Why we’re excited
Mickey Barnes thought his days as an Expendable were over. Then a plague sweeps the colony on Niflheim, and he is the one person it cannot infect. Pressed back into service as a test subject who can be killed and reprinted, he learns the colony's leaders are weighing a full wipe and restart, which would put his young daughter at risk.
Edward Ashton's Mickey7 became Bong Joon-ho's film Mickey 17, and Antimatter Blues continued the story. This is book three. Fans of grim, dry-humoured science fiction about clones should look out for it, though the first book is the place to start.
On our most-anticipated list since 21 October 2026. See all the most anticipated books →
What to know about Mickey Prime
Mickey Prime is Book 3 in the Mickey7 series. Start with Book 1, Mickey7 Edward Ashton (we have reviewed it). The book just before this one is Antimatter Blues. 1 of the 3 books in the series have a full review here.
There are no reviews of Edward Ashton’s books on The Bookish Elf yet.
From the publisher
Mickey7 (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?
Description supplied by the publisher.
We haven’t read Mickey Prime yet. When our review goes up, it will replace this page.
