Mickey7

"Dying isn’t any fun…but at least it’s a living."

Mickey7 follows an Expendable, who has the responsibility to carry out missions that are too dangerous for humans to perform. If Mickey dies, then a new body is regenerated with his memories intact. Mickey7 is working with a crew trying to colonize an Ice World called Niflheim, and he has already died six times, hence the name Mickey7. However, after many strange events, Mickey returns home, only to find a clone of himself, Mickey8, reporting for duty.

I was fortunate enough to receive an arc of this book from Rebellion Publishing, and I only requested it because I love the arc cover, and I am trying to read more Sci-Fi. I didn’t know much about this book or the author when I picked up this book. So what did I think?

I am pleased to say that I LOVED this book! The concept of being an Expendable, where your sole purpose is to perform life-threatening missions, just to be revived again, is fascinating. You would expect the offer of becoming an Expendable and thereby becoming immortal to be appealing. However, the major drawback is that you know you will die again and again, and often in excruciating ways.

I also loved how the theme of death and immortality is handled in this book. If a new body is regenerated, and your memories are uploaded to this new body, is this new entity “you” or someone else? And what about the soul? Can you keep your soul if you are revived? It is fascinating to see how different cultures and religions struggle to cope with Expendables since they don’t die!

Edward Ashton’s prose is accessible and easy to follow! The tone of Mickey7 is light and fun, which makes the story and the Sci-Fi concepts easy to grasp. In some ways, this book reminded me of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (one of my favourite reads of 2021). Although this story does get technical at times, I never felt lost or unintelligent. Ashton is very good at making this story accessible and enjoyable at the same time.
Mickey7 might not be the most complex or technical sci-fi book, but it is still entertaining and fascinating.

Ashton cleverly mixes philosophical ideas, humour and complex themes in Mickey7, making this a memorable read. Mickey7 is one of my favourite reads of 2021! I absolutely loved this book! If you are looking for a place to start with Sci-Fi or enjoy Andy Weir, then Mickey7 is a must-read. I can definitely see Mickey7 becoming a huge success!

4.5 / 5 stars

A special thanks to Rebellion Publishing for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

There’s a time when a novel is so much fun to read, with such great writing and an insanely likeable main character it’s impossible to put down. Mickey7 is that book; it kept me up late on a Sunday and, around my house, that’s a big deal.

Mickey7, the eponymous character of the title, is an Expendable; a person whose physical and mental being have been mapped and downloaded, able to be reprinted should death occur. For Expendables, that’s basically the point. Humanity has spread beyond the solar system, out from an overcrowded Earth to seek new planets. But, creating a colony on another world is difficult and fraught with all manner of dangers. And this is where Expendables come in; they do the dangerous, difficult, deadly work including suicide missions and medical testing.

Obviously, Mickey7 has been reprinted a number of times but it was better than the fate he was facing if he stayed on his home colony planet. Now, on a frozen world far from everything with a leader who hates him, he might be rethinking things, including if he is even himself anymore. Even worse, the place is nothing like they’d assumed and, to top it off, there are things out in the snow.

Slowly unpacking the history of humanities diaspora across the stars and using that history to cleverly illustrate some salient points, Mickey7 is a brilliant piece of science fiction. Exploring the notion of being and the idea of what makes a person themselves, the book raises the other interesting question of what happens if there are multiple copies of the same you. It’s a great conflict against which the larger issue of survival on a hostile, alien planet plays out brilliantly. Added to that, this is all told by a protagonist who is extremely likeable despite the existential crisis: smart, self-aware and in a seriously messed up situation.

From the excellent portrayal of a colonising humanity, the reasons and rules behind Expendables and the harsh realities of a space faring crew, Mickey7 hits the nail on the head every time. A fantastic, eminently readable slice of silence fiction – highly recommended.

I really loved Mickey7!
It was such a fun Sci-fi read!
I was so excited to read it as I loved the premise and I am so happy to say that the book lived up to it.
I highly recommend you read this book if you are looking for a fun Sci-fi read!
Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Mickey is unusual, he is a voulenteer, in a role that nobody in their right mind would accept. He is an expendable. He is a clone of his former self, on his seventh cycle.

