Ebook received for free through NetGalley

I read the last book so I was able able to jump on in. This time around I couldn’t get into it and then saw the audiobook was available. Switched to that and loved the characters, the novel story idea, the voices, and how the end is opened ended for future stories. Overall a good read.

This series is one of my favorite SciFi series! I enjoy that it's set on another planet and the characters interact with aliens while also being full of humor. This book in particular felt like The Martian with less science thrown in your face. Mickey is still my favorite character from this series, even though he's a bit self-centered and rude. The first book is being made into a movie by the creator of Parasite and I am very excited to see it!

I received an ARC copy of this book via #Netgalley.

I really tried to get into this one but had a hard time getting through it. I think you need to read Mickey7 first before this one.

Loved it. Amazing. It was super fun and really interesting. I love the micky7 series so far. I really think this is going to be a super interesting series. I’m a big fan.

I enjoyed this book even more than the first Mickey7 book. I almost didn't request it, since I enjoyed the first one, but wasn't sure I wanted to read another series. Boy, am I glad I did. The same great characters, and an even better story with pacing so good I didn't want to put the book down. Hopefully there will be more Mickey7 books.

This was good but not for me. I liked the story. The characters were ok. I thought this would be something different than my usual read and it was but I don't think I'll read it again.

- I absolutely loved Mickey 7 (the first book in this series)! This book continues the saga of Mickey and his friends on Niflheim and I am all for it!

- The thing that I love the most about this book is the snark! The story and the characters are full of sarcasm, camaraderie, cynicism, wit, and dare I say… care and love? These characters do care about each other, whether they show it outwardly or not, and I loved the interaction between everyone.

- The continued character development for Mickey was fantastic.

- This book contains a lot more interaction with the native lifeforms on Niflheim, particularly one they called The Speaker. The Speaker was a fantastic character to add to the Mickey 7 cast!

- This book does take place after the events of the first book, so I’d personally recommend reading them in order for the full experience.

- The story is fast-paced and fun. The world-building is amazing! The action is realistic. The dialogue is witty and relatable. I’m really loving this series – and I’m not a huge fan of sci-fi! Seriously though… you really should read both books in this series! They are so entertaining!

Thank you @NetGalley and @StMartinsPress for an eARC and a physical ARC of this book, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

The sci-fi novel Antimatter Blues by Edward Ashton is a follow-up to the first book in the series, Mickey7. If you haven’t read Mickey7, I highly suggest you read that one first to get to know the human characters.

I enjoyed this book, especially how it expanded to tell the story of the other sentient beings on the planet. Just like in real life, along with the seriousness of the challenges at hand, the characters still have a sense of humor.

I am a library associate and received an advanced copy from #NetGalley.

I read this book not knowing that it was the second book in a series, and in my opinion, it can be read as a standalone. (Although I intend to read the first book as soon as possible as I love a good marooned-on-an (almost) barren-planet book.)

Mickey Barnes is the main character. He is the 7th Mickey, as he has died six times already, and a new physical copy of him fished out of the tank, complete with all of his memories from the previous Mickey's last upload.

Mickey is a hoot. He has a steady girlfriend in the colony and has been working as a farmer, tending to the rabbits which are part of their food supply. Not everyone gets the same food, fyi. It depends on their pay which depends on their status/job in the colony. So Mickey may eat crickets and sweet potatoes, or a leg of rabbit and sweet potatoes. Algae is also on the menu.

One day the leader calls Mickey into his office. The colony is in jeopardy and he needs Mickey and a select group of volunteers to go retrieve an object that Mickey had hidden in the desert.

What follows is an exciting story with a lot of twists and turns. The closest author whose work I could compare this to is Robert Heinlein. I received a review copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin's Press, and voluntarily read and reviewed it.

This is the second book in a series and I recommend that you read Mickey7 first. This story is told in first person by Mickey and picks up 2 years after the events of Mickey7. Eventually, his decisions would come back to haunt him. Now Mickey has to retrieve the bomb he left behind and not get killed, yet again, in the process.

I really enjoyed visiting Mickey’s world again. He has an acerbic wit that amuses me. Mickey stumbles into and out of trouble in the most clumsy and luckiest ways possible. He has an end goal but no plan, yet he muddles through it all once again. I spent most of the book laughing. His merry gang of friends/foes are standing by to either help, hinder or provide unnecessary commentary.

