Mickey7 is a fun, sci-fi exploration of what a colony of a diaspora, far away and cut off from their home civilization, might encounter on a new world left to only their own devices and ingenuity. An interesting twist involves a cloning technology that gives a being experiencing a never ending series of horrific deaths virtual eternal life. The plot is a bit thin as are the characters but it is a fun read and will give you pause to stop and think along the way.

I love a good action filled sci-fi novel. I loved The Martian. This book has nothing to do with either of those things so let's move on to the review.

So many plot holes, so many questions unanswered.

Mickey7 is the 7th iteration of Mickey Barnes, an Expendable. He signed up for a space colonization mission and his duty is to take on the most dangerous, life-threatening jobs that need to be done. Hence, Mickey has died 6 times so far and been brought back in a new body with his mind and personality and memories intact. Mickey7 is out on a scouting mission with his best friend Berto, when he falls down a deep crevasse. Berto is unable to rescue him without endangering his own life so he leaves him there to die a slow death, or be eaten by the planet's native residents, Creepers. I mean, he's an expendable, right? Not like his best friend won't be back on the job tomorrow as Mickey8, right? A friend like Berto, no one needs.

Mickey7 is actually saved by a Creeper, and manages to get back to the dome where all the colonists live. Only to find his friend has assumed the worst and requested his replacement; Mickey8 is already there.

Mickey8 is a lazy, obnoxious, self-centered bore who constantly threatens to kill Mickey7 in his sleep or otherwise. He refuses to take the dangerous or hard work assignments, and hooks up with Mickey7's girlfriend.
All of which makes no sense because if Mickey7 (who is written as a quite likeable, nice fellow) is Mickey8, why is Mickey8 so horrible? Mickey7 spends most of the book running around trying to convince people he's Mickey8, and not to starve to death. A LOT of time is spent on how little food the colonists have and how their main food source is cycler paste, which we are constantly told is nasty. Then there is his girlfriend, Nasha. She hooks up with Mickey8 knowing there are two of them now, and when Mickey7 walks in on them, she smiles and invites him to join them. A girlfriend like Nasha, no one needs.

There is a lot of backstory, a lot of history of other planets and people, a lot of descriptions of space ships and how they work, and not much action. At one point, we learn Expendables are looked down on by some because of the belief that the soul leaves the body when you die. Therefore, the replacements have no soul. Interesting concept and I couldn't wait to hear it expounded upon more in the story. It never was.

Anyway, we finally crawl to the finale with a just few chapters left and suddenly there is a little flurry of excitement! Then, the end.

See how disappointing that is?

Part existential philosophy, part action, part mystery, Mickey7 is a fun diversion. Probably what elevated it just enough for me was just the engaging premise. There are inevitable comparisons between Mickey7 and the excellent movie, Moon, with Sam Rockwell. And the main characters are rather likeable.

Where the book falls apart for me a bit is some of the science is on the squishy side. If you have unlimited energy, you can make a LOT, including people. I'm sure there are some limitations in terms of raw building blocks, but not limiting enough in my opinion if you can construct at the atomic level.

The book also has a problem deciding what it's going to be. There are a number of plot threads, but really none of them are adequately followed. Multiple threads about hunger, aliens, friendship, etc, are never really adequately woven together.

So, in summary, Mickey7 is worth a read as light fanfare, despite its flaws.

Great writing, great pacing and awesome world building - what's not to love?
Mickey (#7) is an Expendable - a type of person who can be regenerated with a new body and all memories that have been downloaded (if this is a reference to the cloud and my books/photos - I would have 0 memory!). This Expendable has been taken on a mission to explore a previously uninhabited planet needed for a new colony.
6 Mickeys have already existed when Mickey 7 is out exploring a world for his crew when he falls down a crevasse so deep he is presumed dead. Big surprise when he arrived back at the home base to find Mickey(#8) in his berth.

As many on his ship are religious and find expendables sacrilege, Mickey 7 and 8 need to keep a secret. This proves difficult when interacting with his best friend and girlfriend. The big question, however, is how did Mickey 7 survive the fall? And who, honestly, is the real Mickey?

Loved the premise and the entire romp through the ship and planet. I do think the author missed some opportunities to more than touch on topics of religion and self but I loved every bit that he wrote. If. you like Science Fiction, you cannot go wrong with this book! #NetGalley #Mickey7

It was really good in the beginning and got a little boring by the end. The main character had a personality similar to the one from The Martian by Andy Weir. So if you liked that book then you might like this one.

I DEVOURED this book in about 2-3 days. I couldn't get enough of it. In fact, after I finished, the first thing I did was go and buy Ashton's other two novels. This is a fast and frantic science fiction read that's full of both space opera and hard sci-fi elements. It's got plenty of action, plenty of deaths, and even some fascinating ruminations on the nature of human consciousness and life itself. So yeah, pretty much the perfect book. Buy it. Read it. And then join me in begging this guy to write twenty more novels, stat, so you have something as good as this on your to-be-read shelf. Wholeheartedly recommended.

A group of humans is trying to establish a foothold on a new world. Food is rationed. Everyone has a specific job except the clone. His job is to do the job nobody else is willing to do and die if that is what it takes. When he dies a clone is developed. Except they declared him dead and he wasn't. Now there are two versions of him.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were great (especially the lead character) and the plotting and pacing were great. Can't wait to read more from Edward Ashton.

I blitzed through this, and for its easy, entertaining enjoyability I would give it 3.5 stars.

It's wacky, irreverent, and full of enough sci-fi action to be a lot of fun. It's JUST original enough to keep me from directly calling it unoriginal. Did any of the characters show any growth or allow me to invest in them? Not really. But overall, it certainly did its job as a breezy "let my brain take a break" read.

Mickey is a crewmember on a planetary colonization mission. His job is to do all the most dangerous jobs, and when he dies, a (sequentially numbered) clone of himself is produced and carries on. He's also pretty much a certified moron. The problem is that one day he almost dies but doesn't, and by the time he gets back to base they've already produced the next clone.

Imagine two certified morons with zero long-term plan trying to live one person's life and keep everyone from realizing that there are actually two of them. Yeah. There's also an intriguing problem with the deadly native fauna, but it turns out to basically just be Ender's Game. There's just enough rumination over the nature of identity to wink at, but not enough to distract.

The resolution was almost funny, because it's just Mickey shrugging, crossing his fingers and not at all planning for the future. Which is pretty much how he rolls. Overall, there is not much going on under the surface, but this was a fun sci-fi that kept my attention easily.

I got somewhat of a Murderbot vibe from this book, which is a good thing as I really like Martha Wells series. An easy enjoyable read that explores the concept of clones used as a disposable resource for dangerous situations on colony expeditions. I couldn't help but feel that the denouement was a bit of a letdown for me, possibly as I was hoping the story would continue to delve deeper into the "creepers".

This was a really fun read and the type of sci fi I love to get into. The characters were enjoyable, and you care about the main character and his journey….with a good level of humor throughout.

A solid 4 stars from me. And since 5-star reviews are rare with me, 4 stars should be considered a "solidly good" rating. (See my rating guidelines at the end of this review.)

Full disclosure: I received this book for free in exchange for a review. I commit to you, reader, not to let "free" cause a falsely-positive review.

Mickey7 is an interesting new treatment of the now-well-established idea of having an individual's mind & personality "saved" outside that person's physical body, and then re-loaded later into a printed/fabricated/grown "empty" body/mind, to "reboot" the physical body of that person (a'la the Takeshi Kovacs, Altered Carbon series).

(VERY slight spoiler ahead, but it's really not giving away the core.) What makes Mickey7 interesting & compelling is that it isn't used in a war / conflict setting. Instead, this person (Mikey) is part of an interstellar voyage to settle a new earth-like planet. In service of the colony's needs upon arrival, Mickey is the guinea-pig for any experiments that need done using humans - an "expendable" human that can be re-instantiated for further tests. So, no battles between good & bad guys; just adventures in settling a new world.

And ... this is well-done. The writer endows Micky with a terrific sense of humor, given his lot. The first sentence is a great example - "This is gonna be my stupidest death ever" - immediately making you aware it's not his first, and that he's got a fatalistic, yet hopeful sense of humor about it.

All the good elements of new-outpost settling are there - "locals" who aren't exactly behaving the ways the new settlers are comfortable with, good, bad, and tense relationships with the other settlers, a few hidden agendas, interesting tech (including ways to get from old-planet A to new-planet B, and inter-brain chat windows), and so on.

I liked this book enough that I immediately purchased two prior books by the same author, and read them back-to-back. (And I enjoyed those, too - which actually are more related to each-other, which Mickey7 is not.)

My rating rules:
- Five stars is when you read a book to the end, put it down, take a deep breath, pick it up and start reading it all over again - or you would if you weren't so anxious to read the next book in a multi-book series. Or, it's simply one of the best books you’ve ever read, period.
- Four stars is when you tell yourself : ”This is good, this is well-written, this is full of interesting ideas, characters and plot points”, but you know you will never read it again.
- Three stars is when you read it to the end, put it down and proceed to forget all about it in the next instant.
- Two stars when it's so bad that it makes you laugh, or sigh, and want to write a review, but you can't remember the name of the book or dislike it so much that you don't write it.
- One star when you can't read past chapter 3, even as penance for your sins, and write the review to help others avoid wasting their time.

A little disappointing, actually. It started out very well, and I really like the premise of "expendables". But it turned into a pretty standard hard SF colonization story. A fun, quick read but nothing more, sadly. Just a nod to the question of whether the new version of an expendable is actually the same person, but no real exploration. Reminded me a bit of the movie "Moon", which was excellent. I also didn't like the too frequent diversions into unnecessary backstory. There's a whole chapter on why "multiples" (more than one copy of the same "person") aren't allowed, but that story really doesn't delve into the philosophy of it, it's just an irrelevant aside. Morgan handled it much better in Altered Carbon. The ending felt padded too, just a chapter of exposition of what happened next. Good enough as a light, entertaining read, but don't expect more.

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.