Only in place to do the jobs that may involve loss of life. You see life is important in space, just as it is everywhere else. The only difference they have his memory on file, uploaded regularly. Just incase of death you see. He will have his memories and still know most of what he knew. Replecated.

Assumed dead. Duplicated. His life neve to be the same again. Wrestling with his other self of food, women and just what did happen to him.

A Sci-Fi adventure in the truest sense, just warped, comical and immensley enjoyable.

A rip-rollocking ride across the skyskcape. To a planet of 'habital' consistancy.

You find yourself drawn into the character, alost to the point where you feel for him. Capturing the idoesyncrasies of life as one of the oft overlooked.

A truely enjoyable page turner of a read.

4.5/5.0

What does it mean to be 'immortal'? Mickey signed up (volunteered!) for the position of Expendable on this mission to colonise another planet. This position, usually filled by drafted convicts, involves doing the kind of scut work that normal people couldn't do, like cleaning the nuclear reactor (and getting bombarded with radiation) or fixing the exterior of a spaceship (and getting pummelled by the interstellar medium) or even checking to see if those interesting creatures on the new planet are friendly (who might be a bit more carnivorous than one might hope).

In each case, Mickey is killed. Because he's the Expendable, he is regenerated with (most of) his memories intact. This has happened six times so far, but when Mickey7 somehow survives being left for dead, he finds that he's been prematurely regenerated and encounters Mickey8 when manages to return to base.

It's bad enough that the leader of the mission already considers him an abomination, Multiples are universally hated by everybody. It's a sure recipe for disaster, at least for the two Mickeys.

What follows is an interesting romp through the philosophical ideas behind re-embodiment and immortality. As mentioned several times in the book, the Ship of Theseus is considered and applied to humans.

I was hoping for more of an investigation into the aliens on the planet and how they might interact with the invading humans. However, I was satisfied with the plight of the poor Mickeys and their existential issues.

The book was well-written with several interesting characters to investigate. Unfortunately, at least a few of them were more cartoonish in their behaviour. There might have been more to them, and there were hints of that coming through, but for the most part those extraneous characters get a bit of short shrift in the development department.

The world building was nice, too. The author has clearly laid out a timeline of events in the background, while not bothering to bore the reader with too much of it. Just enough, revealed at appropriate times, kept me interested in what might have been going on in the rest of the human-centric universe. I would be interested in other stores set in the same universe, though I would recommend against trying to use the same characters from this book.

All in all, the book is well worth taking the time to read.

This is such an entertaining book, Mickey 7 is a great character, and the story is brilliant. The backstory of the exploration of planets is very well done, and Mickey's adventures on the new planet are exciting and funny.
Really enjoyed this, highly recommended.

This is a pretty weird and strange and yet fun book, about dying, alive, dying and on repeat. It’s also about how we are with other new and strange things which we at first assume are out to either eat us or destroy us. I also love the fact that there’s so much sarcasm that gets butted around I could cut myself. Mickey is such an unforgettable character and all the chaos that ensues when he realises who his friends actually are is perfect.

Absolutely loved this book and I don't even like scifi. The main character was very likable and the premise of the book was super interesting.
I certainly feel like there is a sequal in there and if Edward Ashton was to write one I would be first in line to buy it

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.

Thanks to #NetGalley for this eARC of Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, in return for a fair review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this sci-fi tale which follows the misadventures of an 'Expendable' clone crew member - Mickey. An Expendable is a person whose physical and mental being have been mapped and downloaded, able to be reprinted should death occur. After an iteration of Mickey dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact. Mickey signed on to escape from both bad debts and boredom on Midgard.

Mickey has died six times, and is in his 7th iteration as part of the crew sent to colonise the frozen planet of Niflheim. Exploring a mountain range, Mickey7 takes a tumble into an unexplored cave system inhabited by a dangerous indigenous species. When Mickey7 somehow survives being left for dead, he finds that he's been prematurely regenerated and encounters Mickey8 when he manages to return to base. The strongly held taboo and aversion against 'Multiples' means Mickey7 & Mickey8 can't reveal this to anyone.

The philosophical thought exercise - 'The Ship of Theseus' is considered and applied to humans several times in this novel, and themes of immortality & whether reprinted humans have souls.

The author has developed a well fleshed out world, complete with the backstory of the human diaspora neatly dropped into the narrative. Mickey7's compatriots, his best friend Barto and Nasha, his girlfriend are the most developed of the supporting characters.

#Rebellion #SciFi

Once the basic premise of the book has been accepted - namely the ability to replicate a human being complete with those memories "uploaded" to the system prior to "death" - then the concept of the "Expendable" works. The plot is sufficiently fast moving to hold the attention and I was able to read it in a couple of sessions on long journeys. The ideas were sufficiently different to be interesting and on the whole I found it an enjoyable read.

Quite enjoyed this story about an Expendable on a beachhead colony. Topics of immortality, what defines sentient beings, what humans do when conquering new territory.

Thank you to Netgalley and Rebellion for the arc

Mickey7 is an Expendable, basically he's a clone of a guy who decided life as a guinea pig and chosen person to die in dangerous situations was better than life on Midguard - he was probably right. Be that as it may being an Expendable isn't all it's cracked up to be - especially when your best friend leaves you to die in a hole and then wrongfully assumes you died and you come home to find Mickey8 in your bed. Why is that an issue? Largely because your boss is a Naturalist and believes your very existence to be an insult against God. Why should you get to live while the rest of the sorry saps only get one life? It's a fair point, really, but he doesn't have to be such a dick about it. Needless to say, multiples aren't allowed so now Mickey7 and Mickey8 have a choice to make. Which one is getting thrown down the corpse-hole? Not an easy decision to make when both Expendables decide that, actually, they don't want to die. So now the hard part. How to make the crew, of which everyone knows everyone, especially the designated kill guy, believe that there's only one Mickey? It isn't going to be easy but neither one is going down without a fight.

Brilliant. Just like proper old-fashioned sci-fi, although with modern people, terms and equipment. I really appreciated the fact that this book was a complete story, not just the 'first of a series' which is all too common nowadays.
The premise for the story was great, with characters who were believable and I cared about. I couldn't put the book down, yet didn't want to get to the end as it would be over. Great ideas, plenty of action, and although some of it was slightly gory, other bits were written quite lightly and did bring a wry smile to my face.
In this sad time of life, please, please, authors and publishers - more stories like this to transport me away and delight me.

An excellent read with entertaining characters and aspects in the plot which make you think twice, then question yourself again. My only complaint is that it was too short.

It’s difficult to write a standalone sci-fi novel. There’s so much world building to make a story successful and then to also be able to have an introduction to a plot and conclude it in a satisfying way is a big ask. I’m happy to say that Mickey7 is a masterclass on how to do this properly.

Mickey is an interesting and layered character; he’s made a series of bad choices in life and has volunteered himself to be an Expendable on a colony mission. Doomed to perform tasks no-one else can (or wants to!), he dies in many unpleasant ways and is then re-uploaded as a clone of himself to start again. Mickey is a great narrator and we feel sympathy for him, it’s also interesting when another version of himself comes along (not really a spoiler as it’s in the blurb). It makes an intriguing dilemma about how much of our recent experiences shape who we are and also whether re-assembling yourself all in one go actually brings back the same person or not.

The world-building is done really well; from explaining life onboard the dome itself and the frozen world outside, to the history of earth and some of the other failed colony projects. The exposition is drip-fed to us in a way that is interesting and captures attention but is also relevant to the main plot at hand. The book is quite short, but it kept me hooked and I finished it in pretty much one sitting! The pace is kept high throughout and the tone is light with some humour woven in which made it a delight to read.

Overall, Mickey7 is a great standalone sci-fi story with a great premise which kept me hooked. Thank you to NetGalley & Rebellion – Solaris for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Mickey is an Expendable, a replaceable employee on a human colonisation expedition. Mickey 7 is the seventh iteration/clone, his saved consciousness and memories downloaded into a new body. But Mickey has been avoiding his updates as he is hearing voices and is worried that the commander might decide to do without his services and recycle him.

To add further complications Mickey 7 was believed lost on his last mission and Mickey 8 was commissioned. Now there are two of them, something that would get both of them thrown into the recycler. Plus there are now two women in their lives and they are living on one set of rations.

Mickey 7 has a fascination with why previous colonisation projects failed and soon discovers that he has the power to save his colony.

