Scan barcode
A review by graculus
Mickey7 by Edward Ashton
5.0
I picked this book up on the basis of the blurb and am so glad I did. The laconic first person narration reminds me strongly of Murderbot, though our protagonist here is a human being, even if one at the mercy of a particular set-up and abuse of technology.
The basic premise of Mickey7 is that technology now allows a small group of people to be basically immortal but this happens by means of uploading their memories and dumping them into a newly-cloned body after the previous version dies. In reality, this is used to provide Expendables, people who can do the dangerously lethal jobs that space travel and colonisation requires, and is primarily the role of conscripts or criminals because who'd want to put themselves at that kind of risk?
Our protagonist, the eponymous Mickey, finds himself in desperate straits after the latest in a long line of swindles goes wrong and volunteers to become the Expendable on a colony ship. Which is absolutely fine till that ship lands on their destination planet, discovers that it's covered in snow rather than ready for colonisation as well as being already occupied by possibly-sentient life that seems determined to kill them. While exploring said world, Mickey7 suffers a massive fall and the pilot who's supposed to rescue him decides the risk is too great and reports his death, meaning that when Mickey eventually gets back to base a new version of him is already there and waiting.
Since resources are limited and he doesn't want to get mulched, Mickey7 finds himself living an unexpected double life, trying to keep his secret safe from the rest of the crew, even as the colony starts to deal with the local life-forms becoming even more destructive. All in all, I really enjoyed this book and it had some twists and turns I didn't quite see coming - I look forward to seeing what else this author comes up with and will definitely check out their next book.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. This is my honest opinion of the book in question.
The basic premise of Mickey7 is that technology now allows a small group of people to be basically immortal but this happens by means of uploading their memories and dumping them into a newly-cloned body after the previous version dies. In reality, this is used to provide Expendables, people who can do the dangerously lethal jobs that space travel and colonisation requires, and is primarily the role of conscripts or criminals because who'd want to put themselves at that kind of risk?
Our protagonist, the eponymous Mickey, finds himself in desperate straits after the latest in a long line of swindles goes wrong and volunteers to become the Expendable on a colony ship. Which is absolutely fine till that ship lands on their destination planet, discovers that it's covered in snow rather than ready for colonisation as well as being already occupied by possibly-sentient life that seems determined to kill them. While exploring said world, Mickey7 suffers a massive fall and the pilot who's supposed to rescue him decides the risk is too great and reports his death, meaning that when Mickey eventually gets back to base a new version of him is already there and waiting.
Since resources are limited and he doesn't want to get mulched, Mickey7 finds himself living an unexpected double life, trying to keep his secret safe from the rest of the crew, even as the colony starts to deal with the local life-forms becoming even more destructive. All in all, I really enjoyed this book and it had some twists and turns I didn't quite see coming - I look forward to seeing what else this author comes up with and will definitely check out their next book.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. This is my honest opinion of the book in question.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Medical trauma