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Mickey7
368 pages
A darkly funny, fast-paced exploration of identity and survival told by a man who is incredibly tired of dying.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like sitting in a cramped, freezing breakroom with a deeply cynical but incredibly likable coworker who is explaining the worst job in the universe. The narrative moves at a brisk, highly conversational clip, propelled by a steady stream of gallows humor and existential dread. Despite the bleak, claustrophobic atmosphere of an ice-planet colony and the heavy philosophical questions about what makes a person truly human, the experience is surprisingly buoyant and fun. The prose is punchy and accessible, stripping the pretension out of hard sci-fi and replacing it with scrappy, relatable pragmatism. It is a perfect fit for anyone who delights in the wry, survivalist energy of The Martian or the exhausted, anti-corporate charm of Murderbot, offering a thrilling but thoughtful ride through the absurdities of being entirely disposable.
- Mood
- claustrophobic
- absurd
- tense
- bleakly humorous
- Tone
- wry
- darkly comedic
- conversational
- cynical
- pragmatic
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- the nature of identity · corporate exploitation · existential exhaustion · the absurdity of survival · value of a disposable life
- The writing
- The prose is punchy, highly conversational, and laced with gallows humor, reading like the audio diary of a deeply stressed but resilient everyman.
- The arc
- The protagonist moves from a state of cynical resignation regarding his own disposability to a frantic, scrappy determination to finally stay alive.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love their hard sci-fi grounded by relatable, sarcastic protagonists and philosophical questions wrapped in fast-paced survival thrillers.
Content notes
- frequent character death
- existential dread
- claustrophobia
- mild body horror
About the book
Dying isn't any fun...but at least it's a living. Mickey7 is an a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Whenever there's a mission that's too dangerous-even suicidal- the crew turns to Mickey. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact. Mickey signed on to escape from both bad debts and boredom on Midgard. After six deaths, Mickey7 understands the terms of his deal...and why it was the only colonial position unfilled when he took it. When he goes missing and is presumed dead at the hands of deadly indigenous creatures, Mickey8 reports for duty, and their troubles really begin.
Description from Open Library.
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