Recommended to Sci-Fi lovers looking for something fun and light-hearted.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a copy provided for an honest review.

Mickey7 introduced an Expendable on the Niflheim ice world colony. He died there 6 times, and was revived by technology that regenerates a human body after death, recovering memories saved at regular intervals.

The colony depends on antimatter (now running very low) for its survival. Its leader, Commander Marshall, demands that Mickey retrieve an antimatter bomb from nearby aliens, who turn out to be in conflict with another alien group.

There's plenty of anguish and action before it's all over, and the ending begs the question of whether we'll see more of Mickey in a future episode. I sure hope so.

Published by St. Martin's Press on March 14, 2023

Antimatter Blues is a sequel to Mickey7. We learned in the first novel that a colony of humans is struggling to survive on a world that is inhabited by large worm-like creatures they refer to as creepers. In Antimatter Blues, the humans discover that the worms have relatives living a hundred kilometers to the south. The relatives resemble spiders, but that’s a product of design, as the worms and spiders are ancillaries that serve a leader. Both the worms and the spiders have trouble believing that the humans are not also ancillaries, much less that they traveled from another star.

Mickey7 is the seventh iteration of Mickey’s body. He joined the colony as an expendable, the guy who performs dangerous jobs that might end in death. Mickey7 died six times, each time uploading his memories before the mission so that his body could be dissolved and printed anew. Is each new Mickey a continuation of the original or a different person entirely? It seems like every recent sf novel I’ve read uses the Ship of Theseus as a metaphor, but it doesn’t work well here. New Mickeys are more like a new ship with the same captain (kind of like Kirk taking command of a new Enterprise every time he destroys the old one).

At the end of the last novel, Mickey made an agreement that he would no longer be an expendable. He enforced the agreement by making the false claim that the creepers had seized one of the colony’s nuclear bombs. Mickey also claimed that he was in communication with the creepers, an exaggeration that kept him alive. Now, thanks to a mishap, the colony needs the bomb and its fuel or it won’t survive the upcoming winter. Mickey is tasked with finding it. That should be an easy task except the bomb is no longer under the rock pile where he hid it.

To recover the bomb, Mickey must alternately enter into alliances with the worms and the spiders. Humans aren’t always good at alliances (even with other humans), as the worms and spiders both discover. The novel delivers entertaining action scenes as humans, who have superior technology but much smaller numbers, find themselves fighting with or against worms and spiders. Yes, there is a shout-out to the Spartans at Thermopylae, although the Spartans didn’t have the benefit of superior arrows.

The story is amusing, as Edward Ashton intends it to be. The action is fun. Mickey is a likeable character, as are his friends Berto and Cat and Mickey’s girlfriend Nasha. Each character has a distinct personality with all the depth they require for a story of this nature. The colony’s leader is a jerk, playing the role of a foil who contrasts with the decency of the likeable characters, but even jerks can be redeemed, at least in fiction. The novel’s modest attempts at poignancy are modestly successful.

Antimatter Blues works because it doesn’t overreach. It’s meant to be a comedic science fiction action story and, on that level, it reaches its goal. I would suggest reading Mickey7 before reading Antimatter Blues, but Ashton provides sufficient background to fill in readers who don’t want to bother with the first one.

RECOMMENDED

Much in the same vein as the first book in the series, it struggles with plot and finding any likeable characters.

Did we strictly -need- a sequel to Mickey 7? Perhaps not. Am I damn glad that we got one? Yes. Absolutely. I greatly enjoyed returning to Niflheim and found the second journey just as enjoyable as the first. Wry humor with a good heart in space is a win for me.

As with many things this year, I did not read the first book in the series...but as with so many other books, I did not feel at all lost or confused. 'Antimatter Blues' is a fun sci-fi adventure sequel to Mickey7 and, despite being out of order, I will be picking up the first novel based on how much I enjoyed this one!

