A review by juksu
Mickey7 by Edward Ashton

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Figuring out the "twist" in the first 30 pages wasn't a bad thing, since Mickey7 has a lot of other stuff going on both in the present and in flashbacks. On the other hand, I feel like there was so much other neat worldbuilding and potential conflict that we could've explored more, like
the Natalist movement or the wider impacts of resource scarcity
.

Instead, we got Mickey8 spending what felt like 50 pages asleep or hungry interspersed with commentary on profound topics like genocide, cloning, and identity... but because Mickey is just a guy, his ideas didn't break any new ground for me. I heard Mickey compared to The Martian's Mark Watney, which is true except that Mickey is marginally more likeable while Mark is more interesting to read for a puzzler like me. Otherwise, they're definitely both guys who put "I love sarcasm and dark humor" in their Tinder bios...

On top of Mickey's narration leaning cringy/tryhard more often than not, the pacing of this book wasn't very consistent. Felt like the resolution blew in out of nowhere, to say nothing of
Marshall just... changing his mind overnight? It just felt jarring.
The premise was so good, but this is one of those books that feels like it would've been more compelling if it had a different point of view. It's not strictly bad—quick, light read with a few "ohh" moments and even a couple actually good jokes. But if you're looking for more of the hard science or psychological drama of The Martian, this may miss the mark.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings