He has the worst job in the galaxy, and it’s killing him. Often.

So, here’s the problem. I picked up Mickey7 because it was an NPR Best book of 2022 and Amazon listed it as #5 in Humorous Science Fiction. Was I wrong to expect to laugh a lot? The premise has potential, because Mickey, the protagonist, volunteers for a job that requires him to die over and over again. The story moves along well enough. It’s even hard science fiction, which I always favor. The author, Edward Ashton, is a scientist. And Ashton has published several other novels, so he knows how to write a book. But I just. Didn’t. Laugh. Instead, the novel delivers on its premise: Mickey dies. Over and over again.

A disappointing story

Mickey7 could have been a much better book had Ashton done a lot more to develop the potential of the setting. Mickey is one of 198 men and women dispatched to colonize a new world in the Union. It’s a place called Niflheim, for unexplained reasons. And there they encounter creatures called creepers. Well, it will not surprise you to learn—it didn’t surprise me—that these creepers are sentient. So, the novel is, in reality, a First Contact story. But Ashton leaves that theme on the table. Contact between the colonists and the native sentients is limited, indeed. Not a likely story. And a disappointing one. That contact could have been very, very funny, with one misunderstanding compounding another.

Mickey7 by Edward Ashton (2022) 307 pages ★★★☆☆Does this centipede resemble the murderous “creepers” of the planet Niflheim in this novel? Read and find out. Image: Johnny B’s Pest Control It’s all one big thought experiment

Now, admittedly, I’m the odd man out in my reading of this novel. Critics loved it. They called it “inventive” (Publishers Weekly), “highly recommended” (Library Journal), “wildly entertaining” (Locus), and referred to its “wittiness and flair” (NPR). Many of them based their views of Mickey7 on Ashton’s supposedly serious exploration of identity and cloning. His inquiry into these themes revolves around the philosophical thought experiment “The Ship of Theseus.” It’s attributed to the philosopher Plutarch. The short of it is that the youth manning a Greek ship on a very long journey replace all the wood in the ship, plank by plank, as they all rot or wear out. The question is, then, whether they arrive in the same ship as the one they departed in. Now, philosophers love stuff like this. I don’t. It strikes me as mental masturbation. Enough said.

About the authorEdward Ashton. Image: author’s website

Edward Ashton has written five science fiction novels and a number of short stories. According to his website, “In his free time, he enjoys cancer research, teaching quantum physics to sullen graduate students, and whittling. . . He lives in upstate New York in a cabin in the woods . . . with his wife.”

For related reading

For better reading, check out:

The five best First Contact novelsThese novels won both Hugo and Nebula AwardsThe ultimate guide to the all-time best science fiction novelsThe top science fiction novelsThe top 10 dystopian novels10 new science fiction authors worth reading now

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