Edward Ashton

tl;dr - I enjoyed this book. It was a quick, light, fun(ny at times) read and while it didn't quite give me what I expected I still loved the expendable theme and some of the history of Ashton's universe. From the Readers Q&A it appears as thuogh there may be at least one more Mickey story, and I will certainly be reading it. I'd recommend Mickey7 to fans of John Scalzi and Murderbot.

Mickey7 follow the story of an Expendable: a man, in this case, who's sole purpose upon joining the Niflheim mission is to be available to die. Repeatedly. Typically in ways so that tech (robots/drones) and non-expendables (normal humans) don't have to be sacrificed to fix a anti-matter field or to test local flora and fauna on a newly established world. Due to resource limitations (and a lot of negative feelings towards Multiples), yada yada, only one Mickey can be around at a time and for 7 iterations this process works out fine...and then it doesn't due to a mishap with Mickey "best friend". That's more or less where the book starts off. Over the next 300-some pages, we follow Mickey 7 as he goes on a couple of missions, argues with the folks in charge, tries to keep his accidently created double (Mickey8) from a) killing him and b) getting caught. And that's more or less the story.

Mickey 7 had some serious Murderbot vibes. He completes most of his missions less than enthusiastically and is really just here because he didn't have another option. He's snarky, relatively quick witted and seems to be fairly loyal. Unfortunately though, whereas Murderbot shows a significant amount of growth (granted, that's over the 5 novellas and 1 novel currently published) Mickey 7 felt a little flat, which I think worked to an extent because of future Mikey novels, but I would have liked to see more character development.

On top of that, Mickey is seemingly intent on giving readers the backstory on the diaspora of humankind from earth frequently cutting back for entire chapters to explain something that's about to become relevant. I'm convinced that these cuts into the narrative probably make up 1/4 of the story. As an epic fantasy reader, I don't mind lore dumps - but these break into the narrative and immediately pulled me out of the story every time. The shame of the matter here is they're mostly pretty interesting. I enjoyed reading about the history of the expendables and failed settlements.

Finally - there were so many threads here that the author could have pulled, and so many ways that those threads could have unraveled that I almost felt cheated by where the story went. We know that foods a problem. We know that energy is a problem. We know that the creepers are a problem. We know that the climate is a problem. What we ended up focusing on, how that problem was ultimately resolved (and how several the other problems were resolved in a matter of pages as what felt like an after thought) was disappointing.

As I received the audiobook version of Mickey7, I would be remiss if I didn't praise the narrators John Pirhalla and Katharine Chin for this production. They brought the characters to life and the way that the radio communication was handled in the audiobook was pretty cool!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing a review copy of the audiobook via NetGalley.… (lisätietoja)

I've enjoyed the Mickey7 series by the same author so when I saw he had a new book I immediately requested it.

Mal is an AI named for being Malware, traveling from host to host. Mal is not a fan of humans, but will take what he can get to stay alive. But then he ends up in the brain of an augmented human trying to protect a child. This gets Mal caught up in the war that has been going on between augmented and "pure" humans. Just like with all technology, the modifications done to humans can be both good at bad, and are often done without the humans consent.

This is a really interesting book and full of humor just like in Mickey7. I really enjoyed the audiobook, it allowed for the humor to really shine through and the scenes to come to life.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for giving me an advanced review copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.… (lisätietoja)

Mal Goes to War
By Edward Ashton
I was so excited when asked by the publisher if I wanted to read and review this book! What? Of course I did! The author of Mickey7! Yes! Thanks so much to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me enjoy this fantastic read!
The main character in the book is a Silico-American. Yep, you heard that right. A free lance program (?) with free will and choices. He just has to occupy something electrical to continue to live. He lived in a drone, their version of the internet (but much more advanced), an Android, an enhanced human corpse, and even a human.
A war was happening, Humanist thought that anyone with any enhancements should die, even children. The Federalist were using people to make monsters out of tech. Mal was just watching and not taking sides until he meets a small but mighty girl. From there, things go crazy. He slowly, very slowly decides humans are worth being friends with. Action packed, humorous, very creative, and aggravating at the same time. There is a handful of characters that each have stubborn personalities and conflict with each other at times. But I couldn't help but love all of them!
I hope there will be a Mal 2!… (lisätietoja)

Mal is an AI, although not exactly a great Mind. He's in suburban Maryland surveying a war between the Federals who embrace tech including computers, body mods, genetic engineering, and implants, and Humanists who only use that stuff when they really need it for the war. Actually everyday Humanists burn the tech when they find it either in machine or human form while their leaders are willing to compromise a bit to try to win.

In any case, Mal gets stuck on the ground when the Infonet is cut off in the area and is forced to jump from human to human to machine to human to get further north into Federal territory where he hopes the net is still working so he can bug out. He meets (and inhabits) a range of people and machines and saves the world.

It's a funny book but not awfully deep.

I received a review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.com.… (lisätietoja)