This book was a breath of fresh air and I enjoyed reading it. However, it does leave the reader to ponder some pretty big ethical questions and what the ramifications are of having technology that can print more of you when you die.

I really enjoyed Mickey7's character and was reminded of Murderbot (Martha Wells) while reading. I imagine that was because of the voice of the two characters and their humor. Some of the other characters seemed too one-dimensional but it didn't bother me enough that I was distracted from the story. Overall, an interesting and fun read. I'll be keeping my eye out for other books by Edward Ashton.

Set an untold number of years in the future, humans are settling other worlds. Due to limited resources and cargo space for parts, one crew member on the colony ship is the Expendable - someone who can be cloned after he or she dies so they can do the dangerous work with antimatter engines and unknown viruses on new worlds. Mickey7 is that Expendable - the 7th iteration of Mickey. Left to die, he is rescued in an unusual way but not before Mickey8 is created. Nothing is more taboo than having two copies at the same time.

I enjoyed almost everything about this book - the premise, the sardonic tone, the world building, the humor. The storyline moves along without dragging even with a lot of exposition on technology and historical events. My only quibble (and what keeps this from being a 5 star rated book for me) is with a choice the author makes about 3/4 of the way through. I understand the need for an event like this to set up what happens next, but the particular choice the author made was for shock value instead of adding to the story.

Not family friendly due to adult situations.

3.5 stars Mickey7 is an Expendable--good for any suicidal mission or scientific study. Mickey volunteered for the expedition to colonize Niflheim, but he was in a hurry to get away from Midgard, and he didn't quite understand the "immortal" part of his new position. He's disposable, he dies (but the deaths are not painless), and he comes back in another iteration with most of his memories. BUT there is never supposed to be more than one at a time. Mickey8 comes out of the tank after Mickey7 is written off as dead, but Mickey7 is still alive and kicking. Problems ensue. Interesting premise with some ponderings about what makes us who we are.
NetGalley/St. Martin's Press; Science Fiction; Feb. 15, 2022.

Micky7
by Edward Ashton

I received an ARC of this book from #Netgalley and it's about a man who volunteered to be the expendable for a planet colony. An Expendable is a man who is sent on missions that would probably get him killed, and if that happens, he is remade, (cloned), his memories downloaded to the new body.

Micky7 is presumed dead, torn apart by Creepers, the ice planet's inhabitants, but he wasn't and when he gets back to the base, and in his room, Micky8 is in his bed.

So begins hiding, because if it’s found out, they would both be killed and recycled.

The main plot of this book seems to be centered around Micky7 and his life, past lives, and there's a lot of 'history' filler instead of focusing on the Creepers, which is the climax.

It's not hard to follow, though the science and history lessons can get to be too much, and there were a lot of funnies, but it was the history and rambling that kind of made it a boring read. For me, I would've enjoyed more of the Creepers.

3 stars

Throughout my read of Mickey7, a multi-layered and thought-provoking sci-fi novel, I was struck by how effortless author Edward Ashton made it seem. He tosses up weighty topics like the meaning of life and what humanity advancing into the stars will likely look like without bogging down or derailing an entertaining and fast-paced story.

This review is based on an advance copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley for that purpose. The book will be available on February 15, 2022.

Set in a ‘beachhead colony’ of humans who’ve carved out a tenuous toe-hold on a new planet after a nine-year journey from an established colony, the titular Mickey serves as the group’s sole “expendable.” His skill set is limited (his job interview for the position is hilarious), but Mickey’s the guy if you have a job that will likely lead to death or dismemberment. That’s because Mickey’s consciousness and memories can be backed up and downloaded into a new replica of his body, something that’s happened six times already — hence the 7 attached to his name.

While it may seem like a great idea having this sort of immortality, there’s only one expendable for good reason. Besides the obvious moral/ethical questions raised by the concept of recreating a human, the process is resource-intensive and beachhead colonies tend to exist on a razor thin margin. As Mickey points out early on, you won’t find any chubby colonists. A realistic look at the costs and tradeoffs associated with colonizing another planet is a subtle through-line to the story that I appreciated.

My only quibble, and it’s a minor one, is the ending resolved everything but seemed a bit abrupt. Perhaps there will be more stories about Mickey and his iterations. If so, great, but either way Mr. Ashton’s next book is already on my To Read List.

Colonizing far-distant planets is rife with danger and challenges. Perhaps the biggest obstacle is that once the colonization ships get to a target planet after years of space travel, there's no going back; the crew has to make a go of it regardless of whether the planet proves hospitable or not. No worries, though, each crew has one person who can be counted on for those suicide missions, an "Expendable" who can die and be reconstituted by the matter conversion system as many times as needed. And in this story, that's Mickey7. Yes, at the beginning of the story he's already died and been recreated six times.

While exploring their cold, inhospitable planet yet again, Mickey7 meets the local beasts, vanishes, and is abandoned for dead. It's agreed upon that nothing can survive the ugly monsters! So it's a big surprise when he does make it back to their tiny human outpost just to find Mickey8 sleeping in his bed.

There's a lot to like in this fun, entertaining, and breezy sci-fi novel from Edward Ashton. The discussions between Mickey7 and Mickey8 - including about the gal he's sleeping with. Or is it the other Mickey who's sleeping with her? - are quite funny and the interactions with the base captain are a highlight too. Unfortunately, I felt like the overall resolution was a bit too fast and neat, not consistent with the rest of the story. It seemed like Asthon ran out of ideas to close out what is otherwise a fun and original novel..

It takes a unique book to draw me into science fiction, as I usually like to read other genres. I am glad I gave this one a chance, as it was a unique story. Sometimes it is a benefit to go outside your usual genres, and this one was a gem.

I received this book from Netgalley/st Martins Press, in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this book, I've been heavily into sci fi type books lately so this one was a nice change of pace from the other ones I've been reading, there wasn't much ships and scientific things and exploding war stuff like most books tend to have, war with alien races. This one was about a man name Mickey who is an expendable, which basically means he's sent out on suicide missions, if he dies then he is brought back as a clone, I like the idea of expendables and dying it was definitely a change of pace and makes this book a little bit different than most of the books I've been reading lately. Theres a lot of filler passages in between the current story, flashbacks of different colonies and history, at first I wasn't really thrilled with it, but I get why it had to happen and how things evolved to the current events, and after a while it was a little nice to have the extra world building of other colonies.

Good worldbuilding, kept me interested. Thanks for letting me read!

Being a clone is a lousy existence. You get all the crummy tasks, people don't really care about you except for your ability to spare them the aforementioned dirty work, and when you die, another version of you is cranked out promptly to take on your role.

Mickey7 is an Expendable on a remote colony trying to scratch out a living on an ice planet. The local monsters aren't taking well to this plan, and even basic ecology and biology isn't working out so well. The food generation facilities aren't working to their usual standard, and people are starting to look pretty thin.

Mickey7 "dies" on an outing, but manages to save himself, somehow ingratiating himself with the local creeper monsters, one of whom picks him up and carries him to a tunnel portal near the colony, instead of following the normal protocol of "kill all humans." Mickey7 trudges back, only to discover that Mickey8 has already been generated, and this is going to be a problem. The colony rules forbid having 2 clones of the same individual active, and no one wants an extra eater.

Mickey7's communications with other colonists and clones are in a unique format that is tedious to read, so I just skim through that. Fortunately most of the book is written in standard English, or I wouldn't have bothered to continue.

Mickey7 is interesting, and postulates some unique ideas, plus the ethics of cloning and treatment of created people.

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martins press for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Fantastic tale of first contact and what it means to be human when dying just means a new version of you is created soon after.

I loved the setting and the world building of why humans are sending out exploratory colonies to new planets. The concept of an Expendable isnt particularly new but Ashton takes it to new places and spins a great tale of how they are used to explore new worlds.

The middle third of the book lags a little bit but the story picks up in the last third and definitely has a satisfying ending that both wraps things up and leaves plenty of places to go to explore things further.

I hope this is not the last we see of of Mickey7 and his adventures!

Received an art for an honest opinion.
Oh wow I totally loved this book! It had such fun characters, and more importantly it had a lot of humor. I just love Mickey he's hilarious, and I wonder if this is going to be a series because I would love to hear more from him. I wasn't sure how this was going to end, but it had a good ending so it was all good.
If you are a fan of humor and science fiction, read this book!

Somewhat interesting. Somewhat irritating. More irritating than interesting.

The narrator, several centuries in the future, and having been born and raised on a different planet, talks like a snarky 1990s mashup of the guys in _Friends_. Anachronistic, implausible, and tiresome.

And there's a chapter missing. We wait through 90% of the book for a thorough physical description of the creepers. We're given hints that they're sentient and even have advanced technology. Then Mickey meets the Prime One face-to-face... and we jump to the next chapter, where we get a few reticent bits from Mickey about who and what the Creepers are..

Mickey7

[Blurb goes here]

This is a great story, something original for those who love sci-fi. While you are into the story, the characters goes on to reveal factoids about failed colonies. He's not perfect, though. He blames some of his mistakes on other people, but I got past that since the adventure kept me glued to the story.

Thank you for the free copy!

I absolutely loved this book! I received an advanced reader’s copy and was hoping that, as a debut novel, it wasn’t going to be a real stinker! I was very pleasantly surprised! This is probably the best sci-fi I have read since Hugh Howey’s Wool.

Mickey is a down and out man who joins an interstellar colonizing expedition as an Expendable meaning just that. He will do all the potentially major life threatening or clearly lethal work on board the interstellar ship and the new planet, meaning he will surely die… multiple times. There is a reason he chooses to do this crazy thing which you find out about early on. The upside is that should he and when he dies he can be replaced by an identical iteration of himself as they have all his genetic information saved, memories included, as long as he can upload them before he dies. (He has an implanted ocular that records all he does.) As the book opens he has died 6 times and is currently Mickey7. Things go a bit awry at this point. The planet doesn’t seem as habitable as they thought and contains native lifeforms that appear extremely dangerous. What happens after that is well…crazy!

This is a very well written debut novel with engaging characters and plot, sharp dialogue and witty moments that make you laugh out loud. There is also a lot of scientific information dispersed throughout the novel as well as historical background on the Diaspora as Mickey is somewhat of a lay expert in history. Ethical and moral questions are raised throughout the book as well as the usual questions surrounding immortality and individuality.
I loved the nod to Norse mythology and also Alice in Wonderland. Is it all a dream? Lol! I can’t wait for Ashton’s next book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin’s Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. There are few typographical errors in the text and the need for further editing is minimal in my opinion.

Review of Uncorrected Digital Galley
In a future time, mankind has developed the technology to travel to far-flung planets to establish colonies and has moved out into the universe. Once long-range reconnaissance determines the habitability of a planet, a single ship . . . a beachhead colony mission . . . departs on its mission.

On this mission, colonists will travel aboard the “Drakkar” from Midgard to the planet where they will establish the colony of Niflheim. But when they reach the planet, instead of a habitable world, they discover an ice planet with an atmosphere unsuitable for humans. Their food supply is steadily shrinking, terraforming isn’t too successful, and the planet’s native species, creepers, are a fearsome lot.

Mickey is the member of the crew who’s assigned all the difficult, deadly dangerous tasks. He’s the disposable crew member, an Expendable who has died and been regenerated six times. Currently, he is Mickey7.

On a routine planetary scouting mission outside the colonists’ habitable dome, Mickey tumbles down a deep hole; stranded and unable to climb out, he finds himself some three meters below the surface . . . too deep for his companions to safely mount a rescue mission.

When Mickey comes across a creeper-like creature in one of the tunnels, he expects to die; instead, he finds himself transported through a series of tunnels and returned to the surface of the planet. Mickey returns to the dome to discover that he’s been presumed to have been killed and a new iteration . . . Mickey8 . . . has been created.

Two duplicates cannot be allowed to exist simultaneously, food is strictly rationed, and neither Mickey wants to die. How long will they be able to keep the existence of two Mickeys a secret? And how long can the colony exist on a hostile world?

=========

Strong worldbuilding highlights this intriguing tale that asks what it means to be human. Imaginative and compelling, the unfolding narrative pulls the reader into the story and keeps the pages turning.

Well-drawn characters, a strong plot, and a fast-moving plot combine to make this narrative eminently readable. Flashbacks provide the necessary backstory to explain the how and why of the off-world colonization efforts and give the story depth as do the aspects of dealing with ethical quandaries.

Told from Mickey’s point of view, his somewhat snarky nature is an asset to the telling of the tale and, although the story reaches a satisfactory denouement, readers are likely to want to know more about what happens to Mickey and the Niflheim colony.

The only downside here is the annoying, unnecessary use of an offensive expletive that many readers will find off-putting.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this eBook from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley
#Mickey7 #NetGalley

This book was quite enjoyable, with good writing, good pacing, and interesting world building. Comparisons to The Martian are apt, and thankfully the narrator Mickey's sass and sarcasm never felt forced or obnoxious. My only complaint was I actually wanted to see a little more action outside the perimeter, and get more information and story around the Niflheim native species. I felt a little cooped up within the ship and habitat, although I suppose in that sense I was able to identify with Mickey a little more. Definitely recommended as a fun read.

