Mickey7

Last updated
Mickey7
Author Edward Ashton
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Science fiction
Publisher St Martin's Griffin
Publication date
February 15, 2022
Media type Print, e-book
Pages369 pp. (hardcover)
ISBN 9783641280543 (Hardcover)

Mickey7 is a 2022 science fiction book by Edward Ashton. The story follows a space explorer, Mickey Barnes, aka Mickey7, as he is on his seventh cloned iteration, surviving on a beachhead installation on an alien world. A sequel, Antimatter Blues, was released in March 2023. [1]

Contents

A film adaptation directed by Bong Joon-ho is scheduled to be released in 2025. [2]

Synopsis

Mickey7 is an "expendable" space traveler sent on a near-certain-death mission to colonize the ice world Niflheim. When one Mickey dies, another is cloned in his place with most of his memories intact, effectively rendering him immortal.

Creation

Ashton started writing the book in 2015. [3] Ashton wanted to explore teletransportation paradox in a shorter novella, but was urged to write more by Navah Wolfe.

Discussing the background of the novel, Ashton said: "I wrote a short story a number of years ago that explored... a sort of crappy immortality... I liked the idea and wanted to see how that could be expanded if you coupled it with an exploitative social structure." [4]

Reception

NPR included it among its list of the Best Sci-Fi Books of 2022. [5]

Writing for Locus, Gabino Iglesias called the book, a "multilayered, wildly entertaining story" and wrote, Mickey7 has something for everyone while also putting a fresh spin on the idea of clones." [6]

Writing for Transfer Orbit, Andrew Liptak praised it as a "fun sci-fi romp, part Andy Weir's The Martian and John Scalzi's Old Man's War and Sue Burke's Semiosis ." [7]

Writing for New Scientist , Sally Adee, called it "the first novel I have come across that properly explores the philosophy behind (uploaded consciousness)." [8]

It was nominated as one of the Best Science Fiction books of 2022 by Goodreads. [9]

Film adaptation

The book is being adapted into a film directed by Bong Joon-ho and starring Robert Pattinson as Mickey, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Naomi Ackie and Mark Ruffalo. [10]

When asked about the adaptation, Ashton responded that Bong is "going to change a lot about the book." but said he is not nervous and described Bong as a "genius." [3] Filming began in August 2022 and wrapped in December. The film was scheduled to be released theatrically on March 29, 2024, but has been pushed back to January 31, 2025, due to delays related to strike disruption.

Related Research Articles

<i>Memories of Murder</i> 2003 film by Bong Joon-ho

Memories of Murder is a 2003 South Korean neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Bong Joon-ho, from a screenplay by Bong and Shim Sung-bo, and based on the 1996 play Come to See Me by Kim Kwang-rim. It stars Song Kang-ho and Kim Sang-kyung. In the film, detectives Park Doo-man (Song) and Seo Tae-yoon (Kim) lead an investigation into a string of rapes and murders taking place in Hwaseong in the late 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bong Joon-ho</span> South Korean filmmaker (born 1969)

Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean film director, producer and screenwriter. The recipient of three Academy Awards, his filmography is characterised by emphasis on social and class themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shin Hyun-joon (actor)</span> South Korean actor

Shin Hyun-joon is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his roles in Barefoot Ki-bong, Stairway to Heaven and the Marrying the Mafia sequels, and as the photographer in the popular music video "Because I'm A Girl" by KISS. In the Korean press he is nicknamed as 아랍왕자 due to his foreign look and long eyelashes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plan B Entertainment</span> American film production company

Plan B Entertainment, Inc., more commonly known as Plan B, is an American production company founded in November in 2001 by Brad Pitt, Brad Grey, Kristin Hahn and Jennifer Aniston. The company first signed with Warner Bros. as a replacement for Brad Grey Pictures, a company operated by Brad Grey. In 2005, after Pitt and Aniston divorced, Grey became the CEO of Paramount Pictures and Pitt became the sole owner of the company. The president of the company was for many years Dede Gardner, but she and Pitt named Jeremy Kleiner co-president with Gardner in 2013. Three of the production company's movies, The Departed, 12 Years a Slave and Moonlight, have won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Pattinson</span> English actor (born 1986)

Robert Douglas Thomas Pattinson is an English actor. Known for starring in both big-budget and independent films, Pattinson has ranked among the world's highest-paid actors. In 2010, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and he was featured in the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. He has been nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards for his performances in Good Time (2017) and The Lighthouse (2019).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Yeun</span> American actor (born 1983)

Yeun Sang-yeop, known professionally as Steven Yeun, is an American actor. Yeun initially rose to prominence for playing Glenn Rhee in the television series The Walking Dead (2010–2016). He earned critical acclaim for starring in the thriller Burning (2018) and drama Minari (2020). The latter earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor, becoming the first Asian American actor to do so. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2021. In 2023, he starred in the dark comedy series Beef (2023), for which he won two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.

<i>Snowpiercer</i> 2013 film directed by Bong Joon-ho

Snowpiercer is a 2013 post-apocalyptic science fiction action film based on the French climate fiction graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette. The film was directed by Bong Joon-ho and written by Bong and Kelly Masterson. A South Korean-Czech co-production, the film marks Bong's English-language debut; almost 85% of the film's dialogue is in English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yim Pil-sung</span> South Korean film director

Yim Pil-sung is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. He wrote and directed Antarctic Journal (2005), Hansel and Gretel (2007), and Scarlet Innocence (2014).

<i>Parasite</i> (2019 film) 2019 film by Bong Joon-ho

Parasite is a 2019 South Korean black comedy thriller film directed by Bong Joon-ho, who co-wrote the screenplay with Han Jin-won and co-produced. The film, starring Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Jang Hye-jin, Park Myung-hoon, and Lee Jung-eun, follows a poor family who infiltrate the life of a wealthy family.

