Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this title.

This had an interesting premise and does some great worldbuilding, but most of the characters/plot feel underbaked, particularly Mickey 8. The whole of the plot hinges on our main character suddenly having a duplicate when that's not supposed to happen, and one of them is so underused/underdeveloped that you kind of wonder what the point is.

Fascinating concept meets obnoxious protagonist makes a recipe for a story that is just okay. Mickey Barnes is trying SO hard to follow in the tradition of Mark Watney and Murderbot, but simply does not have the humor or charm to make it work. His jokes fall flat and I struggled to be sympathetic to his plight: it is hard to believe that one abysmal choice could have landed him in straits dire enough to accept the conditions of being an Expendable. His interactions with Cat and Nasha left a bad taste in my mouth, and neither woman felt developed beyond shallow stereotypes peppered with "zingers" that felt forced at best and cringey at worst. Also, the whole plan that Micky7 and Mickey8 hatch to keep themselves alive was almost comically flimsy: the inability of other characters to catch them in the act or call them on their bad lies was even more fantastical than the space travel. The most interesting part of this novel was the ethical dilemmas it raises regarding identity, colonization, and religion - if it had leaned more into this and tried less to be funny I would have enjoyed it more.

When Mickey signed on as an Expendable on a one-way colonization mission to the planet Nilfheim, his biggest worry was escaping from a loan shark looking to torture the crap out of him. The theoretical possibility of being killed and having his mind regenerated in a clone body seemed less scary somehow.

But now Mickey is Mickey7 and the things he's been through.... He's stuck on an inhospitable planet with a bunch of purist Natalists (who think cloned Expendables are an abomination) and is sent out on the most horrible and dangerous tasks on the colony. But when he falls in an ice crevasse and his friend Berto decides it's easier to let him die than attempt to retrieve him, Mickey7 makes his way through ice tunnels and into the grips of ice planet creepers who seem....sentient. When he finally makes it back to base, he realizes Berto has initiated the regeneration process and now a duplicate Mickey8 is asleep in his bed. And duplicates? That's the biggest cloning taboo there is....

This was a really fun premise for a story and it's a quick read. Mickey is an amateur historian as well, so the story is interspersed with snippets on the hows and whys of the human Diaspora across space. I was a little disappointed with the climax of the story - it didn't build up very much and felt a little rushed, but all in all, it was very enjoyable and if it becomes a series, I definitely would keep reading.

I thought this book was a lot of fun! For sci-fi I am definitely a sucker for colony settings. And I loved that the main character was just a regular schmo, not the brightest dude. There are little vignettes in between the main storyline that are essentially Mickey telling us, the reader, little stories about the history of their world, which I loved. The whole book is written in a really casual and accessible way, so even if you don’t do a lot of space sci-fi settings I think you would be fine with this one. Not to mention it does kind of make you think about what makes a human a human. Is it the physical body or is it the soul? Really well done & entertaining!

Thank you to NetGalley & St. Martin’s Press for this advanced reader copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Full review and links to social will be posted as soon as possible.

I'd like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Did not expect to like this as much as I did. (I've been burned before). It was such a fun and entertaining story, but with some grit behind it.

Mickey is an expandable. Meaning, he gets reprinted if he dies. His mission, is to do every single dirty, dangerous, deadly job on the colony ship to make sure it get to its destination. But Mickey doesn't really want to die. Or likes it. But this was the only way to get off the planet he's currently on, and escape his troubles.

Once the colony ship gets to a new planet, on a scouting mission, Mickey gets himself into a pickle, and because his friend thought he was dead, Mickey gets reprinted. Well, how to fix this, without killing yourself or well, yourself.

It was a clever story full of dark humor, adventure, some cool science and speculations on colonization. And of course soul searching. Or lack of it.

I heard this is going to a screen soon! Can't wait, it will be a cool show to watch. Except maybe for that one sex scene. If you know, you know.

Thank you to the publisher for my gifted review copy.

This was my first time reading an Edward Ashton book and I like how he wove in the historian side of the main character, Mickey. To escape a sticky situation on his home planet, Mickey signed up as the Expendable on a one way trip to establish a beachhead on a hopefully hospitable planet. The storyline brings up the social/moral aspects of a new copy of him being created multiple times. I wanted to like this story more, but it did not draw me in enough to read it quickly, though if I could, I would give it 3.5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book to review through NetGalley.

Thank you to the author (Edward Ashton) and publisher (St. Martin's Press) for an advance reading copy of Mickey7. This did not influence my thoughts or opinions. Mickey7 released February 15, 2022.

