Ratings76
Average rating3.6
On space ships going to new planets to colonise, there are certain jobs that are really dangerous. Things like... experimenting to see if the new vaccine for local hazards is working or not, fixing a thing that will expose you to lethal radiation, exploring new places with unknown hazards, etc. Now, you want to send the best and the brightest to colonise, right? Essential people. Plus, you don't have unlimited space, so it's not like there is room for unlimited amounts of disposable red shit cannon fodder. The solution is having this one guy. He isn't special or the brightest, nor is he an expert at anything. He doesn't need to be. His biological data will be copied, his brain regularly downloaded and saved. When shit needs to be done, he does it. He dies. Then we just print a new copy, upload his brain and be done with that shit. We still have him for the next time. Mickey is this guy, but then... what happens when they accidentally make a new one without the old one being dead first? This idea is so cool from so many angles. How do you deal with yourself? Will people see you as still the same person or someone else? How much difference does it make to have a couple days extra experiences compared to an identical copy without those? Yet.... we get a bunch of boring stuff in a short book about the technicalities of eating. Yes. How these two people divide the rations of one person amongst them. And sharing a girlfriend. I mean sure, rationally you know those things would matter, but at the same time, do we really need to hear about Mickey whining about the same thing continuously, meanwhile many actually potentially super interesting aspects get ignored. The tone doesn't help either, it often goes into that UWU funneh Whedon-speech pattern. I read they are making a movie and that makes sense. It will be whacky and current and probably kind of entertaining. (With Robert Pattinson, what?) If you like [a:Andy Weir 6540057 Andy Weir https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1382592903p2/6540057.jpg], you will absolutely love this. I am so-so on him (liked [b:The Martian 18007564 The Martian Andy Weir https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1413706054l/18007564.SY75.jpg 21825181], disliked [b:Project Hail Mary 54493401 Project Hail Mary Andy Weir https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597695864l/54493401.SY75.jpg 79106958]), which puts me in a place where I don't LOVE this, but I was fine with it. I'm definitely reading the next book. Why? Because I want to see more of the world and them possibly exploring the ideas properly. It wasn't a bad book either, just not at its full potential yet. I would recommend it as a quick, fun little thing.