Easy to read, an enjoyable sci fi adventure set on a new planet that doesn't make you think too hard, but does contain a sprinkling of ethics around cloning and colonisation. The main character is kinda dumb and I enjoyed that. 

A fun sci-fi read, I enjoyed the world and its history and the fact that while this had some small twists, it wasn't a full-on TWIST book but rather just a good story set within the confines and technology of another world. Excited to see the film!

I enjoyed it. 

The existence of Expendables raises a lot of questions only some of which are addressed, if not answered.

It makes total sense that people would have religious objections to Expendables, and even that it would be a major tenant of a religion.  Although I would think it would be problematic to 

If a person can only become an Expendable to be a terrible kind of guinea pig which will always be killed over (and over and over) I can see why it wouldn't appeal to people.   But it is more than a little surprising that it's not a technology utilized by the wealthy and powerful to extend their lifetimes indefinitely.   Not to actually be expendable, of course, just to live.

It's more than a little surprising that there's apparently no one involved in mental healthcare as part of the colony.   Leaving the position of the Expendable aside, the mental, emotional and physical stress of space travel and starting a colony would be tremendous.  But taking the Expendable into account, especially an Expendable who is conscripted, which it sounds like most are, how is there not mandatory counseling for that person?  Like every day.   Even before you get to the Ship of Theseus problem, how many times can a person remember dying in terrible and painful ways or just watch a video of it even without the actual memory and not develop crippling PTSD or become catatonic?  But there's no suggestion of that at all.   (Either that it's a concern or that Mickey experiences it).  I do get why there are occasions where it's important for the Expendable to remember what caused his or her death, but how does remembering being injected with different pathogens and then dying a long, painful death help.  What are they supposed to avoid, going to the doctor who is going to use them as a test subject?

The sociology of it is interesting, too.  Everyone (including the Expendable) is conditioned  to think of the Expendable as the same person, which means that a) people resent their "immortality" and b) no one appreciates their sacrifices.    And that sort of makes sense, too, from a good of the colony standpoint.   If people are allowed to realize that someone is essentially being tortured over and over, especially if that person was conscripted, they may decide that's unacceptable.  (Or they may well say if the Expendable is a prisoner he/she/they probably did something to deserve it and better someone who can be downloaded into a new body than a person with a  finite lifespan).

It's also unclear what the term of service is.  Is Mickey expected to stay in that position for the term of a natural lifespan, 1,000 years, 1,000 deaths?  Until the sun burns out?  Until the colony is firmly established? 

It's clear that Mickey7 and Mikey8 are different people.  Mickey7 is more empathetic by far.  And maybe it's attributable to Mickey8 being closer to starvation, or Mickey7 being saved by the crawler and having the memory of it happen.  It just seems like there should be more of an explanation since the difference in time between them is only six weeks.

Also, they're terraforming a planet with other sentient life and...it never occurs to them how doing so might affect that life?

Learning about the various colony failures was interesting.

Figuring out the "twist" in the first 30 pages wasn't a bad thing, since Mickey7 has a lot of other stuff going on both in the present and in flashbacks. On the other hand, I feel like there was so much other neat worldbuilding and potential conflict that we could've explored more, like

the Natalist movement or the wider impacts of resource scarcity

.

Instead, we got Mickey8 spending what felt like 50 pages asleep or hungry interspersed with commentary on profound topics like genocide, cloning, and identity... but because Mickey is just a guy, his ideas didn't break any new ground for me. I heard Mickey compared to The Martian's Mark Watney, which is true except that Mickey is marginally more likeable while Mark is more interesting to read for a puzzler like me. Otherwise, they're definitely both guys who put "I love sarcasm and dark humor" in their Tinder bios...

On top of Mickey's narration leaning cringy/tryhard more often than not, the pacing of this book wasn't very consistent. Felt like the resolution blew in out of nowhere, to say nothing of

Marshall just... changing his mind overnight? It just felt jarring.

The premise was so good, but this is one of those books that feels like it would've been more compelling if it had a different point of view. It's not strictly bad—quick, light read with a few "ohh" moments and even a couple actually good jokes. But if you're looking for more of the hard science or psychological drama of The Martian, this may miss the mark.