“Come on,” I say. “You know this as well as I do. One of us has got to go.”

Mickey7 was such a breath of fresh air. I’ve been reading a lot of dark fantasy recently and well, it’s really nice to change it up. This was an enjoyable science fiction that felt light on its feet. It reminded me of how I felt reading The Martian, We are Bob, and Redshirt.

Mickey Barnes is a Mission Expendable. These Expendables are used in dangerous, risky situations to help fix or test things out because if death occurs, they can replace them using their bio-printed body and personality.

The world building was inventive and imaginative. I thoroughly enjoyed the history of previous colony expeditions and the landscape of those planets humanity was seeking to colonize. I found Niflheim, the planet where the story takes place, to be a fascinating creation. The small colony lived inside a dome due to an uninhabitable atmosphere with some creepy lifeforms and it was neat learning the ins and outs of dome living. I would’ve loved to have explored more of Niflheim.

The book is told through Mickey7’s present POV with flashbacks mixed in. Although I found the flashbacks to be very interesting and informative, it took me out of the story a little. Just as I would get into a groove, we would flashback and I’d find myself wanting to stay in the present and continue with what was happening next. The characters were developed fairly well and felt uniquely different. I loved how Mickey7 felt tone wise. Despite some tricky situations, it maintained a lighter feel to it which is exactly what I needed at this time, and I’m sure there are many readers who may be looking for a similar mood.

Mickey7 shines in plot and smart and witty dialogue. I loved the concept of a Mission Expendable. The authors creativity with world building and background history was exceptionally satisfying.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title. An honest review was requested but not required.

The premise of this was absolutely fascinating. The entire concept of uploading your entire body, from DNA to personality, and making literal exact copies of yourself in order to have a live, human coal mine canary (so to speak) is… crazy. I could definitely envision people doing this in some future world(s) if the technology could accommodate it.

I loved Mickey’s back and forth with, well, himself. I loved the dry references to historical catastrophes and their relevance to his current situation. I loved the banter with his “friends” and the sardonic descriptions of his former deaths. The sarcasm and dry humor were, as other reviewers have pointed out, a little reminiscent of the Murderbot books (which is a big win, for me).

I wish the book would have fleshed out a little bit what HAPPENED [THIS IS A SPOILER] with the creepers after the détente was achieved. I would have loved to hear more about how the humans coexisted with the Creepers, how the humans’ settlement on Niflheim was going in general, just… more. I felt like the book ended very abruptly after the climactic showdown between Mickey and Marshall and I would have liked MORE.

Regardless, I did enjoy this book very much and would certainly recommend it.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

When selecting if I wanted to read Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, I read as far as "The Martian meets Dark Matter" before choosing to read it. I enjoy Sci-FI books that include a snarky attitude from the main character, and I was not disappointed.

Mickey7 is an "expendable": a disposable employee who receives a new, regenerated body with most of his memories intact when he dies. Mickey has died six times already so, he might not like it, but he clearly understands his role in the expedition sent to colonize a new planet,

On a routine scouting mission, Mickey7 goes missing and is presumed dead. Returning to base, Mickey7 meets Mickey8, his new clone. Duplicate expendables are universally loathed, and if discovered, they will most likely be thrown into the recycler with the real possibility a Mickey9 would not be created.

The tone of the book is light. Ashton nicely balances both light and dark humor and the novel's serious themes. He does not waste words in world-building but allows enough information for you to get a good sense of the planet and the difficulties of the expedition.

If you enjoy witty, sometimes dark humor, then give this a read.

This 200-word review is published on Philomathinphila.com.

I’m not sure where to start with this review. I believed the hype, the plot sounded amazing! I mean, an “Expendable” on a pioneering mission to settle a new society who is “re-printed” after each death? Sounds right up my alley!

Mickey7 is no longer feeling the luster of being his crew’s expendable. For certain, technical jobs, you need a human’s quick thinking and dexterity, but often in space, these sorts of jobs don’t end well for the human. Now that Mickey7 has died 6 times before he’s rethinking his position. So when the friend abandons him to aliens and reports him dead, Mickey7 is as surprised as anyone else to see Mickey8 in his bunk after he successfully rescues himself from the aliens.

The idea is solid. There can’t be replicas due to a historical madman who tried to populate the world with millions of himself…but neither Mickey7 or Mickey8 are in a rush to throw themselves into the cycler! Add a long-term girlfriend, a daily calorie allowance that is barely large enough for one man, let alone two, a religious dictatorial leader, and a best friend who might be lying about how some other Mickey’s died…and you have all the makings for a great story!

