Release Date: 02/15/22
Published by St.Martin’s Press/ Macmillan
By Jenny Robinson
When a book starts with “This is gonna be my stupidest death ever”, you know you’re in for a ride. When you add in the fact that Bong Joon Ho (director of Oscar-winning Parasite) has signed on for the big screen adaptation with Robert Pattinson in talks to star, it’s an easy decision for a must-read. Page-by-page, I felt as if this was written exactly for that purpose. I normally gravitate towards stories that dive deep into the emotional thoughts of a character, but this felt as if we were to be simply a spectator as Mickey fumbles through the plot. For a story written in first-person perspective, I developed a very unique companionship with Micky 7.
I’ll admit, the protagonist in this book felt oddly real in his average “nothing special” human way. Normally, main characters are written to be abundantly awesome, but not Mickey. We follow Micky 7, who is the seventh iteration of himself. You see, Micky took a job where he’s suppose to die, more than once. He’s not dumb, but also not overly skilled in anything useful. He probably should have spent more time weighing the pros and cons of current troubles versus that of a job where you are expected to die. As we learn more about Micky, it seems he has a habit of replacing one problem with another. On the new struggling colony on the planet Niflheim, Mickey’s job is to be an Expendable. He is to go into dangerous situations or medical experiment and wait to see what happens, which is usually death. Each time he dies, they regrow, reboot and start all over, hence the number after his name. If he remembers to log his conscience, then the next “him” has most of his memories.
This is the part of the story I enjoyed the most due to the may variables that could happen. If he backs his brain up before the mission but dies after, how does he remember not to make the same mistake again? What happens if everyone thinks you’re dead, abandons you and just makes another Mickey? Of course, this is the strong plot point where he must secretly coexist with himself. We continue to follow him, learning about how he ended up in this mess, why people dislike him and the relationships a simple man makes along the way. He’s so average, except for his Expendable role, that it’s easy to take him for granted, but nice to be surprised when he does something interesting.
Taking the back seat in the plot, the native alien creatures known as the “Critters” have awesome possibilities of being both allies and villains. I have high hopes that they will have a larger and more interesting role in future books. I am assuming this is the start of a growing series. Ashton tickles your interest with these aliens early on. Dialogue revolving around these creatures allow you to start building a curiosity. The coolest part is how they are written in a way that explains them pretty well yet still leaves you with a ton of questions. I appreciate the restraint of not allowing the reader all the information but also giving just enough to formulate ideas as we read along.
With that said, this ends on a note that there may be more to come. At first, I was a bit bummed as I wasn’t prepared to commit myself to a new series. In hindsight, I think the book is written perfectly for a quick continuous read, sparking a desire to continue and accompany the characters through this new world. With a 304 page count, it flows fast but leaves a lot left to be discovered in the story. I am extremely intrigued on how this will play out in both future potential books and in movie format. I am preparing my popcorn now to be ready.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Edward Ashton (Photo Credit: JustTeeJay (JustTeeJay.com)
Edward Ashton (he/him) is the author of the novels Three Days in April, The End of Ordinary, and Mickey7, as well as of short stories which have appeared in venues ranging from the newsletter of an Italian sausage company to Escape Pod, Analog, and Fireside Fiction. He lives in upstate New York in a cabin in the woods (not that cabin in the woods) with his wife, a variable number of daughters, and an adorably mopey dog named Max. In his free time, he enjoys cancer research, teaching quantum physics to sullen graduate students, and whittling.