Intriguing thoughts about what makes a human and if Mickey is the same person each time he is cloned. The stubbornness of the commander and the way the mission runs roughshod over the native flora and fauna seems very real although not very enlightened. An interesting premise, well written and at a brisk pace.

My thanks to NetGalley and Rebellion for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting and thought provoking book, that somehow manages not to take itself too seriously. The author is certainly not short of imagination. Mickey is a likable character, and this is a good story.

Loved this!! It was such a great reworking of the Theseus Ship paradox (the Sugababes in modern parlance - how many times can you change the members of the group until they are no longer the Sugababes?) There's a lot of humour in the book and it's fast-paced and exciting.

I like a sci-fi films but generally don't read the books but the description of this caught my eye. It made a refreshing change to my normal genre of romance and PNR.

Mickey7, well he is an expendable, which means he can be recreated if he dies and by the title it's obvious he's on to existence seven! I found him an interesting character, he has friends but is seen as different by lots of the other colonists. especially the religious ones. I enjoyed his humorous side. He has a special lady friend which would be tough at times on both sides considering his life cycle!

The story was fun and engaging as for the setting of it I pictured it like the film the Martian but bigger.

All in all, I enjoyed my change of scenery read and I may look at more sci-fi books.

“Congratulations”
“As of today, you are officially Mickey1”
As my partners name is Michael (Mick, Mikey, Mike, Mickey etc) the title Mickey7 caught my attention, the enjoyable narrative and familial -as well as likable – protagonist kept my attention. Edward Ashton’s novel introduces us to a speculative future where humans have successfully left the old, dependable planet we evolved to live on and scattered across the universe; colonising and terraforming planets where possible. Much of the novel nods at the difficulties and fatalities that are often encountered on the colony missions. As well exploring failures of past expeditions relating to hostile sentient inhabitants of planets, starvation or war. The narrative we follow is that of Michael Barnes, who is on part of the team from the Drakkar and a colonist, destined to live out his days on a new world. Unlike his fellow colonists, he was not selected to join the group of less than 200 colonists, he did not pass the strict and rigorous selection process due to his expertise in biology, medicine or other essential sciences, he volunteered to be the Expendable. As the only applicant for the position, he was accepted, and 2 days later he left his home world of Midgard, and headed towards Niflheilm.
Mickey takes on the role Expendable, knowing that a huge part of this role includes dying for the good of the Union and the good of the Colony:
‘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.’
As the Expendable you are the only member of the Colony who can upload your consciousness into the system periodically, and when you inevitably die, from fixing a radioactive vent, trying out a new medicine or falling down a hole while searching the local topography for hostile life; you have a new body bio-printed and your consciousness uploaded. After a day or two of feeling hungover from climbing out of the tank, you go on to the next job and the next regeneration of yourself. Hence the name Mickey7, at the start of the novel we are introduced to the 7th version of Mickey, who narrates the rest of the story.
Whilst the novel handles some pretty serious and distressing subjects, such as; death, the unending void of space, existentialism, starvation, cloning (or doubling), Ashton manages to juggle these heavy topics, without the novel toppling into the realms of ‘upsetting’ or ‘depressing.’ By setting the narrative as far from the concept of (what we understand as) ‘Earth’ as possible, the story is dislodged from our reality, and defamiliarized into an unrecognisable ‘off-Earth’ and ‘far-future.’ He manages to keep us from anxieties of colonising other planets or being tossed into the ‘cycler’ to become protein for consumption. Somehow, the novel is quite fun. It is full of light-hearted exchanges between characters, amusing high-jinx and typical misunderstandings amongst friends. Ashton’s ability to handle the realities (theoretically) of the disasters of interstellar space travel and colonisation of other planets, alongside keeping the story light and entertaining is flawless and brilliant.
‘The upside of all of that dying is that I really am a shitty kind of immortal.’
One of the impressive, and easily missed, aspects of this text, is Ashton’s choice in names. Particularly the names of newly colonised worlds and the colony ships. One of which is the world Mickey has travelled to; Niflheilm. Anyone familiar with Norse Mythology will recognise this name, as one of the Nine Worlds that appear in Norse Mythology. ‘Niflheilm’ appears in creative narratives, as the homeland of primordial darkness, cold, mist, and ice or used interchangeably with ‘Niflhel,’ a poetic embellishment of ‘Hel,’ the world of the dead. Ashton’s use of Niflheilm within his narrative emphasises not only the literal setting of a snow-drowned planet, but also the dreaded unknown of the new planet, and strong unavoidable truth that the planet may become the colonists grave after something on this Icey planet dooms them all.
Also, the name of the ship, Drakkar, the Icelandic word for ‘Drank,’ which has some interesting connotations relating to a thirst for knowledge, success or even power over the Universe, planet or even each other. I am certain Ashton chose his names carefully to put deliberate emphasis on certain aspects of his narrative, and force us to acknowledge all possibilities of his speculative future.
Whilst there are unavoidable echoes to Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of series, there are far more unique aspects of Ashton’s novel; from the Creepers ambiguous, almost amorphous, existence, the questions surrounding sentience and the religion of ‘Natalists:’
‘They don’t like backups,’
‘They believe it’s one soul to a body, and once your original body dies, you soul is dead as well.’
‘Which means that a bio-printed body with a personality imprinted from backup is, in fact, a soulless monster.’
Ashton’s novel is a must read for anyone who likes Science Fiction, Entomology or questions of humanity. Unlike some SF novels, Mickey7 is less than 350 pages, but all of those pages are not only fun filled, but they also reveal a simply, but expertly, built world and a clever narrative, intricately woven into a wonderful adventure of colonising new planets and humanities journey beyond Earth.
(review will go up on The Fantasy Hive Soon)