Unfortunately, the great idea is as far as this book goes. The execution is poor, the descriptions are weird, and the catalyst of a creepy three-some that alerts the crew to the existence of multiples and a way too abrupt ending…and I wish this had been better executed.

That being said, the science descriptions were solid, and parts of the society - when Mickey7 looks back at other failed society launches were fun to read!

The more I thought about Mickey7 by Edward Ashton the more I realized it deserves 5 stars.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
It was marketed as The Martian meets Dark Matter (two of my favs) but I also found some lovely parallels to Ender's Game as well. The introspective and philosophical questions were endless. How much of who we are is innate to our body? How much of our personality is formed from our unique experience? If my memories changed would it alter my whole being?
Of course, being science fiction, none of these questions were discussed over a cup of tea in a serene lounge. They are pondered as the characters make decisions that could critically alter their fates and the lives of those around them; usually while engaged in warfare on the surface of a moon with no breathable air. To me that is the essence of science fiction. Ashton crafts a great story that makes us ponder ourselves and our future, and I highly suggest you pick up a copy as soon as you can get it after it debuts on February 15th!

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.

I read science fiction for its great and unexpected ideas. While you know what you will encounter in a mystery or romance, reading science fiction is more like a leap into space with no memory of putting on a bungie cord. Mickey7 contains just that type of big idea.

The book has left a brainworm crawling around in my head. What if we die each night and are reborn the next day with all our memories intact? While Mickey knows he is reborn, what if we don’t? I don’t think this idea is going to improve my insomnia issues.

Ahem, back to my review.

Mickey is an Expendable living on a planet that the company he works for is terraforming. He is given life-threatening tasks because there is no risk of loss. Mickey is quickly regenerated if he dies. Of course, it is not so easy on Mickey. He still feels all the agony that comes with each death.

During a mission, his co-workers leave Mickey for dead. He is able somehow to survive with the help of an alien creature. However, when he reaches his home base, Mickey8 is already ready for duty making Mickey7 redundant and subject to recycling. To prevent that outcome the two Mickeys must work together like the twins in Parent Trap with approximately the same amount of comedic problems.

Mickey7 is a humorous but thought-provoking look into one possible future. I really enjoyed its more philosophical approach to the usual space opera plot. Though the thought of the creepers’ self-sharpening teeth may give me nightmares, the book deserves 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars!

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Mickey is an expendable. He is part of an expedition to colonize a new planet and his job is to do really dangerous things and probably die from it. But then a new Mickey is regenerated out of the tank to keep doing dangerous things. On a scouting mission, Mickey has an accident and is left for dead. But when he survives with help from some native life, he makes it back to the base only to find out that another Mickey has already be extracted from the tank. While many on the base know the necessity of Mickey, that doesn’t mean they want two of them. The two Mickeys then have to try and figure out how to function as two people when there is only supposed to be one. But then the native life decide to get curious about the humans, Mickey7 might be the only one that can save them. I found this to be a pretty fun book, similar to The Martian but not as good. Come into this without really high expectations, and you will find an enjoyable book.

What’s it about (in a nutshell):

Mickey7 by Edward Ashton is a sci-fi thriller about survival and the lengths one man will go to prolong his own life.

What I Enjoyed:

I enjoyed the immersive world-building that whisked me away to the planet Niflheim, where people from Earth have gone to survive after a defining war on Earth. Also, through technological advances, Earth has come up with a controversial role for people to play – an Expendable. An Expendable is the one sent into the most dangerous of situations and, upon their death, regenerated once more. So, it is a sort of immortality or as close to it as humans have ever been able to get.

I loved the narration, which is first-person and very conversational. Mickey 7 talks to the reader and explains what is going on in the present and what things in the past led to that point. He is a witty and reflective narrator, exuding a humbleness and wisdom reflective of someone who would make a great leader. I enjoyed his unique voice and everything it added to the tale.

Mickey7’s ability to survive in this hostile world gave the story all the thrills I needed to flip those pages faster and faster. For reasons no one can explain, this particular iteration of Mickey has developed into the pinnacle of survival through everything from a food shortage to contact with an alien species; he manages to not only survive it all but to thrive.

Lastly, I enjoyed the ending, and it took me by complete surprise. I did not have any idea how this story would end until I got there. The conclusion gave me all the feelings I had to suppress until then because I was too busy holding my breath, wondering what was coming next.

