Micky7

So a while back I made a post on pillowfort asking for hard sci-fi recs that had a focus on characterization. One of the recs was for the novel Mickey7, which I've recently finished. Here's a spoiler-free review.

This novel not only fulfilled all the specifications I set out, but it was fast-paced and suspenseful enough for my capricious attention-span. There's also some great world-building, from both a technological and sociological standpoint. The latter is something that I feel many scifi stories are pretty weak on, especially hard sci-fi. The main character is a historian (a hobby, apparently his society doesn't have historians anymore, largely due to anyone being able to look up any historical knowledge they could want to know at any time).

There are some extended infodumps to fill out the worldbuilding, but they're all plot-relevant and actually pretty interesting stories in their own right, since you get to learn a bit about the history of this spacefaring society called the Union.

He's also an Expendable, which is a person whose physical and mental patterns are all uploaded so they can produce a perfect replica of him after they have him do whatever fatal mission-critical task they need to have done that can't be automated (the reasons for which are explained in the story).

The story starts when Mickey7 has fallen down a hole on the ice world of Niflheim. Theoretically this is no big deal, right? He's technically immortal, after all.

Practically, though, Mickey doesn't really like dying. He should know, too, since he's the only person on the Drakkar crew that remembers it happening to him. More than once, actually.

I enjoy that a major antagonist of the story, the colony commander, is someone who has personality traits and motivations rather than just existing as an obstacle to be brought out as needed for the plot. I really enjoy antagonistic relationships.

Though the friendships and romantic relationship in the story are also complex. I really enjoy the social dynamics between the characters. Mickey also has a certain amount of antagonism for his best friend Berto, both for reasons that become clear early in the story  and for reasons that are implied later on.

Mickey7 is a fast-paced, fun, frightening, and thoughtful look at the intersection of technology and society.