Mickey7

October 11, 2021
Ashton (The End of Ordinary) crafts a unique hero in amateur historian Mickey Barnes, the breezy narrator of this far-flung, far-future adventure. Fleeing his gambling debts, Mickey literally signs his life away for passage on the colony ship Drakkar. As an “Expendable,” he’s assigned to the ship’s most “dangerous-to-suicidal” jobs. Whenever one of these gigs kills him, he’s regenerated as a new version of himself. When Mickey7, the seventh of these regenerations, falls into a crevasse on icy Niflheim, his aviator friend Berto leaves him to die, prompting the regeneration process to begin. But Mickey7 survives, and now he and Mickey8 coexist, breaking a societal taboo. If the hungry crew discovers there’s two of them, one or both may become food, since the agricultural system is failing and can’t feed extra mouths. Mickey7’s present day attempts to avoid the wrath of the mission commander and defuse an alien threat on Niflheim are interspersed with his memories of previous, mostly failed attempts at colonization. These flashbacks occasionally feel like interruptions to the probing exploration of what happens when one meets oneself, but they successfully broaden Ashton’s imaginative perspective with multiple worlds. Sci-fi readers will be drawn in by the inventive premise and stick around for the plucky narrator. Agent: Paul Lucas, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc.

Starred review from December 1, 2021

Ashton's (Three Days in April) new SF thriller contains a dying old world, a strange new world that's not quite in the Goldilocks zone, desperate would-be colonists, and a tin-pot dictator. Mickey7 is an Expendable in a beachhead human colony on an absolute iceball of a planet. His job is to do the many, many things that a human can do better than a drone or a robot, but that a human cannot survive. The plan is that this current Mickey won't survive them either, but his memories will be uploaded into a new body fresh out of the printer so his work, and the colony, can go on. When Mickey7 doesn't die as reported, and Mickey8 is created by accident, the Mickeys have a problem. The existence of two Expendables is grounds for destruction, unless they can manage to hide their secret or leverage it so that it becomes too dangerous to wipe them both out. VERDICT Ashton's novel begins as farce and ends as something considerably deeper; as an Expendable, Mickey7 is able to ask what makes someone human or who has the right to destroy a place in order to occupy it. Highly recommended for readers of colonization SF.--Marlene Harris, Reading Reality, LLC, Duluth, GA

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2022
Expendables die. A lot. They're people whose bodies and minds are stored and replicated as often as necessary. They do the deadly jobs that no one else can do. Mickey Barnes, an amateur historian and layabout, signed up to be an Expendable on a new colony ship to get away from some problems on his home planet. Now on his seventh incarnation, he's left for dead on a mission on his new planet, but he survives--and now there are two of him. Duplicates aren't allowed, though, so they need to hide their dual existence. And Mickey7 is the only one who knows that the local life-forms are sentient, and only he can avert an all-out war. Mickey7 is a fast-paced, character-driven, amusing romp of a tale. The concept is compelling and well developed, along with the backstory of how humanity spread out among the stars. Ashton crafts interesting characters and lets their relationships take center stage, and his world building is solid. This is an excellent choice for anyone who enjoys smart and funny science fiction.

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