Characters:
The characters are all very well-developed, with complexities and layers that are foreign and relatable to the reader. Mickey7 is a hero, and he is very different from Mickey8. I love that I could quickly tell the difference between the two iterations of Mickey – that is, how well the characters are developed in this largely character-driven story.

The support characters are all fascinating and unique. They are developed just as well as Mickey because we see them through his eyes, and I loved that about them.

What I Wish:
The only thing I had trouble with from time to time was when the story became very detailed with technical information. It added authenticity to the story and made it easy to suspend disbelief, but I can’t say that I genuinely followed and understood what I was reading. So if I had to wish something, it would be that the technical aspects had either been shorter or been at least partially explained in a way that a non-science/technology person could understand.

To Read or Not to Read:
If you are looking for a sci-fi thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat and have you reflecting on what survival means to you, Micky 7 is just what you are looking for.

Fast paced and very readable with characters that were the right amount of real life in a distant future. Looking forward to more sci if from this author.

What makes us us, exactly? Is it our memories, our experiences? Our DNA or the culmination of our biological components? Mickey7 is going to ask you those questions, and make you ponder the answers long after you've stopped reading. Because really, I am still asking you, aren't I?

We catch up with Mickey, now in his seventh iteration. He usually doesn't need to rely on numeric identification, as only one Mickey is allowed to be alive at the time- he is only reincarnated after the demise of a prior body, after all. But after a bizarre turn of events leads his pal to believe him dead and his body "irrecoverable", the powers that be make a brand new Mickey, version 8.0... without realizing that the seventh just waltzed back into camp fairly unscathed.

Only... now who gets to live? Neither Mickey feels like he should volunteer to be recycled, so they try to stay hidden. This doesn't bode well, as all the citizens are on reduced rations, and threats lurk at every corner. There are a lot of bizarre twists and turns along the way as the Mickeys try to navigate life as essentially fugitives. They can't figure out who is trustworthy, and basically if anyone in the colony is going to make it much longer, much less themselves.

The world building is really unique as well, and I loved getting to know the workings of this colony, the struggles they faced, and the life forms that were already there. My only minor qualm really is that I'd have loved to know more about everything, and I'd gladly welcome a sequel or a companion!

Bottom Line: Incredibly thought provoking, the questions posited in Mickey7 have remained with me since reading it.

Quick read, a super fun mix of action and classic sci fi philosophy. 5⭐️!

Mickey's job in a struggling colony on an inhospitable planet with gnarly, hostile aliens: take all the dirty jobs, since if he dies they can just make a fresh version of him. He's making it work, until he accidentally doesn't die when he was supposed to, and there's suddenly two versions of him cloned self, which is the biggest no no out there.

It's got the sci fi mumbo jumbo to make the technology seen reasonable without getting into details and it's got a compact main storyline heavily intercut with Mickey's past too fill in how we got here/ all the morality that the author wants.

I like the logical conclusion of cloning technology that the author presents, I like the characters, I like the religion/political commentary, I like the conclusion about "old earth" that they story comes to.

It's really good and feels similar to a classic sci fi book like Starship Troopers or Ender's Game. I read it in one day because it was well written and didn't have any parts that dragged.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the review copy provided in exchange for an honest review

This was quite a fun little sci-fi adventure and something that was just good timing--it was certainly different from anything I've read recently and the author did a good job with it. The premise is described pretty accurately in the blurb. Mickey is in the 7th iteration of his body after working as an expendable, which is exactly what it sounds like. Any job that is likely to be deadly is given to him with the idea that his recorded consciousness (at least the last time he uploaded) can be downloaded into a new body after his demise (usually quite painful and sometimes drawn out). He is part of a beachhead colony on a new planet and things are not going well. Something goes wrong even more than usual and Mickey7 ends up not dying the way they thought he would and we end up with a duplicate, Mickey8. From here on, things get a bit tense. Besides the fact that Mickey has "died" 6 times before, I would consider this fairly lightweight and it was an easy and quick read. Honestly, the only thing I did not like about how it ended was that I wanted to know more about the world and what ends up happening to their colony. There are a lot of questions that can be explored further, so I'm kind of curious if the author will write more about this world. I would definitely be interested if he does. Still, this was the perfect book in the midst of other heavier reads.

If you enjoy sci-fi adventures and you're looking for a quick read, I can recommend this one.

I received an advance review copy from NetGalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.