the tension to reveal a second hand in the story. Bits and pieces that felt unnecessary to me. By the end of the book, I've found myself detached from the experience.

What I actually thought was interesting outside of these chapters was the author's prose. He did a great job showing rather than telling through the POV's internal dialog. Worldbuilding in a sci-fi relies on storytelling with this technique.

Overall, with its rough edges, Mickey7 makes a unique impact on the sci-fi genre.

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Audio read by: John Pirhalla and Katharine Chin

This was a fun read. Not exactly what I expected, but that's not a bad thing. If you're looking for a bunch of scifi lore on the trials and tribulations of humanity colonizing different worlds, told around the main story of this main characters shenanigans on his colonizing mission, and you love loads of sarcasm, this will be great for you. It certainly worked for me.

Pros: great premise, interesting characters

Cons:

Mickey Barnes is the expendable for the Niflheim beachhead colony, which means if there's a dangerous job, he's the one doing it. So it's not surprising that when his seventh iteration falls into a deep hole he's left for dead. Unfortunately when he makes it back to base a new copy of himself is sleeping in his bed. Multiples are the biggest taboo, so the Mickeys must hide what they are even as trouble is brewing with the planet's indigenous lifeforms.

This book was a lot of fun to read. It's quick paced and engaging, with Mickey7 including important incidents from his past while narrating the events of the present.

I went from thinking of Mickey7 as a decent guy, then kind of a jerk, then back to being a decent guy. Some of his history paints him in a bad light though it seems dying multiple times has improved his character somewhat. I really liked Nasha and thought their relationship was great.

The book poses some interesting ethical questions without delving too deeply into them or dwelling on them for long. It's mostly a lighthearted read.

The world-building was great. There was a lot more explanation about the larger universe than I expected, with Mickey explaining things about life on his homeworld, Midgard, and some of the other colonies (successful & failed).

The ending ties together all the various narratives Mickey throws at you. I especially loved how his study of history gave him insight into how to think of the native species.

If you like easygoing, sometimes humorous, sometimes serious SF, give this a go.

Extremely fast read due to it's casual/conversational writing style. It's got a pretty interesting premise, but it doesn't really go much beyond said premise. I'd go as far to say If you read the synopsis you already understand 75% of the book.

There is a plot of sorts, but it's pretty underwhelming and not the focal point of the novel. It's a fun read though and I had a few chuckles, but ultimately wish it had more depth.

Mickey is an expendable, a clone designed to complete dangerous tasks in service to the colony, but when a mission goes wrong he'll discover a whole lot more than he bargained for. Ashton has written a fun and interesting sci-fi novel, which I generally enjoyed. Unfortunately the plot sometimes got bogged down by an alternating timeline of info dumps and redundancy, but overall I liked the characters, setting, and plot. 

A success insofar as I'm curious enough to pick up the next book with this character. It's understandable given the events described, that the main character has a certain detachment, but it was effective enough to make me feel detached for much of the story. I think this is another entry in the ‘ending makes the book' category.  What is the value of life? Anthropocentrism aside...clones do bring out the worst case scenarios in writers.  Bonus points for the Princess Bride reference and the Atlas Shrugged clap back. I see what you did there. 😉

I've been itching for a good Sci-Fi read and I finally found one.

Mickey7 is an expendable. He is the 7th iteration of the original Mickey Barnes. He does the jobs no one else will or can do and in the process he dies, usually not in a quick and painless way.

Out on a sweep mission, looking for creepers that inhabit the planet his people are establishing a colony on, Mickey7 ends up at the bottom of a hole and left for dead. He ends up finding his way back to the Dome only to find Mickey8 asleep in his bunk.

The colonists are already leery of him, as they see his position as being against the laws of humanity, despite understanding the necessity of it. If Command finds out there are multiples of him, they will both be scrapped and Mickey7 has an aversion to being killed.

What follows is a well-written, fun and chaotic journey as Mickey7 and Mickey8 try to stay under the radar. Throw in some Creepers, flashbacks of Mickey's previous lives and you get a Sci-Fi that is screen worthy.

I sincerely appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a review copy. All opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone.