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Mickey7 #3
Mickey Prime: A Mickey7 Novel
Not yet published
Expected 23 Feb 27Mickey7 (inspiration for the film Mickey 17) is back in Edward Ashton's latest novel in which a plague on Niflheim forces Mickey to return to his old job as an expendable.
Mickey Barnes is an ex-Expendable. For the past five years he’s spent his time tending tomatoes and cleaning out rabbit hutches instead of mucking around inside active reactor cores and getting dissected by creepers. When a sudden, virulent plague strikes the fledgling human colony on Niflheim, though, he’s forced to return to his old job. Mickey is pressed into duty as both a first responder and a lab rat, expected to die and be replaced as many times as necessary to find a cure.
Funny thing, though. Despite the best efforts of the colony’s medical team, Mickey seems to be the only person unable to contract the bug. As more and more colonists sicken and die and the colony spirals into panic, Command is forced to contemplate Reset—sterilizing the colony completely to eradicate the plague, then repopulating it with hundreds of stored embryos, to be raised under the watchful eye of a dozen freshly printed copies of Mickey Barnes.
No matter how bad things get, Mickey can’t let that happen. He has a daughter of his own now, and even if he has to die a hundred times in a hundred different ways, he’s determined to find a way to make sure that she survives.
It’s a lot, but after all, Mickey’s already died seven times. After that, how hard could this be?
Mickey Barnes is an ex-Expendable. For the past five years he’s spent his time tending tomatoes and cleaning out rabbit hutches instead of mucking around inside active reactor cores and getting dissected by creepers. When a sudden, virulent plague strikes the fledgling human colony on Niflheim, though, he’s forced to return to his old job. Mickey is pressed into duty as both a first responder and a lab rat, expected to die and be replaced as many times as necessary to find a cure.
Funny thing, though. Despite the best efforts of the colony’s medical team, Mickey seems to be the only person unable to contract the bug. As more and more colonists sicken and die and the colony spirals into panic, Command is forced to contemplate Reset—sterilizing the colony completely to eradicate the plague, then repopulating it with hundreds of stored embryos, to be raised under the watchful eye of a dozen freshly printed copies of Mickey Barnes.
No matter how bad things get, Mickey can’t let that happen. He has a daughter of his own now, and even if he has to die a hundred times in a hundred different ways, he’s determined to find a way to make sure that she survives.
It’s a lot, but after all, Mickey’s already died seven times. After that, how hard could this be?
- GenresScience Fiction
304 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication February 23, 2027
About the author
Edward Ashton
30 books1,682 followersEdward Ashton is the author of the novels Mickey7, Three Days in April and The End of Ordinary. His short fiction has 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, where he writes—mostly fiction, occasionally fact—under the watchful eyes of a giant woodpecker and a rotating cast of barred owls. In his free time, he enjoys cancer research, teaching quantum physics to sullen graduate students, and whittling. You can find him online at edwardashton.com or on Twitter @edashtonwriting.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
4.5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and to St. Martin's Press for the ARC of Mickey Prime by Edward Ashton.
If you thought Mickey has had it rough in the past, Mickey Prime will pull your heart out of your chest and present it back to you.
Three years on from Antimatter Blues, Mickey and Nasha have a toddler, Ada, and Mickey is still caring for the rabbits in addition to the newly decanted embryos the colony is stable enough to support. Everything seems to be going well. But when Speaker and the Creepers again want to interface with Mickey, and when colonists begin to start falling ill from a sickness with no obvious cure, Mickey feels he has no choice but to volunteer himself as an Expendable to try and find a treatment for the illness, and protect the colony and his family. When Mickey doesn't get sick, but more people continue to suffer, Mickey and Nasha search for a solution before the colony is reset.
The brunt of the novel is about the spread of the illness, and it is reminiscent of the worst parts of the pandemic where people had to wonder if they were an asymptomatic carrier/already infected but not showing symptoms, if they were putting their loved ones at risk, if they had to make a choice to help others or help themselves if things became worse and if it meant great personal loss, and if they could trust the people around them.
It is also more a love story than anything, and one where Mickey and Nasha are fighting each other on the best path to stay safe, but also fighting for their daughter, Ada, and for each other.
Having read Antimatter Blues again just last week, I think there is a fairly stark difference between all three books in the series as we see Mickey grow into being 7 as an individual and not seeing himself as one of many. We also see his attitude and his outlook change as it becomes clear year after year of retiring as an Expendable that he can have a life, and a partner, and a baby, and how he tries to handle a new threat to that life with bravery and optimism instead of defeated and forced complacency. And we see so much from Nasha who still just wants to shoot things in the face, but who also wants Mickey to know how valued and real he and their family are to her. Ada is also just adorable and serves as the fulcrum to such high level moral dilemmas that anchor the book's plot.
Of all the books, I think this one leaves a lot of room for reflection; most of us worldwide can relate to the plague, but it also so much is about cause and effect and the failure of good intentions and the selfishness and selflessness of love. It is more insular, and we spend very limited time with the secondary characters from other books. It's less a comedy of errors and death defying oopsies like previous books. And there were times I kept thinking the story was going one way that would have humor or an entertaining solution, and Ashton surprised me at every chapter turn, even though when I finished the book I realized he had perfectly laid it out to take the story where he did.
Thank you to NetGalley and to St. Martin's Press for the ARC of Mickey Prime by Edward Ashton.
If you thought Mickey has had it rough in the past, Mickey Prime will pull your heart out of your chest and present it back to you.
Three years on from Antimatter Blues, Mickey and Nasha have a toddler, Ada, and Mickey is still caring for the rabbits in addition to the newly decanted embryos the colony is stable enough to support. Everything seems to be going well. But when Speaker and the Creepers again want to interface with Mickey, and when colonists begin to start falling ill from a sickness with no obvious cure, Mickey feels he has no choice but to volunteer himself as an Expendable to try and find a treatment for the illness, and protect the colony and his family. When Mickey doesn't get sick, but more people continue to suffer, Mickey and Nasha search for a solution before the colony is reset.
The brunt of the novel is about the spread of the illness, and it is reminiscent of the worst parts of the pandemic where people had to wonder if they were an asymptomatic carrier/already infected but not showing symptoms, if they were putting their loved ones at risk, if they had to make a choice to help others or help themselves if things became worse and if it meant great personal loss, and if they could trust the people around them.
It is also more a love story than anything, and one where Mickey and Nasha are fighting each other on the best path to stay safe, but also fighting for their daughter, Ada, and for each other.
Having read Antimatter Blues again just last week, I think there is a fairly stark difference between all three books in the series as we see Mickey grow into being 7 as an individual and not seeing himself as one of many. We also see his attitude and his outlook change as it becomes clear year after year of retiring as an Expendable that he can have a life, and a partner, and a baby, and how he tries to handle a new threat to that life with bravery and optimism instead of defeated and forced complacency. And we see so much from Nasha who still just wants to shoot things in the face, but who also wants Mickey to know how valued and real he and their family are to her. Ada is also just adorable and serves as the fulcrum to such high level moral dilemmas that anchor the book's plot.
Of all the books, I think this one leaves a lot of room for reflection; most of us worldwide can relate to the plague, but it also so much is about cause and effect and the failure of good intentions and the selfishness and selflessness of love. It is more insular, and we spend very limited time with the secondary characters from other books. It's less a comedy of errors and death defying oopsies like previous books. And there were times I kept thinking the story was going one way that would have humor or an entertaining solution, and Ashton surprised me at every chapter turn, even though when I finished the book I realized he had perfectly laid it out to take the story where he did.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
4,5⭐️
I really enjoyed this book! It was great to read more about our gang on Niflheim. Mickey hasn’t been an expendable in 5 years, he lives happily with Nasha with whom he’s got a daughter, Ada. Speaker, the creeper, asks to see him and things goes downhill from there. A epidemic of a strange illness is sweeping through the colony. Mickey and Nasha, are trying their best to contain the epidemic and protect their daughter. I was happy to read again from the distinctive voice of Mickey. He’s still funny while being realistic about his situation. It still has all the moral dilemmas especially in the case of an epidemic. I’m sure fans of this series won’t be disappointed by this book. The pacing was great and there were many unexpected plot twists. I definitely recommend!
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an arc of this book, opinions are my own.
I really enjoyed this book! It was great to read more about our gang on Niflheim. Mickey hasn’t been an expendable in 5 years, he lives happily with Nasha with whom he’s got a daughter, Ada. Speaker, the creeper, asks to see him and things goes downhill from there. A epidemic of a strange illness is sweeping through the colony. Mickey and Nasha, are trying their best to contain the epidemic and protect their daughter. I was happy to read again from the distinctive voice of Mickey. He’s still funny while being realistic about his situation. It still has all the moral dilemmas especially in the case of an epidemic. I’m sure fans of this series won’t be disappointed by this book. The pacing was great and there were many unexpected plot twists. I definitely recommend!
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an arc of this book, opinions are my own.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews