Mickey7 is an Expendable on Niflheim - he takes on the most dangerous colony tasks, dies regularly and is then cloned and his backed up memories restored.

The seventh time he's believed to have died, he survives and makes his way back to find that Mickey8 has been cloned. If it's realized they are loathed duplicates, they'll both be recycled.

Meanwhile, hostility from the planet's own species (one of them intelligent) is increasing, putting the colony at risk.

Can Mickey7 save himself and save the day, without dying again?

I absolutely adore Mickey7 by Edward Ashton. The concept of Expendables is an interesting topic to explore, and I believe Ashton handles the topics with skill, interweaving the concerns of consciousness, intelligence, the morality of colonization, and immortality.
Mickey7 was assumed dead on his last mission and when he shows up, alive.... he realizes they have already printed out Mickey8. Duplicates are not tolerated, so they wind up sharing daily rations and space....and friends. I write all this down, but it just doesn't explain the adventure and laughs, the serious questions that are posed so artfully and a plot that just doesn't quit. Excellent, highly recommended. I would definitely recommend Mickey 7 especially if you like sci fi that makes you think that is very entertaining!
Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and author Edward Ashton for this digital review copy for me to read and enjoy!

Honestly, this was just a huge disappointment. I originally saw it compared to The Martian and Dark Matter and requested it immediately. Now, I'd recommend just skipping this one and reading those instead. This one felt like it had so much potential with a very interesting setup. But in the end, the author just wasn't really able to execute the idea very well.
The book starts out strong enough with our expendable almost dying while out on a mission. But, he doesn't die. And now there are two Mickey's. It seems interesting enough because along with being an expendable, we're also dealing with supply shortages, native creatures that are starting to turn on the newcomers, issues with rations, a girlfriend who doesn't know there are two of him, and a best friend who's acting a bit shady. And that doesn't even cover the science and politics that got everyone to Niflheim and created expendables in the first place.
There are so many interesting issues that could have been explored in this book but instead, we're dealt with listening to two Mickey's complain about being hungry and how they're going to sneak around the ship to avoid detection. Which, by the way, was not done well by either of them. It just still blows my mind how boring most of this book was. I really don't understand. I think my expectations were just too high because I loved both The Martian and Dark Matter and how they dealt with both the sciences of where they were and the emotional/mental toll it took on both of them. And the ideas of immortality and rebirth and the psychological effects of being called expendable and it being your entire purpose, I just felt like the author could have explored these ideas a little bit more. It was all just pretty basic in the end and the main character comes off as lazy and boring.
Overall, this was just really underwhelming for me. There were a few interesting bits but almost everything felt like it was underexplored. Even the issues with his best friend and the creepers aren't ever really handled well. We did get a lot of history lessons about past colonies and flashbacks to several of Mickey's past experiences and deaths, though.
I think if you're looking for a somewhat light adult sci-fi book and are interested exclusively in the idea of expendables, this might be for you.

Mickey7 was an enjoyable read full of the snarky, sarcastic kind of humor that I love and plenty of world building and sci-fi hijinks. The story gave a lot of context and history around the Diaspora traveling to and inhabiting new planets and in depth experience of life as an "expendable". It was interesting how different his copy, Mickey8, was from Mickey7 suggesting that experience makes a big difference in the character's world view. I wish we could’ve learned more about the native species of the ice planet, Niflhiem, that they are inhabiting. I feel that we got a lot more about the history of colonization, what it means to be an expendable and trying to not get caught than about the conflict between the colonizers and the newly discovered lifeform. Overall it was an interesting and quick read, but I wish it were a little longer and covered other topics it touched upon more than it did.

This was not at all what I expected and I ended up loving it. The characters were great and the story was engaging. So much so, that I finished it in a day. My favorite parts where the ones where Mickey was reading about the other missions from the past. I could’ve taken a whole book on just those missions. Will definitely recommend.

Enjoyed the premise of the book more than the actual story. It was a bit done before with having read the Ender books by Orson Scott Card.

This is a story with great potential! A Sci-Fi book that is easy for a non-Sci-Fi reader to jump into and understand. Always a plus in my book!

Mickey 7 is a replicant of the original Mickey, on it's 7th iteration. His role in the ship that is sent to colonize another world, is to do all of the dangerous things that could get someone killed, so the rest of the crew doesn't have to. If he is killed, then no problem, they zip up a new iteration of Mickey and he's good to go again. Great premise, right?

Oh, and I didn't even get to the 'monsters' on the new planet that the crew is trying to deal with and who seem to be some of the main reasons why Mickey is now Mickey7. Cool!

The story begins with Mickey7 falling into a crevice/hole, where the crew can't reach him without making so much noise that these monsters all come calling (which for obvious reasons, they don't want to happen). So they basically instruct him to kill himself so that he can regenerate to Mickey8. Except, he doesn't kill himself. And by the time he gets back to the ship, Mickey8 is already alive and kicking. Uh oh!

This sets us up for fun antics and a great, crazy plot.

Except that never comes to fruition. Ahhhhh! Seriously, 80% of the books (excluding the excellent beginning and pretty great ending) is about Mickey on the ship, doing pretty much nothing but eating. Or talking about eating. Or thinking about eating. And the food is some pretty awful stuff.

Was the author hungry? Because I don't get it!

To be fair, there were a few antics but most of them were not that entertaining. I kept waiting for the story to pick up or the action to kick in or literally anything to happen besides the stupid eating, but alas, I had to wait until the very end of the book for anything like that.

Don't get me wrong, the middle parts were mildly entertaining and Mickey7 flashes back to previous Mickey iterations and their experiences, so there is activity happening. It just didn't live up to the awesome setup or potential of this storyline.

An overall interesting read if you would like to try Sci-Fi and would like an easy intro. And the narrator sounds like Casey Kasem, the American Top 40 DJ from the 70s and 80s. His voice brought back all kinds of great memories and he did a great job of narrating.

Mickey7 is an expendable human tasked with all the dangerous and potentially deadly missions of a group sent to colonize a distant planet. Every time he dies, he is "recreated" from his saved genetic material. There are those who treat him like a human and others who think he is an abomination, but he is necessary to the survival of this small colony.

Mickey just keeps doing his job, dying and being re-made until he discovers something important about the alien life on the planet they have colonized, and he may be the key to saving everyone. Oh, and by mistake he has a clone that shouldn't exist, so that's a problem.

In theory, the premise of this book was promising and intriguing. I liked the idea of clones trying to keep each other a secret, of how a small colony tries to survive on a distant planet, and the exploration of alien species. However, it felt more like a short story that was padded to create a novel. It dragged in parts, there was too much coverage of Mickey's sexy times (one time would have been enough), there were too many characters and not enough depth given to the "main" characters or even the alien species. The ending was anti-climactic and felt chopped. Despite its problems, I enjoyed it enough to read all of it, and that's saying something.

Mickey7 by Edward Ashton is a standalone journey about survival. Set in the future, humanity is faced with the need to find a new home in space. In order to accomplish this goal, people compete for positions in the new colony. There's one position, no one will want, unless they are really desperate (or conscripted)...the Expendable.

Here's where we meet Mickey7, who retells how the original Mickey had found himself in a situation on his home planet that was so bad he volunteered to become the Expendable. Mickey7 is fascinating! Not only has he done crazy, fascinating, suicidal things, he is also funny, sarcastic, and willing to do anything to stay alive!

At the opening, this book reminded me of Andy Weir's "The Martian", but it quickly diverged from that into a hilarious adventure! This book was also thought provoking. One of the most interesting questions for me was "is Mickey7 the same person as the original"? I could not get enough of this book! As much as I needed to know how it ended, I didn't want the story to end.

This is the first book I've read by the author and now I need to check out his other books! Mickey7 is definitely on my list of favorite books of 2022!

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

Mickey Barnes doesn’t have the intelligence or the qualifications to get him a job on a colony ship. What he does have is a willingness to take on the crew’s worst job: Expendable. These disposable humans take on the team’s deadliest dirty work and, on death, have their backed-up memories downloaded into a new clone body. Mickey is on his seventh life and doing as all right as an Expendable can… until, coming home after being left for dead, he discovers the team wasted no time popping out Mickey8.

Now Mickey7 is a Multiple: frowned on for ethical reasons, difficult for personal reasons, and sure to get both of them recycled into protein paste if they’re found out. At the same time, Mickey8 is missing about six weeks of memories that Mickey7 chose not to back up. Before long, Mickey7 realizes his problems are bigger than splitting his calorie allowance and sharing his girlfriend. Things aren’t what they seem, both among the crew and on the world they’re hoping to terraform.

Mickey7 gives us ample history lessons to flesh out the ethical quandaries its setting raises, and how its residents approach those quandaries. There’s plenty of back story as to why humans are out populating the stars, and the sci-fi elements are solid. But the story shines in its truly, unabashedly human moments: its weird nightmares, forehead kisses, and cafeteria brawls. Those are the moments that make Mickey, and Mickey7, truly appealing.

(Reviewed in Sci-Fi Magazine, Spring 2022)

Published by St. Martin's Press on February 15, 2022

Mickey7 is the kind of book that science fiction readers don’t often see — an intelligent story of alien contact that suggests diplomacy is preferable to war. Edward Ashton assembles several familiar science fiction components (colonization of new worlds, storing consciousness and transferring it to an artificially created body, aliens that have a distributed intelligence) and assembles them into an entertaining story that seems fresh despite its familiarity.

The future Diaspora is a recurring theme in science fiction — the idea that humanity will develop the technology to colonize other planets and that (as history shows) plenty of people will be willing to risk danger for the chance to make a new life in a new place. In this version of the future, humans have little choice but to flee from Earth after nearly destroying the planet. Mickey7 takes a deeper-than-average dive into likely reality of colonization. It’s possible to identify planets in the Goldilocks zone that show evidence of having an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, but it’s impossible to know whether those planets will support human life, even after a hundred years of terraforming, until humans try to establish a colony. Occasionally colonies thrive. Usually colonists manage to get by or everyone dies.

The plot is fairly simple, with only a few significant characters and a straightforward storyline. In this case, simplicity is a virtue. Mickey got into some trouble and needed to get off a planet. He joined a colony ship in the only available position — as an expendable. His memories are downloaded and his DNA is recorded. When he dies — and that’s part of the job, because some jobs require human exposure to radiation or other deadly environments — a new body will be printed, his last-recorded memories will be uploaded to his new brain, and he’ll be good to go. Except for the dying part, which is usually quite unpleasant.

During one of his trips outside the dome, Mickey’s seventh incarnation falls down a hole and into a labyrinth of tunnels. His friend assumes that Mickey will soon be eaten by indigenous creatures called creepers. By the time Mickey makes his way out of the tunnels, Mickey8 has been printed. Having two versions in existence at the same time creates all sorts of problems with food rations, so at least one of them will have to go. When neither volunteers, they try to keep their dual existence a secret. That’s an entertaining premise for a story that explores the complications of two identical guys canoodling with two different women while each tries to make do on half the usual rations.

The story eventually leads to a confrontation between the Mickeys and their boss, as well as between the Mickeys and the indigenous life forms. The resolution suggests that creative people can solve problems without killing everyone in sight. I might recommend Mickey7 for that alone, but I also recommend it because the story as a whole is fun and the characters are likeable.

RECOMMENDED

Mickey7....

Space, colonization, misunderstood aliens, reoccurring nightmare reincarnation


Good ol' Mickey from Midgard is a everything average dude that gets himself into trouble betting against his college old friend's sports game. Landing him in a massive debt he has to abandon his planet by any means possible to get away. Leading to him being the first person to be a Expendable in history to date. Expendable being a rough word for immortal. But the planet, being VERY misread as very habitual for human life has been raining on their parade since day one. It gets to the point that they are attached by exoskeletal ant things when they go past their dome and their crops are failing and are on rations. Then Mickey ends up with a double Mickey in the middle of a food shortage with a hardass commander trying to keep splitting a uner 2k between 2 clone diet for one. The aliens are not what they seem! That's all i'm going to say. Thank you Macmillion Publishing for letting me read this ARC.

Though the space talk was a bit much for filler fyi

"The way they sell you on becoming an Expendable is that they don’t call it becoming an Expendable. They call it becoming an Immortal. That’s got a much nicer ring to it, doesn’t it?"

