Having read and loved Ashton’s Mickey7, I knew I had to read Mal Goes to War about Mal, a free A.I. who gets trapped in an augmented cyborg mercenary when infospace has been cut off.

Mal ends up traveling with a ragtag group of humans who are caught in between a civil war of puritanical Humanists and augmented Federals.

The story felt like a Bobiverse meets the MurderBot and I was all in. Mal ends up traveling from host to host while traveling with the group to look for a connection back to infospace and becomes friends with everyone, but especially the childlike Kayleigh. Mal does whatever he can to ensure Kayleigh’s safety. All the snark flying around is a hoot and I adored Mal and the rest of the characters.

*Thanks so much to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for the gifted eARC!*

Edward Ashton again takes the reader to a seeable place in our society’s future if we continue on this present course. He does so with humor, plot twists, and believable characters. I looked forward to this one after reading both Mickey 7 novels.

This is based in a future version of the US where technology and AI’s place is being highly debated it’s being incorporated into people and excess abounds. MAL is a self aware AI construct who can bounce around at well between tech that can support him. There is no visual for this abstract concept so there is no visual of this for most of the book.

I enjoyed seeing him develop into more of a human than some of the characters. He had more of a conscience and felt obligated to care for others. The conflict between the federalists and humanists to some degree made sense, but seemed like a generic futuristic debate about morals and ethics once it’s too late to have the conversation because the science and development outpaced the slow tedious conversations about it due to the money to be made.

It really was a good read that was hard to put down for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin Press for an ARC of this book.

Edward Ashton has an interesting look at an AI who decides to drop in on a small war near Bethesda Maryland about forty years from now. Mal Goes to War (hard from St. Martin's Press) when normal, poor people called humanists decide to fight the rich who are modifying themselves to make themselves superior. Mal had been observing the war from a drone it had hijacked when access to Infospace was blocked and it was forced to drop into an exoskeleton of a dead body guard. It seems logical to assist the bodyguard’s modified human charge in survival, and thus begins a pinocchio type tale as Mal learns about humans and actually forms friendships. Learning both about itself and about what was driving this silly localized war. I really enjoyed the tale and would love to see Mal in a further adventure.

Rounding this one up to 4 stars. I didn’t quite enjoy it as much as the Mickey7 series, which I loved. This story follows an AI named Mal. I found this character to have a fun snarky sense of humor that is not uncommon amongst AI type characters in most science fiction stories. He enjoys human company but doesn’t feel emotions like empathy or compassion, which can be a little off-putting at times. He reminded me a bit of Harry from Resident Alien.

Mal is trapped due to a war between two factions, one group he refers to as humanists and another group referred to as the Federals. The Federals consist of the government and individuals that have genetic modifications with nanos and the humanists are purists averse to any kind of tech modifications. Mal can jump into any tech entities from drones to humans with nano modifications and often must as some of the bodies get brutally murdered as they travel in a war zone.

The first new host turns out to be a caregiver to a girl named Kayleigh who is actually 18 but has been genetically modified to physically age at a slower rate and therefore looks like a little girl. Kayleigh and Mal quickly make a great duo with her macabre sense of humor bordering on sociopathic and Mal’s AI emotion averse affect. Along their journey to find a data center to reunite Mal with the group separated by the war’s destruction of communications, they pick up a few stragglers along the way that both help and hinder their progress.

I found their journey and shenanigans along the way to be fun and entertaining, maybe a little reminiscent of a more adult In the Lives of Puppets.

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

As much as I loved Mickey7, MaL Goes to War just did not work for me. I felt like it was attempting to replicate other stories of sentient AI, such as I Robot or Murderbot, and it just was not as successful of a story as it's predecessors.

This sci-fi novel was a miss for me. Which is a real shame because I love Ashton's two books Mickey 7 and Antimatter Blues. I think this was trying to give Murderbot vibes, but it just wasn't as good. I will continue to recommend the other two books.

Overall, this book was an entertaining diversion into a near-future world of AI and human modifications, this is a brief war-time tale that blends humour and ugliness to illustrate some of the ethical challenges that await a technological revolution.

I’m a fan of Ashton’s Mickey 7 series (of only two so far…hoping for more!) so I was thrilled to be approved for an ARC of his new novel, Mal Goes to War, seemingly a standalone. I had a lot of fun with this one! It’s entirely easy to read, a page turner and highly entertaining.

Mal is a free-AI who’s never deeply considered human affairs, only observing from afar out of vague curiosity. When he’s accidently forced to download himself into a modified-human body during a horrible war, he has to contend with real people and difficult situations. He’ll have to manage unusual factors, like empathy and compassion.

The war is interesting. The Humanists want purity from technology. Modified humans are the enemy here and even modified children are executed. The Federals are the government, who represent the status quo, but resort to unforgivable means to put down the Humanist uprising. The free-AI aren’t spared either…war drags everyone into its sphere.

That said, this is primarily a problem novel: how can Mal and his accumulated band of friends survive this war, and can Mal escape back into the infoverse? The war is seen only in Mal’s immediate world, and the larger atrocities are kept firmly at a distance in the novel. Thus, it feels like a band-of-friends novel rather than a book about war.

You’ve gotta love snarky, disaffected AI-bot characters who pretend to dislike everyone but who secretly and reluctantly care deeply about others, and can’t help but make friends and feel a sense of pesky and inconvenient compassion. It’s hard to make selfish decisions and take the easy way out when you need to consider the well-being of your friends.

The tone was similar in many ways to Martha Wells’ Murderbot series, which I love, so if you like that, you may want to pick this up. It’ll give you a nice little shot of the reluctant AI hero to keep you going.

Thanks NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a gifted copy!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the ARC.

I can always count on Edward Ashton to bring a dark comedy that both entertains, makes you think and makes you laugh. He accomplishes that again with Mal Goes to War, a story about a free AI named Mal(for malware-honestly, I'll never think of anything else again whenever I see anything about malware..LOL) who is happily existing in infospace when he decides maybe it would be fun to inhabit a modified human......boy does he regret that!! Since we humans are once again at war with ourselves, Mal suddenly finds he can't get back to infospace and is now guardian of a little girl with mods of her own. As Mal and Kayleigh struggle to survive this battle, they find themselves some unlikely allies and Mal starts learning how complex and quite often idiotic we humans can be. It definitely doesn't always end well.
As with both of the Mickey7 novels, the humor in the story is delightfully snarky, dark and makes for a wonderful relationship with Kayleigh as the banter is sharp both ways. The story is intriguing, engaging and as with his prior novels, while you are busy just enjoying the story, you also end up thinking about AI in new ways. I definitely recommend this book to any fans of science fiction and if you know someone who wants to add more Sci-Fi to their reading, tell them to let Mal in their heads!!

Fans of the Mickey7 books will enjoy this new title from Ashton. Like the Mickey7 books, Mal is a fast-paced, character driven science fiction that isn't really a thriller, but more of a "cardio sci/fi"- people are constantly on the move and dealing with situations in a physical manner. Add in a satirical look at humans and AI plus Ashton's humor and you have an engaging read.

The one aspect that might be troubling for some is that the main character is the titular AI, Mal, short for malware. We see the world and learn of the setting through his "eyes" so our world building is developed by observations that would matter to a sentient AI and not a human.

Some readers have pointed out some questionable similarities to the Murderbot series, and I agree they are obvious, but I'm going to think of them as Easter eggs for us science fiction fans.

First, I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for giving me access to an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Mal was your run-of-the-mill spontaneously sentient AI until he decided to find out what a war looked like up close. Living out his life in infospace Mal had never needed a physical shell and was dubious of their uses in the first place. It is a stroke of bad luck that the one time he decides to try piloting one, his connection to infospace is shot down. Now he's stuck behind enemy lines with no way back home. He stumbles across his own band of misfit refugees, and they have to work together if any of them are going to make it out of this war zone alive.

This is a really fast-paced story with great character development and a fun plot. Mal being a digital creature with no signal is forced to try to find connection wherever he can, and all the while he begins to develop some empathy for why humans do the irrational things they do. I have been enjoying some recent sci-fi from the perspective of machines, with a focus on a more rich emotional life. Mal will go to great lengths to keep his friends alive, and if he manages to save the rest of the humans from a terrible fate, then so be it.

Ultimately, I had a great time reading this, and I think plenty of other folks will too.

This is the second book I’ve read by Ashton and the second time I’ve felt that this book would make an excellent movie, but makes for a mediocre book. Passage of time in this book was difficult to track and because of that it felt like the characters were growing “off page.” It felt like they went from hating each other to being best friends fairly quickly. Kayleigh seems to flip from hating everyone around her to feeling betrayed by Mal and protective of Asher in a very short amount of time.

All of the books I’ve read by Ashton are very plot focused. A lot of things happen in a short amount of time. This can lead to fun action sequences, but leaves me wishing for more time to understand his characters. Each character is less a person and more a part of the “unit” that truly becomes the character. It is what happens to the unit that is compelling, not what happens to any one individual. If you go in knowing that, you’re in for a fun, if predictable, sci-fi story.

In MAL GOES TO WAR, by Edward Ashton, a war has commenced between the Federals and the Humanists in this near future story. Mal, a untethered AI, seems to be caught in the middle. Mal can inhabit most of the technology he comes across and in this age of augments, mods, and computerized weaponry, Mal has a lot of places to choose from. Mal discovers a small group of reluctant objectors who would rather live life without picking a side and participating in the conflict. As Mal struggles to find a better home for himself, friendship, loyalty, and even fraternal love seeps into his programing ways he would have never expected. Can he protect his new group of companions from the ravages of war and maybe even find a better life for him and his group?
Mal is at the same time an artificial intelligence that is in no way a human and yet acts more human than most people he comes in contact with. Ashton writes Mal with unknowingly dry wit and endless curiosity. His curiosity creates a commentary on war and acceptance that is both poignant and comical at the same time. The band of rebels are interesting in their own right and each present their own views on the war. Ashton does an excellent job of balancing plot, commentary, and well placed humor, The story becomes layered, full of deceit and hidden agendas. The ending is exciting, fun and rewarding and the reader can't help but feel the most empathy for Mal, the entity that is supposed to have no emotions.
Ashton creates a unique main character that in theory has no emotions and yet seems to have the most empathy of any character in MAL GOES TO WAR. The book can be enjoyed by more than just science fiction lovers, it a the kind of novel most anyone can relate because aren't we all trying to figure out how to have more human empathy and understanding.

Mal (actual name Malware) is a free AI, or Silico-American as they prefer to be called, hovering in a drone over a battlefield where Humanists and Federals are doing their best to destroy each other, and the Humanists have the Federals on the run. Mal is intrigued by the action between the humans, or monkeys as they call them. But Mal's friends, other free AIs, can't see the point, as they're happy enough staying in infospace, commenting on the action. Mal decides to jump into the head (they and their friends use the term "puppeting") of one of the Federal soldiers, who have a number of software and hardware augments in their bodies, so Mal can get a better view.

Almost as soon as Mal takes over a soldier the soldier is killed, leaving its charge, a young girl, vulnerable. And more alarming to Mal, their connection to infospace is cut as the Humanists are bombing comm towers.

The girl, who appears to be a toddler, is actually a heavily modified human, with an extended childhood, a long lifespan, and a variety of other very expensive technological augments. Kayleigh might look like a young child, but she's eighteen, prone to violence and profanity, and a little scary. Kayleigh figures out the soldier has been taken over by a free AI, and she and Mal work out a bargain; Mal must protect her from Humanists, who are intent on burning to death all augmented humans.

The two begin the perilous trek to catch up with Federals, who can take Kayleigh in, and Mal can then hop back to infospace. If only it were simple… Mal loses this body, and decides to puppet a guy they run into who has some basic augments in his brain, but is, in every other way, ordinary. The small group is hounded, and Kayleigh manages to overpower one Humanist soldier, whom they coopt into helping them. There are numerous perils yet to come, and Mal makes many mistakes along the way in their attempt to defend Kayleigh, while we gain an understanding behind the opening scene in the novel, and what is actually going on between the two human factions.