Mickey7

I was really excited to get an ARC of this book. It’s been awhile (and by that I mean a couple years) since I’ve read any space based sci-fi. I was not disappointed.

It has a little bit of everything and enough comedic relief to balance out some of the more serious tones of the story. As a history nerd myself, I really enjoyed the colony histories that the author highlighted. They really brought the whole story together and gave insight to how Mickey was feeling. I felt that it was a well formed story and flowed very nicely. It was one book I didn’t want to put down.

4/5 Stars

What a wonderfully original sci-fi novel!

A thousand years from now, mankind will possess the technology to take years-long journeys to the farthest reaches of the universe to colonize planets deemed habitable by long-range reconnaissance. Colonization begins with a “beachhead mission” comprised of several hundred colonists, the embryos needed to build a society, and an “expendable” person to undertake any mission posing a significant risk of death. Of course, it’s no big deal if the expendable dies. Mankind has developed the technology to fully replicate human beings.

In trouble on his own homeworld, Mickey Barnes volunteers to be the expendable for the mission to colonize Niflheim, a planet that long-range scans find habitable, but which turns out to be a snow-and-ice-bound hell with a barely breathable atmosphere and gigantic, hostile, metal-eating creatures living below the surface. Over the course of the mission, Mickey has died and been recreated six times, which is why he’s now called Mickey7. When Mickey7 falls into a tunnel inhabited by the creatures, he is presumed to have been killed and Mickey8 is created. But Mickey7 is not dead and there’s a strict prohibition against two duplicates living at the same time. Both being fully human, neither Mickey7 nor Mickey8 is willing to die. But in a cramped outpost where food is strictly rationed, how, and for how long, will they keep their secret?

Author Edward Ashton has done a wonderful job imagining and building the world of Niflheim and its fledgling human colony. He’s populated that colony with terrific characters, especially Mickey7, who narrates the tail with a charmingly cynical kind of gallows humor. Ashton’s descriptions are clear and evocative. His dialogue is realistic and engaging. And while he’s telling his very good story filled with risk and adventure, not to mention romantic entanglements, Ashton also manages to impart several messages about humanity’s foibles without being preachy or hitting readers over the head.

Mickey7 wins on two counts: originality and an engrossing story. For me, the mark of a memorable book is if I get annoyed when I’m forced to stop reading due to silly demands such as work or housecleaning. This novel drew me in within the first 25 pages or so and kept me engrossed until the very end with a mild but satisfying twist I didn’t see coming.

The originality is reality. While the novel takes place in a far, far future, it remains grounded in physical laws rather than positing FTL drives or wormholes or warping from galaxy to galaxy. Humanity has spread to many planetary systems during the gap from our time to the novel’s setting. The diaspora, as the narrator/protagonist calls it, was due to a scary event on Earth that figures into the story toward the very end. It wasn't nor is it now, an easy journey.

A good deal of the reality sense I got throughout the book was due to the narrator’s storytelling ability when he relates some of the history of the diaspora’s colonization some of which had less than stellar outcomes. Unlike other duplication novels I’ve read, this one does go into the psychological effects of such a technology should it ever exist as well as the ancient riddle about the Ship of Theseus.

There is an overuse of the now grown tedious F-bomb. Yes, authors, you can use it and still be published. Now that the point’s been made, how about exercising your creativity and finding some substitutes to this boring repetition? There is also some implied but not graphic sexual behavior.

This is a complete book rather than the lead in to a series. Even so, the author has created a fertile universe that I’d enjoy visiting again. In sum, I find the novelty of reality in a science fiction book set in the far future enticing.

Mickey is an Expendable. His job description literally is to be expendable. I love the idea of this and the reasoning behind it. There are some jobs machines just can't do as well as humans, but these jobs could be potentially dangerous for said humans…so, what do you do?

I liked Mickey as the narrator of the story. He's a bit quirky, funny, and a loyal friend. My only question is what happens next? I love a good standalone, but I really want to know what happens to Mickey and the colony on Niflheim.

I love that this book is set so many years in the future after so many advances in science and technology, but the basis is just humans doing what humans do best…Hostile takeovers, killing anything that they don't find useful, and destroying beautiful worlds to fit their own agenda. It's humanity.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.