If Kurt Vonnegut and Michael Crichton had ever started a band, Mickey7 would have been their first album. It strikes the perfect balance between bonkers and believable, and succeeds in being both uproariously acerbic and scientifically plausible. There’s something joyous about the fact that it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and yet it poses questions like ‘what is life, and are any of us really living it?’ It’s this blend of whimsical speculation that makes Mickey7 such a pleasure to read.

I loved the concept of the book. The fact multiple versions of Mickey exist at the same time never feels confusing. It’s written in such a way that all the complications this weird scenario brings are explored fully, without there being any point where I felt lost.

The structure of the book is excellent. In the main, it alternates between the problems the colony is facing in the present, and what led up to Mickey taking on the mission as an Expendable in the past, as well as what he remembers of his various iterations until now. This back and forth creates a complete world, and I admired the way the universe took on so much scope.

What surprised me about the book was how high the stakes felt for a character who can die one minute, and potentially wake up in a freshly grown body the next. The fact that I felt any kind of threat to Mickey7 is a testament to the writing skill on display here. But what impressed me most was the lightness of touch the author showed in how they tackled colossal themes. The messages of the book, ranging from how we view ourselves to how we view others, from communication to religion to identity, never feel heavy-handed or forced. It works as a fun, entertaining read that leaves you with plenty to think about.

Mickey7 is a book with a lot to say, but it does so with a smile. Come for the laughs, stay for the existential angst. You’ll be left valuing life just that little bit more. This is a book you’ll want to keep close to your heart. Mickey might be an Expendable, yet his story is anything but.

I'm relatively new to sci fi, and am quite fussy about what I read. I was intrigued by the premise behind Mickey7 and thought it would provide a solid basis for a novel.

Well - Ashton's nailed it with this one! The writing is good, the plot is great and teh charectarisation fantastic. Especially Mickey7. I really like him as a person and he's not just the next in the Mickey series - he's far brighter than Mickey8. I was going to write that they broke the mould when they made him, but....perhasp it's they deleted the backup?

I won't give the story away, juss to say that this book isn't so long that it's a struggle to get through, the writing is engaging, with both characters and plot a lot of fun. I particularly like finding out about what Mickey7 is reading, which adds real depth to the backstory of his civilisation

Final verdict - great sci fi and great book. Worth buying

What a marvellously entertaining and thought provoking book which I also found totally original.

Imagine if you will a clone of you being created when you are an adult and both of you being dropped into an impossible situation, how would you deal with it? That is what Mickey7 is faced with when Mickey8 is created in error. To discover how he/they deal with it, you will need to read the book for yourself and I strongly suggest that you do so as I cannot imagine that you will be disappointed.

An excellent sci-fi, highly entertaining and compelling. Mickey is a likeable character, clever and fleshed out and I liked the world building and the solid plot.
The storytelling is excellent and it kept me reading till late in the night.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Edward Ashton has fun with a bunch of well explored science fiction tropes and cliches and throws in a little philosophy in his latest book Mickey7. The main character of the book is an Expendable, the one member of the expedition party who does all of the dangerous jobs as it is easier and cheaper to replace a person than something mechanical. And when you are a civilisation throwing the dice on a long range colonisation mission to a new planet, there is plenty of work for someone whose job it is to die for you.
When the book opens Mickey Barnes, the seventh version of him anyway so known as Mickey7, is dying (again). Sent on a reconnaissance mission he finds himself at the bottom of a crevasse with his partner unwilling to rescue him (on the basis that they can just print another version so why take the risk). The two are part of a colonisation mission to the planet Niffleheim that is not going well. The planet turns out to be colder and more inhospitable than predicted and infested with dangerous life forms that the humans call crawlers. Mickey7 survives but on his return to the base finds that his backup, Mickey8, has already been decanted. And there is only one thing worse than a clone and that is multiple copies of a clone. So the two have to work together to avoid being discovered and recycled while also helping the station understand and fight off the growing crawler threat.
The basic plot outline belies the fun that Ashton has with all of the concepts that he has thrown into this sandbox. Although the focus is on this colony, Mickey is a bit of an amateur historian so is across many of humanity’s failed colonisation attempts, the stories of which becoming more pertinent as the one he is a part of starts to go south. Ashton explores the unsurprising conceit that finding a planet that is conducive to human life is not easy and that sometimes survival is as much a matter of good luck as good planning.
But the central idea of this book revolves around cloning and the psychology of someone who has volunteered to die, often horribly and painfully, on the basis that they will be reincarnated with most of their memories and personality intact. Mickey spends some of the narrative reflecting on his various deaths, all of which have served to protect and save the rest of the crew but which have left him contemplating his own life and its value. In considering who he is, Mickey has been introduced to the thought experiment of the Ship of Theseus, which seems to be getting a bit of a run at the moment since it popped up in Wandavision but also in C Robert Cargill’s robopocalypse book Day Zero. That is, when his body is rebuilt and the memories inserted into it, is he the same person or someone different entirely?
Putting all of the philosophical and technological musings aside, Mickey7 is a fun read. Ashton continually ramps up the tension as the two Mickeys only partially successfully try to hide their existence in a small colony. At the same time, the outside threat grows and it is possible Mickey has the key to solving that too. And while the conclusion feels a little bit like wish fulfilment, it is still satisfying.
The big news about this book, however, is that it will be the next project for Oscar-winning Korean director Bong Joon Ho (known for Parasite but showed in Okja that he is no stranger to action-oriented scifi with heart) and starring Robert Pattinson.

I really enjoyed this book. Well written, well paced and very enjoyable. Great to see someone tackle cloning in such an entertaining way.

Only one point i didnt think was required and that was the sexual encounter. It didnt add much and made me feel very uncomfortable for the main character and im not sure how he felt as it didnt go into detail about his thoughts.

I really enjoyed this tale of Mickey7, the regeneration clone for the expedition to the ice world of Niflheim. Mickey Barnes, the original human, signed up voluntarily for this role as he needed to leave his planet quickly due to owing money to a violent gangster.

Mickey is an Expendible. If there are dangerous, life-threatening tasks to be done they call on Mickey. As the book is about Mickey7, he has expired on six occasions. A new Mickey is grown in a tank from the DNA of the original and, despite waking up with the hangover from hell after being birthed, is ready for his next job. (I sort of visualized the tank scene in Branagh's version of Frankenstein, but that's just me.) Every new Mickey has the consciousness and memories of the original and previous versions, due to the living Mickey uploading his current data.

There's a lot to think about, right from the start. Even though it's written in an easy-to-digest manner, the story highlights things like immortality and death. Is there such a thing as the soul and, if so, does Mickey7 have it now or did it only exist with the original Mickey? It doesn't help that the commander, Marshall, thinks that Mickey is not real, and a living atrocity to his religious beliefs.