Mal has a lively sense of humour, and a rich imagination based on the stories they have enjoyed. Mal also has only a rudimentary understanding of meat-based life, including humans' wish for sovereignty of their bodies and minds. Mal is often dismissive of their emotions or limitations, and prioritizes their own need to return to infospace over all else, often to the detriment of his desire to protect Kayleigh, at least initially. This lack of empathy gradually changes, as they get quite the education in morality and emotions with each human interaction they have, whether with the small group, or with various parts of the Humanist army. Mal's development is great to experience as they begin to understand the skills and value of each member of their group, culminating in Mal's willingness to think of the humans it knows as friends.

Much of the humour, and there's a fair bit, comes from Mal's misunderstandings or mishaps during puppeting. There is also plenty of action, as author Edward Ashton keeps things moving along at a good pace. The novel entails the group's moving from one crisis to the next, with the humans bashing things and Mal corrupting other software.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, unlike the author's earlier "Mickey 7", which lagged for me the closer I got to its end. Mal is a wonderfully flawed and oddly lovable character, and their journey worked wonderfully for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and to St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Mal is a Silico-American, a sentient AI who exists above the human world, currently embroiled in a battle between the Federals, modified by new technology, and the Humanists, who reject human alteration. When Mal decides to go exploring on the ground, he ends up trapped and cut off from infospace. Mal is stuck in the body of a dead woman, and now has to accompany a child, Kayleigh, to safety out of the warzone. Mal is forced to confront the human battles head on as he hops between safe spaces for him to upload to. Mal and Kayleigh encounter more fighters on both sides and those caught in the crossfire trying to escape a war-torn Bethesda (the DC suburbs setting a geographical locations were very fun to imagine in the context of the book as someone from the area).

Mal Goes To War is another darkly comedic science fiction thriller from Edward Ashton. I enjoyed both Mickey7 books so I was looking forward to Mal and was not disappointed. Ashton creates an exciting band of weirdos to follow through his invented warzone. The characters all have unique backgrounds and conflicts over their views of the world that makes the book easy to follow and enjoyable when they continually bicker. Mal and his new friends have to make their way thorugh a series of tense and increasingly complex encounters. The world expands more and more with each chapter as Mal learns alongside the reader about the intricacies of the Federalist-Humanist war. Ashton wrote a book that examines our relationship with technology and how we can use technology to help and harm eachother. It fits very well in the genre of "robots learning what it means to be human." I recommend this to those who want a fun sci-fi read and anyone who enjoyed Mickey7.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of Mal Goes to War in exchange for an honest review.

Technothriller marries dark comedy and is seasoned liberally with satire. I’m down. I’m so down.

One moment, Mal is a free AI, just hanging out in infospace while riding inside a surveillance drone looking for decent pieces of technology to salvage. In the space of minutes, he’s riding inside the brain of an augmented mercenary who’s in charge of caring for a specially-augmented human child while her mother is overseas.

It’s a stupid war just like every stupid war before it and now Mal finds himself not only in the middle of it, but also invested.

This doesn’t meet the criteria for a technothriller for me, but I’m finding that to be okay on a personal level. While I could get along just fine with the computer terminology and vernacular, if it were more of a true technothriller I might have been lost. I suspect some readers might end up being lost as it is if they never had the luxury of knowing someone who worked in IT for years and years.

The dark comedy and satire, though? It hit and it hit hard. I was amused throughout the entire book by the entire cast, but especially Mal. Mal is an AI, so there are limits to his understanding of humans, but he’s definitely his own entity with a vivid imagination, moral compass, and sense of ethics. Watching him grow and learn as this book goes on is infinitely entertaining.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Satire/Sci Fi

The Good
I loved every second of this funny, found family-esque quest for freedom set in a completely feasible version of future we're all headed towards. I liked all the characters, despite the fact that ever single one was annoying in some way. It's the first time in a long while (probably since reading the first Murderbot book) where I had fun reading a book that wasn't pure escapism or fantasy. It hit on things, scary things, that I could absolutely see happening in the future without self-indulgently giving into despair. There should be more like this.

The Bad
It's not as detailed as I feel it could have been. On the one hand, I feel like this is to help the reader better associate with Mal, racing through, touching on data without lingering, taking things in without caring. He is the main character, after all. The other characters, however, feel a bit dismissible to Mal. There isn't a lot of emotional connection to the characters. There's Kayleigh, who comes across as Borderland's Tiny Tina, and whom Mal seems to like, but she's a very slight exception, This lack of detail extends to the setting as well. I can imagine a lot of it, but it makes a lot of the story feel thin. To be clear, they don't feel like flat characters or a lack of setting, just that the bits I got to see weren't enough for me to really feel like I knew any of it.

So, to a certain extent, I think this is what causes the reduction in tension...

The Ugly
It doesn't really live up to the techno thriller claim. It's an adventure, a fun ride, but I never lost the feeling that I was on a ride. I loved the ride. I will recommend this ride to anyone who likes dry MC's in near future settings, but it was still a ride.

Different than other AI stories I’ve read, the humor in this reminded me of Andy Weir but with artificial intelligence. To be honest, I’m not sure exactly what the plot was (it’s definitely character driven), maybe Mal discovering AI’s version of humanity as humans lost theirs? However, I found Mal’s dry wit and inner thoughts humorous and his literal interpretation and logic amusing as well. There were moments that make you think but for the most part this is lighthearted considering it takes place during a war.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for access to this arc.

I freely admit that I came to this book for a sort of Murderbot. I arrived knowing full well that others have stated that they feel this is a much darker and grimmer version. I absolutely agree with that. There is some disturbing shit that goes down in this story. Readers looking for another version of our favorite SecUnit while waiting on Martha Wells to write one will do well to not think they’re getting that.

This book is grim, filled with dark humor, and more grimness with the addition of lots of brutality tossed in. There’s a weird levity to this story which has the main characters discussing the burn pits (for modded humans) then cracking sarcastic jokes about their situation. Sometimes this worked for me and other times had me grimacing. Kayleigh latches onto friendship with another person who never treats her like the child she isn’t despite what she looks like.

One person Kayleigh argues to save might not have wanted what he got but wasn’t given any choice about consenting to the life altering event. The last person joins the (not) merry band under particularly ghastly circumstances as something is happening to Mal’s “meat jacket.” Chuck is brutally honest about his shortcomings in the face of the violence – both threatened and actual – that he faces.

Mal is, of course, the main character and the one most described in the omniscient present tense voice. I grew to “see” Mal as a cross between Sheldon Cooper and Professor T. Mal has always viewed human “monkeys” as annoyances and good for – well, not much actually. The war that is going on before he gets stuck away from infospace means nothing to him. The limitations of the meat suits means that for the first time, he is dependent on them – to a degree – and through the course of the story, he has to decide what he wants to do and for whom he’s willing to do it. Mal has his favorite but it’s for a reason. In other circumstances, even if he had them, I doubt Mal would have lifted a finger to save most of the characters. In the end, he’s blunt in confronting humans who have engineered something he views as genocide.

I laughed at the dark humor – most of it anyway. But at a point, the resolution of the fighting is just skipped over. There’s a bit of an epilogue through some scenes but readers will be left to figure out exactly what they think happened based on a few clues provided. I enjoyed the book but, even if it looked as if there might be a sequel, I’m not sure I’d jump at reading it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the early read. If you enjoyed Edward Ashton's Mickey series, you'll definitely enjoy this new Sci Fi book. Ashton is on fire right now!

Very fun read! I really enjoy Edward Ashton's storytelling style. The humor in this one was particularly a delight! Mal's voice definitely reminded me of SecUnit from The Murderbot Diaries. If you enjoyed Mickey7, I would recommend this one too.