Naomi Sarah Ackie is an English actress. She made her television debut as Jen in the Doctor Who episode "Face the Raven" (2015). For her role as Bonnie on the television dark comedy-drama series The End of the F***ing World, she received the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2020. Ackie is well known for her role as Jannah in the film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). In 2021, she had a main role on the third season of Master of None. In 2022, she garnered critical acclaim for her portrayal of American pop icon, singer Whitney Houston in the biopic Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, earning a Rising Star nomination at the British Academy Film Awards.

NEON Rated, LLC, doing business as NEON, is an American independent film production and distribution company founded in 2017 by CEO Tom Quinn and Tim League, who also was the co-founder of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain. Its first film, Colossal, was released on April 7, 2017. The company is best known for distributing such notable films as I, Tonya (2017), Three Identical Strangers (2018), Apollo 11 (2019), Parasite (2019), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), Palm Springs (2020), Possessor (2020), She Dies Tomorrow (2020), Spencer (2021), The Worst Person in the World (2021), All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022), Triangle of Sadness (2022), Anatomy of a Fall (2023), and Ferrari (2023). Parasite is Neon's highest-grossing film at the worldwide box office with more than $200 million and became the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. As of 2019, League is no longer involved with daily operations for the company.

<i>Foe</i> (Reid novel) 2018 novel by Iain Reid

Foe is the second novel by Canadian writer Iain Reid. It was released in August 2018 in the United States by Simon & Schuster. The book has been described as a psychological thriller and horror fiction against a science fiction backdrop. Reid referred to it as a "philosophical suspense story". Foe is set in the near future and is about a married couple living on a remote farm whose lives are thrown in turmoil when a stranger arrives.

Mattson Tomlin is a filmmaker and writer.

Mickey 17 is an upcoming American science fiction film written, directed, and coproduced by Bong Joon-ho based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton. The film stars Robert Pattinson, Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo. It is set to be theatrically released by Warner Bros. Pictures on January 31, 2025.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bong Joon-ho filmography</span>

Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean film director, producer, and screenwriter who began his career in 1994 after creating the short films White Man, Memories in My Frame, and Incoherence. In 1997, Bong wrote the feature film Motel Cactus, for which he also served as an assistant director. Two years later, he wrote Phantom: The Submarine, and later made his feature-length directorial debut with Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000). In the following years, Bong wrote and directed Memories of Murder (2003), The Host (2006), Mother (2009), and Snowpiercer (2013), films which received "universal acclaim" from critics.

<i>Remote Control</i> (novella) Novella by Nnedi Okorafor

Remote Control is a 2021 science fiction novella by Nigerian American Nnedi Okorafor. It is Okorafor's first novella after the Binti Trilogy and is set in the same universe as Okorafor's Who Fears Death and The Book of Phoenix.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharon Choi</span> Korean-American interpreter and filmmaker

Sharon Choi is a South Korean interpreter and film director. She came to prominence as director Bong Joon-ho's Korean–English interpreter during the 2019–2020 film awards season, which saw Bong's film Parasite winning the Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Picture. During both ceremonies and others, Choi assisted Bong and other Parasite cast and crew members, such as actor Song Kang-ho, in delivering award acceptance speeches. During such appearances, Choi's interpreting skills garnered significant media attention and praise.

<i>Snowpiercer</i> (soundtrack) 2013 film score by Marco Beltrami

Snowpiercer: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the album consisting of the original score composed by Marco Beltrami, for the Bong Joon-ho directorial Snowpiercer (2013). The album was published by CJ E&M Music, and released in South Korea on 21 August 2013, followed by an international release on 9 September. The soundtrack for the North American release, was distributed by Varèse Sarabande, and saw an official release on 11 June 2014.

Sam Hughes, known online as qntm, is a British programmer and science fiction author. On his personal website, Hughes posts short stories such as "Lena" (2022), about the first digital snapshot of a human brain, and serial novels such as Ra and Fine Structure. He has also written for the SCP Wiki, and his book There Is No Antimemetics Division (2021) is derived from that fictional universe. He contributed to SCP-055 alongside user CptBellman.

Dead Silence is a 2022 science fiction horror novel by American author Stacey Kade, writing under the pen name of S.A. Barnes.

References

  1. ↑ Eddy, Cheryl (14 March 2023). "An 'Expendable' Faces Major Danger in Mickey7 Sequel Antimatter Blues". Gizmodo. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
  2. ↑ Allen, Ben (18 May 2022). "The teaser for Bong Joon-ho's Mickey 17, starring space age Robert Pattinson, has landed". GQ Magazine. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  3. 1 2 Knight, Rosie. "MICKEY7 AUTHOR TALKS WORLD BUILDING, IMMORTALITY, AND BONG JOON-HO". Nerdist. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  4. ↑ Spry, Jeff (10 March 2022). "Edward Ashton discusses his new sci-fi novel headed for Hollywood, 'Mickey7' (exclusive)". Space. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  5. ↑ "Books We Love : 2022". NPR. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  6. ↑ Iglesias, Gabino (16 April 2022). "Gabino Iglesias Reviews Mickey7 by Edward Ashton". Locus Magazine. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  7. ↑ Liptak, Andrew (17 August 2022). "The pasts we bury". Transfer Orbit. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  8. ↑ Adee, Sally. "Mickey7 review: If you want to live forever, read the small print". New Scientist. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  9. ↑ "Best Science Fiction 2022". Goodreads. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  10. ↑ King, Jack (17 October 2023). "The most anticipated movies of 2024". GQ Magazine. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.