It is okay... But not in a traditional sci-fi sense of things. It is sarcastic. But it is more character driven, which is different. It isn't super action based. Very different for me for sci-fi. It felt like it was trying to be Andy Weir in a way, and didn't hit the mark. 

A guy who is an "expendable" is on his 7th iteration of himself and something goes wrong. The whole book is about that one mistake essentially. It didn't feel very high stakes. It wasn't bad at all, it just isn't high action or high intensity. 

It felt like a long conversation in space. Even when things with action did happen, the writing made it feel lack luster. 

 [This review can also be found on my BLOG]

**I received a proof copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

CW: violence, blood, injury detail, death, cancer, medical trauma, suicide/suicide ideation
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A fast-paced and highly enjoyable space adventure that is a great balance of science, humour and ethics.

In a distant future where advancements in scientific technology have helped or really forced humanity to colonise the stars we follow Mickey Barnes, the Expendable of the team on a colonisation mission to the ice planet Niflheim. An Expendable is an individual who has signed on to put themselves forward for any and every life threatening task that needs doing and when they expire their body is regenerated anew with all memories intact.

We first meet Mickey in his 7th iteration out on a scouting mission when he gets stuck and left behind, presumed dead. Except he doesn’t die and this oversight finds him coming face to face with Mickey8, the 8th iteration of himself when he returns to base, a big problem since duplicate Expendables are against the rules. They both agree to keep the double situation a secret – which is of course not an easy feat when part of a small population living in a confined dome on a hostile planet.

The straightforward and easy flowing plot meant I flew right through this book.

Mickey is a such fun and likeable protagonist with an engaging voice, and a personality that will make you laugh and want to facepalm in equal measure. The chaos of having 2 of him around made it all the more enjoyable. However, despite the mostly light tone of the story there are still some very dark moments that unfold.

The narrative alternates between showing his current situation and him relaying the past events which led him there, including showing us the extents an Expendable has to go for the job as well as insights into the expansive wider universe within the story and its history.

I really loved was that while we were following the happenings of this live colonisation project, we were also drip fed accounts of past missions that had varying degrees of success. Though I do wish we could have gotten a little more than just snippets of these.

The science and technology was really interesting and despite getting a little technical at times it was never too overly complex as to unsettle the story. Furthermore, we also come across a handful of side characters and the relationships they each have with Mickey were really well written and brought to light some deep conversations on philosophy and morality.

Overall, this would be a fun read for sci-fi lovers and those looking to get into the genre alike.
Final Rating - 4/5 Stars 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for sending me an ARC of this title. I received this copy for free and this review contains my honest opinions. 

 

Mickey7 is a quick sci-fi adventure that explores the concept of identity, primarily, what aspects of yourself make you you? When we enter the story, Mickey Barnes is in his seventh iteration as an Expendable: everything about him is identical to the original Mickey Barnes who signed up for this job (from how he looks to his memories), but is he actually the same now that he’s been remade six times? 

 

Mickey’s troubles aside, I really enjoyed the concept of this story and the idea of a futuristic humanity that has colonized multiple other planets, but has struggled to do so and is still struggling when we’re introduced to the narrative. Few of the sci-fi books I read really explore humanity’s failures to get to the point they’re at for the story, so I was interested in all the failed colonies in Mickey’s world (even if it was a brief mention) and their drastic impacts on the worlds they colonized. 

 

However, I found most of the characters unlikeable, which meant their relationships didn’t feel natural to me and I struggled to see their connections (or sometimes, why they were even interacting). I also had difficulty with the pacing: every other chapter jumps back in time to focus on Mickey’s backstory or world building. It was nice to know some of this additional detail, but it left me wanting to see more conflict and I would have rather spent more time interacting with the planet and its current issues. 

 

Overall, I think this book either needed to be shorter (and the focus narrowed to building on the relationships and the final conflict) or slightly longer (with more time spent meshing the world building with the dangers the crew faces colonizing a new world). Thank you again to the publisher for sending me a free ARC of this title. 

 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.