There’s something about this that just didn’t resonate with me. It was a good story, but maybe the voice just didn’t ring with me. It’ll find its crowd, but that’s not me.

I previously read Mickey 7 and I couldn't put it down, it was the same with Mal Goes to War, it was read in a day. This dark comedy was enthralling, a character-driven story based on a civil war between the Federals and the Humanists, who are a faction that don't believe in Human augmentation and go as far as killing women & children and creating burning pits, evil! We travel through this world with the free AI Mal (who likes to call himself a Silico-American). Mal doesn't want war, he thinks the Monkeys are wasteful. When he is trapped in a cyborg body he meets Kayleigh an 18-year-old gene-modified girl in a toddler body, she tells him that as he has taken the body of her protector, he needs to protect her until she is safe. So the adventure begins. The story runs along at a great pace and I constantly feel like the action and humor keep us flying along through the book.

I try to keep these small reviews short so I am not spoiling them. I started this book and literally couldn't put it down, I had to stop reading when pesky work got in the way, but as soon as I finished work I was reading constantly. If you enjoyed Mickey 7 and like Ashton's writing this will be for you. I will be reading it again, a worthy addition to my library.

DNF
I just could not get into this story, setting or characters. In fact, I disliked both the main characters and what a strange pairing they were. I am used to this author's comedic undertone to his writings but the funny didn't hit the mark this time, probably because I wasn't 'into it'. Thought it was best to throw in the towel with sadness.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me at 60%. I read (and loved) Mickey 7 and so was excited to read this one. The premise was very intriguing and should have been fright up my alley. However, it was quite slow paced and I didn’t enjoy all of the POVs. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers.

I think this is really well-written but for some reason it just didn't click with me. Quite light-hearted for a sci-fi novel about AI but that's not necessarily a criticism if that's the sort of thing you're into, I prefer my sci-fi to be a bit more technical-heavy.

Edward Ashton burst onto the science fiction scene with his cloning meets first contact meets colonisation tale Mickey 7 (soon to be the movie Mickey 17 directed by Bong Joon Ho and starring Robert Pattinson). That was followed up by a less successful sequel Antimatter Blues. For his third book, Ashton does something different although in a slightly similar mode. Mal Goes to War is a fish-out-of-water observational comedy dropped into the middle of a bloody conflict.
The Mal of the title is an artificial intelligence (or has he prefers it ‘silico-American’) living in infospace and with his AI colleagues on the sidelines of a real world conflict between the Federalists and the Humanists. The underlying conflict is between those who believe in essentially upgrading humanity and those who are against any tampering with the human genome or interface with technology. Interested in getting a closer view of the war Mal puts his consciousness first in a drone and then in the exoskeleton of a dead fighter but soon finds his route back to the infospace blocked and that he is trapped in the real world. That fighter was protecting a girl (or rather a young woman in the guise of a young girl due to genetic manipulation) called Kayleigh and Mal takes it on himself to get her to safety (while also looking for a way to jump back into the infospace). Thus begins an journey across the battlefield where they will gain allies and find out that the war is not quite what it seems to be.
The central conceit of Mal Goes to War is that Mal does not really understand humans but also spends his time learning what it means to be human. Mal has very little discretion and few filters but his outsider’s view allows him to be insightful about human behaviour. But he is loyal to Kayleigh and even when he is making compromises, tries to keep his promises. Learning about concepts friendship along the way, even while not really understanding them. In this way, Mal Goes to War explores similar territory to books like Martha Well’s Murderbot series or the John Wisell’s recent debut Someone You Can Build a Nest In. The other thing that Ashton has in common with these is his often darkly amusing resort to violence.
Mal Goes to War drops readers in the middle of this war and takes a while to come into focus. This is deliberate as the book’s central mystery and driver revolves around what this war is actually about. And, much like Mickey 7, it is well anchored by Mal’s snarky, strangely observational narration. In this way, Ashton once again plays to his strengths in Mal Goes to War to deliver an engagingly violent romp with something to say about the human condition.

This was an interesting vehicle for the premise of the central concept of malware becoming an autonomous intelligent entity. The political context was a little hazy and the story sagged a bit in the middle (Too much exposition to hold my interest at one stage) hence the lateness of my review. Overall it was worth reading.

Mal goes to war is a dark comedy that provides a satirical take on war, Artificial Intelligence and what it means to be human.

📖 Mal is a free A.I. and he finds the war between augmented humans and humanists pretty stupid. But he's not about scouting the battlefields for salvage, and when the Humanists abruptly cut off access to infospace he finds himself trapped in the body of a cyborg mercenary, and responsible for the safety of the modded girl she died protecting.

📚 I don't read a lot of sci-fi but I had so much fun with this, it's action-packed and pretty funny. Mal's dry wit, inner thoughts and logic were so entertaining. Mal's snarky friendship with Kayleigh had me giggling to myself.

Mal is your sarcastic best friend and I loved him, he has limited understanding of humans and watching him grow and learn was so fun.

I loved the whole cast of characters each fun and unique however I do think some of there relationships between each other felt a little rushed at times.

Overall I really enjoyed it, it's dark comedy and violent at times so do check your trigger warnings but if you want a charming and fun book I highly recommend.

Oh what a lovely war from inside Edward Ashton's head. I do love his style and language and plots and everything.

Mal is not a robot as he tells you all the way through the book. He is just an entity that dropped down from InfoSpace through a war drone and into the "real world" but not a real world as we know it.

The shenanigans that he gets up to are credible and twisty and so well told.

Enough from me, go treat yourself.

I enjoyed Mal Goes to War!
I was a big fan of the authors previous work, Mickey7, so I was really excited to read this one, and I'm so happy I did as it ended up being a fun read.

I liked the moat of the characters, though my favourite, of course, was Mal. That's not the biggest surprise as I'm a huge fan of AI characters.
The plot was really good and exciting. It was fast-paced, and I was hooked really quick! It was really hard to put the book down!

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a review.

Although well written and interesting, for much of this book I was only going to give 4 stars. HOWEVER, I did realise that that was because I was comparing it to Mickey7 and the sequel, also by this author, which I thought were fantastic. If I had been able to rate those a 6, this would have been a definite 5, as things really picked up, for me, further in the book.
I would never have believed this was by the same author as it was much darker, and very different. It made me realise how much I had enjoyed the light comedy of the other books. But as the sarcasm began to show through this one (I’m English, so obviously love good sarcasm), it became funnier, rather than the repetition shown earlier in the book which although with hindsight was more understandable, was a little… repetitive.
The general idea of this novel was a good one, and it was well carried out. I did enjoy the play on emotions, or lack thereof, and some of the characters were great. Good female characters, thank you author!
I wasn’t so sure about how the end chapters were handled, but it was all enjoyable.

Mal is a free AI - named 'Mal' because he is 'Malware' - who gets involved in a war between the Humanists and the Federals. When the Infospace he lives in collapses, Mal's consciousness has to hop from technology to technology to augmented human. He'll do anything to save himself until he can return to where he belongs. But he really has no time at all for humans. Disgusting things.

Mal thinks he knows everything, however, he doesn't know much about human communications or feelings. But he'll learn, the hard way. This is a dark comedy wrapped in a parcel of AI sarcasm. I found myself laughing heartily at some bits and snorting at others (not pretty!). It's a well-written storyline and so easy to read. Mal's hopping from human to human is inspired. Honestly, it seems like it was choreographed - wonderful!

I chose an ARC of this work, which I voluntarily and honestly read and reviewed. All opinions are my own. My thanks to the author, the publishers, and NetGalley.

I read an eARC of this book so thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley.

This book was wild, it’s absolute carnage and so entertaining!

I loved that the story was told from the perspective of an AI. Mal was such a good narrator for a new perspective, witty observations on human behaviour and someone who can take a more neutral view on the conflict.

This is a fast-paced, intense survival story as Mal attempts to get back to infospace after getting stuck in an augmented human corpse. He is also trying to protect a small human who he comes across. She is augmented and if caught by the other side of the conflict will be killed brutally. We meet people from both sides of the conflict along the way and see them from Mal’s unique perspective.

This story was like nothing I’ve ever read before. I’ve read a book by this author before and it was entertaining but this one was even better.

So - I'm not a years ling hard core sci fi reader. I've come relatively late to sci fi a- if you look at my previous reviews you'll see the kind fn novels I like

Mal goes to war piqued my interest - I liked the idea of a future war about conflict between augmented and non augmented poeple - and the idea of a sensient (rogue?) AI simply trying to survive was the icing on the cake. - Mal is an AI that can inhabit and control anything such as a missile, weapon or veen an augmented human

Well - I was instantly drawn into the book which is written from Mal's perspective as he jumps from device to person (he regards people as monkeys) inhabiting their coinciousness and trying to survive an increasingly violent and bloody civil war. He's intelligent but simply lacks nunanced undrstanding of people and their motivations - this is what makes the book so funny and Mal's the situations to the situations he finds himself in, are downright hilarious at times. Mal begins to develop and grow, as he starts to display things like loyalty and friendship, which add a further layer to the book

Its a great idea and well exercuted with a plausible scenario of the future both about how people might react to tech and the behaviour of an AI. The characters are well drawn and there's just the right amount of comedy in the novel to make it funny, not foolish or absurd.

Final verdict - highly recommended - a fun read

3.5 stars rounded up.
Mal Goes to War is a solid sci-fi action novel with a strong cyber thriller theme. My overall impression is one of ambivalence; it was a good adventure plot with elements of innovation that I thought were excellent, and a few tired clichés that brought it down in my expectations.

If you like your SFF novels to have a ragtag crew of misfit members on a mission, then this book will definitely be up your street. The novel kicks off with Mal, an AI who finds himself trapped in a human’s body, and reliant on help to get himself back home to the infospace. The crew grows in size as they move across an ever changing battlefield, trying to get back out of enemy territory while the enemy advances. The ‘glue’ holding the group together (common goals, relationships etc.) didn’t feel that strong to me, so I was surprised that the plot seems to start out in a conventional manner. Rather heartlessly of me, I found myself not really caring about the majority of the group, with a select few individuals having far better characterization than the others. Mal is definitely the star of the show in this book character-wise; I feared that he would be added to the endless list of snarky robots that appear these days in SFF, but I’m happy to say this wasn’t the case. The balance felt a little more like Martha Wells’ Murderbot series, with a character who resents being dragged into human issues, and who’s comedy comes from frustrated sarcasm rather than wisecracking.

There were a few innovations this book showed that I thought were really clever, one of which was the battlefield the crew found themselves in. The civil war raging between the Humanists and the Federals was far more interesting than I gave it credit initially - you don’t have a lot of info about the war at the start, which I read as Mal simply not taking an interest in human affairs! It’s a battle with a constantly changing frontline, as the protagonists find when trying to get back into Federal territory whilst the federals are in full retreat, and the enemy are advancing at the same pace as them. Incidental characters in the background aren’t always even aware there’s a war going on, such is the speed of change! I was also really impressed by the ‘Medieval War-Room’ virtual setting to describe strategy and battles in virtual space - it’s not an idea I’ve come across before, and it was a clever way of keeping those fights grounded and logical, so the audience can follow what’s going on.

Comedy-wise, the humour seems to be Edward Ashton’s signature style of wit and snark, without too much wise-cracking or absurdism. Whilst I really like his style of comedy writing, I do feel that it was better suited to the plot of Mickey7 and Antimatter Blues, and it didn’t feel quite so natural in this new world personally.

Set in a future where electronic ‘augmentations’ in humans are common. ‘Mal’ is an AI who develops sentience, ‘living’ in what he calls ‘infospace’ with fellow sentient software. He inadvertently becomes embroiled in a war between humans who are pro augmentation and those against. With no body of his own, he can however inhabit the augmentations of humans, and ends up forming some unlikely relationships. Think of him as a cross between Data, Spock, and a precocious five-year old.
Darkly comic, similar in tone to John Scalzi, and very entertaining, with a lot to say about the stupidity of war, too.

Ultra-smart AI with no real world experience seeks suitable monkey assistants - could they be friends?
Wickedly funny again from the Mickey 7 man.

An entertaining and well-written (for the most part) near-future novel with some superficial similarities to Martha Wells' "Murderbot" series. The eponymous Mal is a free AI that has found itself cut off from Infospace in the middle of a war between Humanists (who radically oppose any kind of human augmentation) and Federals (who don't). Through a series of misadventures, Mal teams up with some augmented humans who are being hunted by Humanist forces and has to survive out in the woods. Despite a sneering contempt for the "monkeys", Mal's misunderstanding of human motivations and reactions provides a good deal of wry humour, while at the same time some kind of bond is developing with the meat-based members of the group. The story moves along at a good pace and though the ending isn't quite as clear as would have liked I did enjoy it a lot. Pedant's revolt: a couple of instances of "different(ly) than" instead of "different from" rather spoiled the otherwise smooth narration.

Mal is a Silico-American, an AI supported by infospace, who can move between different hosts, both machine and human. There is a war between the Humanists and Federalists. Both sides want to destroy enhanced people, for different reasons.
Infospace disappears and Mal gets involved with a group of characters who are trying to avoid both armies and get to safety. There's a lot of sci-fi in this book, but also friendship and humour between Mal, Kayleigh, Pullman Asher and Rowan, although the rest of the group often find Mal very annoying. A funny book. Recommended.

I wanted to read this book after enjoying Mickey7. Mal (Malware) is a free AI and this book starts with Mal being able to jump from drone, to human, to other devices. Humans are augmented which adds another complication into the mix, with children also affected, leaving some staying in appearance as a child for 30 years. The story jumps quickly from person to person and place to place. At times it is complicated and I had to reread sections. Whilst I enjoyed this overall, character development was a bit lacking, and I’m still trying to pick apart what I actually read.