Quite a clever, futuristic spin on a dystopian future where humans have to colonize distant worlds to survive. Mickey volunteers to be an "Expendable" as they call it, basically a crash test dummy for the trek and cohort he is with. After one mission, he is assumed dead, with the next iteration of himself being produced. But this was a mistake, suddenly there are two versions of Mickey now…

I truly enjoyed the author's perspective and storytelling approach. In one of the author's interviews about the book, he says he wants it to read like Mickey is telling his story in a bar after the fact, and I believe this is portrays the flow well. The plot is really a science fiction thriller, but with lots of humor throughout that I wasn't expecting but enjoyed.

The author does a great job of hitting key themes like humanity, what it means to have a soul, romance in the future, with many references to how we as humans are destroying our world.

I truly enjoyed this book. I'm excited to see how the movie turns out. My main criticism is I wanted more. I felt that the book had quite a bit of build up, discussing this new future with character development that could have been expanded upon more. I think the story could have been taken to the next level. I hope the author plans to have a sequel to this story!

I do recommend. I greatly enjoyed this read. I have downgraded to "four stars'' based on my comments above, I just feel the author could have given us more. I look forward to seeing what other books this author puts out, though!

The comments above are mine without influence.

This book was so much fun! Mickey Barnes is an "expendable" - someone sent on space expeditions to be the one used in dangerous, usually life threatening situations - radiation exposure, vicious space creatures, hostile environments, dangerous ship repairs. After one version of Mickey dies, another clone is regenerated on the ship complete with the latest downloaded memories. However, when Mickey survives unexpectedly he must contend with the fact that a clone has already been regenerated to take his place. What transpires is reminiscent of a comedy of errors as both Mickeys try to navigate thru the space colony without giving away their secret. This is a quick and easy enjoyable read!

An excellent alternative view on the gritty reality a singularity could deliver and the ethical questions it could creates through fun disposable life lens.

Mickey7 is the 7th iteration of Mickey Barnes, who signed up to be the Expendible on an expedition to colonize another planet. Just from the title, we can see the job is dangerous. The story begins when Mickey7 gets into a situation where he is presumed dead, and yet he doesn't die. When he returns to base, he has a lot to deal with including the fact that Mickey8 is now up and living, and there needs to only be one of them. There is also a huge group of creepers already living on the planet - they seem powerful, and seem to want to kill the humans. Plus, the world is unexpectedly covered with ice. And, of course, there are people who dislike clones. With all these issues, the story could be quite grim, but instead it's a good mix of humor and dark.

I'm always interested in colonization stories, so a big bonus for me in this book was the Mickey is also fascinated by these, and so we get a lot of brief summaries of successful and failed attempts. I greatly enjoyed these. And I enjoyed the rest of the book as well - big thanks to netgalley and the author and publisher for the review copy!

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy in exchange for my honest review!!

There was a lot I really loved about this book, and a good bit that I didn't. I loved Mickey as a main character. He was intelligent and levelheaded but very irreverent towards his current situation. His inner thoughts made me laugh often and I loved his zero f-cks given attitude. I also really enjoyed the overall plot and world building. Ashton managed to make a massive universe feel fleshed out and real without having to dedicate a lot of time to explaining irrelevant places or concepts. The sentient creatures were super cool and I was very interested in learning about them.

Outside of Mickey, I found the characters insufferable. Everyone seemed so overly snotty and I did not understand why Mickey was friendly with them. They felt flat and many of their decisions did not make sense to me.

Overall I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a light scifi read!

What is it that makes you you?

It’s a question that often arises in the speculative fiction realm, whether we’re talking about cloning or duplication or digitization of consciousness. What is it that fundamentally marks us as the person we are? And if your consciousness – your thoughts, your memories, your hopes and your fears and whatever else – is meticulously recreated and placed in a body that is genetically identical to your own … is it still you?

Edward Ashton’s new novel “Mickey7” revolves around that specific question, raising all manner of ethical and logistical concerns about what it even means to be a person. And at what point does a person stop being a person and become something other? If you can’t tell the difference, is there a difference?

Now, while this is definitely some high concept sci-fi, it’s also a taut, fast-paced narrative. You’ve got some action, some mystery, some comedic hijinks, all wrapped together to create a sharply written and smart story.