Light, funny, and well-written, 'Antimatter Blues' perfectly blends humor and science fiction, a genre that is notorious (in my opinion) for tech-heavy exposition and high stakes- sure the stakes are high in Ashton's novel, how could they not be?, but the writing remains human and easy to digest throughout. At no point did I feel overwhelmed, or lost, or frustrated with tech jargon. The characters are likeable, the dialogue feels real, and I had a fantastic time.

I highly recommend 'Antimatter Blues', and have no doubts that Ashton's first novel is worth a read as well.

And as always, huge thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of 'Antimatter Blues'!

I was granted access to this book before I had a chance to read the first one, so I had to quickly get around to reading Mickey7 so that I could fully enjoy Antimatter Blues, and enjoy it I did! This was a really fun sequel and I appreciated that there was so much more for this story to tell after I was concerned there might not be. I loved that we really got to explore more from what was started in the first book, and I was fascinated by all the different ways the author explored the alien world and lifeforms. Definitely looking forward to more from this author!

I really didn’t expect a sequel to Mickey7, so when the publisher sent me a NetGalley widget for this novel, I was ecstatic.

Mickey is such a likeable guy. He may not be the smartest person in the room, but he’s witty, logical, brave, and kind. Overall, a good guy to have around. A couple years have passed since the colonists arrived at Niflheim. Mickey’s days as an expendable are over, and he now spends his time working with the rabbits and cleaning their hutches. His relationship with Commander Marshall is still combative, but Mickey never expected them to be BFFs.

The colonists and creepers coexist, but when the antimatter that fuels the colony runs low, Mickey is sent to retrieve the other antimatter bomb Commander Marshall believes the creepers possess. He’s not aware that Mickey kind of lied about the whereabouts of the bomb. Instead, he used it to leverage himself out of the expendable job and actually hid it under a pile of rocks. But there’s a problem – it’s missing. Deals and promises are made, a new species comes into play, and not everyone survives this mission. The survival of the colony depends on MIckey.

This novel immediately engaged me, and I finished it in a couple sittings. I recently read a Mickey7 movie is in the works (Robert Pattinson as Mickey), and it’s on my must see list. If you’re a fan of sci-fi blended with humor, don’t miss this series.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Good followup to the first book in the series. Fun and entertaining Science Fiction. Good characters and believable science..

Unfortunately I didn't realize this was book two in a series when I opted to review it, my apologies!

So, my review will mainly focus on the writing style; which I really enjoyed! There was a bit of recap at the beginning if you forgot some things from book one, without being repetitive or info dumpy.

This definitely left me interested enough to go find book one.

I think it is a fascinating and unique idea, done quite well! Sci-fi fans should check our Mickey7 (which is book one)

Book Summary:

The truth is that Mickey7 was never supposed to live this long. He's an expendable, or rather, a retired expendable. This means he was brought along to a new colony with a singular purpose: he's supposed to take on the lethal jobs, dying in the place of other inhabitants.

Mickey7 walked away from that job two years ago, and he's a bit surprised he's lasted as long as he has. Now there's something else happening, and the whole colony may be at risk. Once again, it comes down to Mickey7 to find a way to save the day. Or else.

My Review:

Oh goodie! I honestly didn't expect to get a sequel to Mickey7, but I have to admit, I'm so tickled that we did. (Maybe it's the adaptation announcement that ensured the arrival of Antimatter Blues?) Antimatter Blues is just as quirky and sarcastic as its predecessor, which means it's pretty perfect.

I have to admit; I'm impressed by the situations Mickey7 (and all preceding Mickeys) gets himself into. Okay, impressed and maybe a little bit horrified. But can you blame me? I can see why this series was picked up for an adaptation – it feels like a movie (or show) script – that balance of action, humor, and character development. It'll keep any viewer's eyes glued to the screen.

This duology is perfect for anybody that loves science fiction and laborious debates about the origin of the self (read: Ship of Theseus in space). It's action-packed and full of bold and dynamic characters. This leaves plenty of room for humor, even when the situation couldn't look direr.

As per usual, I loved the characters in Antimatter Blues. There's a new character that I think will sweep readers away. At least, that was the case for me. Anyway, let me know what you think!

Highlights:
Part of a Series
Science Fiction
Aliens!
Colony on another Planet
The Ship of Theseus Debate

Trigger Warnings:
Graphic Details about Death/Injuries