Mickey7 falls into a huge hole in the snow whilst on a task, is injured, and unable to get out. He's then left for dead. Instead of dying, he goes exploring and, with a wee bit of help from an indigenous beastie, manages to get back to the colony alive. Unfortunately, in the meantime, Mickey8 has been birthed and to have 'multiples' (as we find out from a backstory) is prohibited. Both Mickey7 and Mickey8 would likely end up in the recycler (think Soylent Green, folks). Trying to keep these two entities indistinguishable is a job and a half. Fun? You bet!

A very well-written story, the world building was great as the reader stepped right in there immediately, and the characters were full and believable. I haven't read anything else by this author, but I'll be rectifying that shortly.

I chose an ARC of this work which I voluntarily read and reviewed. All opinions are my own. Thanks to NetGalley, Rebellion Publishing, and the author.

4/5 - Very Good.

Mickey7 is the most fun I’ve had reading in a long while. This is science fiction for everyone. Accessible, Enjoyable, fast paced and with a protagonist to root for.

Not since i read the Terry Pratchett Long Earth series have I enjoyed science fiction like this.

It’s fun, fresh, vibrant and in Mickey Barnes , a main character who felt like a friend by the end and I am now feeling glum that my adventure with Mickey has reached an end. I imagine it’s a standalone but I hope it’s not, either way I will be an interested reader of anything Edward Ashton writes in future.

This is such a great science fiction read. I did not expect to enjoy is so much. It is funny at the same time as dealing with themes of life and read (sensitively). I can imagine that it will be a great success.

This book was so much fun. A ship is launched, an expedition to colonise a new world. Amongst the scientists, the pilots, the specialists, and all the other important people that will make up the new population which will pave the way for the embryos on board to colonise Niflheim, is the least wanted job. The Expendable. What is that I hear you ask? Well, it's the person they send in when the job is too hazardous. When the loss of life is probable. You see, this person has their body mapped and their memories regularly saved so that they can be "reborn" after they die. Sounds a blast, doesn't it? But for reasons that I will leave you to discover for yourself, Mickey is so eager to leave home that he jumps at the chance to take up this job and escape. When we first meet him, he is Mickey7. This means he has "died" 6 times already - deaths we will learn about in flashback all the way through. He is once again on death's door. In fact he has been abandoned, presumed dead. Except he isn't. And, as he finds out as he walks home, to his room, Mickey8 has already been created. But this can't happen...
And so begins a rather nifty and fun story about Mickey7 & 8 and how they hide their dual existence, as well as following them and others as they try and sort out the mess that the new planet is in. Things aren't going well, and then there's the natives who are a bit on the scary side...
I loved this book. It is just in the right side of bonkers for me. It also kicks out a few moral dilemmas regarding clones which could make for a decent book club discussion. In fact there are certain characters in the book itself with rather interesting arguments for and against. But it's not all about that, I hasten to add.
It's funny and serious and all things in between. I had a laugh and a cry reading it, as well as being on the edge of my seat at times too... This is my first book by this author and, from what I read herein, it most definitely won't be my last. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Headlines:
What is dead and what is alive?
Bring your ethics with you for perusal
Witty and real

Mickey7 is the best book I've ever read with my name in the title...okay it's the only book I've ever read with my name but it was still great. This witty sci-fi brought a lot to the reader's plate with an ease of writing that you don't always find in sci-fi.

The world Mickey7 existed in was one built from humans that once existed on earth (no, you don't want to know how we ended up). Who or what Mickey7 was, was the nub of the question I considered throughout this book. At first, this was an easy answer but actually as I read on and really thought about the ethics of his existance, his rights as an expendable, it was a little more tricky.

Mickey7 was the most likeable character, rather sanguine and wholly humble because the figurative grass could never grow beneath his feet. The plot was very engaging, light and then loaded underneath with deeper stuff that I just loved getting my teeth into. I enjoyed some of the side characters, Nasha, other Mickey iterations and the creepers. Marshall was vile and Berto was not my favourite. I was here for the Mickey/Nasha sandwich!

Mickey7 was a memorable sci-fi, full of spark and wit. It had moments that reminded me of Murderbot but Mickey7 was no murderbot. Highly recommend to all my sci-fi loving friends.

Thank you to Rebellion Publishing for the early review copy.