In the future, humans have begun attempting to colonize other worlds. It is a massive undertaking, one that is incredibly difficult and expensive – and with no guarantee of success. These colony ships are launched toward distant planets whose makeup is only vaguely understood – all they know when they get underway is that their destination is habitable by humans. Probably.

These missions require all manner of specialized personnel to have any chance. Scientists and soldiers and other highly-skilled people, all devoted to a singular goal. But there’s one slot that no one wants to occupy, a position that often requires conscription to fill.

That of Expendable.

Mickey7 is one such Expendable. An Expendable is the person on a mission who takes on any necessary task that is too dangerous and potentially deadly for anyone of value to attempt. Instead, they send the Expendable. If they die, their consciousness – previously uploaded and regularly updated – is transferred into a newly-grown cloned body. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Mickey7 is the Expendable for the colony on the ice world Niflheim. He’s got few friends – not many people trust Expendables; there’s even a popular religion that condemns them – but he gets by. When an accident leaves Mickey7 lying broken at the bottom of an icy ravine, he is presumed dead and the process is begun for Mickey8.

Only Mickey7 didn’t die. And when he makes his way back to base, he discovers his replacement has already arrived. And in a world where every gram of protein is accounted for, another mouth to feed – particularly one that shouldn’t exist in the first place – isn’t what anyone wants. If they get caught, they likely both get recycled. One of them has got to go.

But which one?

The two try to keep their secret under wraps, but it isn’t long before those closest to Mickey start to have some questions. Oh, and the atmosphere is unsuitable, the food supply is running low and terraforming isn’t really working. Plus, the planet’s native species are starting to develop some real curiosity about the newcomers – and it’s unclear just what their intentions might be. Keeping the whole thing from going boom is one hell of a dangerous job.

Good thing they’ve got Mickey.

“Mickey7” is a great example of good sci-fi, striking the balance between thoughtful exploration of ideas and rip-roaring storytelling. While it doesn’t shy away from the deeper ramifications of its central conceit, it also doesn’t allow itself to get bogged down by them. By folding its ideas into a well-told tale involving interesting characters and circumstances, the reader gets the best of both worlds.

As far as speculative protagonists go, you could do a hell of a lot worse than Mickey. The juxtaposition of his rich inner life and his external disposability makes for a compelling character. The fact that he’s written with a wry sense of humor – more fatalistic than quippy, which makes sense considering his situation – only deepens him.

Ashton’s done a good job of world-building here as well. And he’s done so largely contextually, which is always welcome. Rather than offering up an expository info dump, he weaves the details into the story itself. Our understanding of Mickey’s world is doled out in pieces; we receive it as we need it in a manner that feels organic rather than forced. It might seem a small thing, but there are a LOT of speculative writers who can’t quite get the hang of it. Ashton has no such problems.

It's no surprise that the book has already been optioned to get the movie treatment – there’s a cinematic quality inherent to both the interpersonal relationships and macro action throughout. There are some major names potentially involved, though I’d advise to try and keep your slate clean until after reading – it’s so much better to initially craft your own aesthetic in your mind’s eye rather than experience the story through someone else’s.

“Mickey7” is an earnest effort, a sharp speculative work that is both intellectually-oriented and action-packed. It is smart and funny and well-crafted across the board. If you’re a fan of science fiction, you won’t regret meeting Mickey. He's so fine.

This story held my attention and I finished it fairly quickly. I enjoyed Mickey's story and the ending was satisfying. However, I agree with a previous reviewer about the endless flashbacks and info dumps. They didn't add much to the story, and Mickey's life was far more interesting (to say the least), so the info dumps just slowed the story down. There's also a fade-to-black threesome scene that should've been left out of the story, and if I ever have to hear about "cycler paste" again, it will be too soon.

I’m sold any time I see a sci fi book with a vaguely interesting premise and a great cover. And this one has clones! Mickey is a replaceable human who takes on dangerous tasks as his group tries to populate a new world as part of their mission. When he is thought to be dead, he is replaced and then there end up being two Mickeys running around which… no one wants. I thought this one fun but I wanted a little more depth from it. I alternated listening to the audiobook and reading the ebook and I thought the audiobook was really great — there were a few touches to make it special.