Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27

Acknowledgements

From Mickey 1 to Mickey 7, endless death and rebirth, and the 'Ship of Theseus'

'The Ship of Theseus' is the core question of Mickey, who has accepted death as an expendable item several times in 'Mickey 7'.
This concept embodies the paradox that if those who wish to preserve the Ship of Theseus continually replace the parts that have rotted or fallen off over time with new ones, at some point there will be no original parts left, and if so, can it still be called the Ship of Theseus?
Mickey, too, is constantly dying and being reborn as a clone, but he is constantly plagued by contradictory questions about whether his previous dead self and his current self are the same person, and whether Mickey 8, who survived alongside him, is the same person.
Others believe that his regeneration is continuous and even immortal, but Mickey8, who is a regeneration identical to himself, has completely different thoughts and judgments, and his feelings toward his six deceased predecessors are no different.
Author Edward Ashton has revealed in several interviews that he always had doubts about whether a person transported through a transmitter (a machine that sends or brings crew members to a destination) from the popular 1970s TV series "Star Trek" was really the same person before the transmission. Through "Mickey 7," he tries to convey to readers in an interesting way the identity of essence, a topic that has been dealt with in many science fiction novels for a long time.

“Death is not the end.
“It hurts, though.”
“If you were to create a perfect replica of yourself—your memories, your loves and hates, your hopes and dreams, and even your physical body—would that person really be you?” - Edward Ashton (from an interview with Nerd Daily)

A story of space exploration based on human history

Mickey has a job as a 'historian' in the work.
However, in Midgard, where he lived, being a historian was a despised profession that paid little, so he quickly fell into debt and was eventually forced to apply to the pioneering group as a consumable.
In an interview with an online media outlet, the author explained that the reason the protagonist's occupation was made historian was to help people understand the protagonist Mickey's occupation as "Expendable" by conveying the numerous historical experiences that humanity has gone through while exploring space in an interesting way through the narrator in the first-person perspective of "Mickey 7."
Thanks to Mickey's job as a historian, the story recounts various stories of space exploration, including a crazy capitalist who raised an army of his own clones to occupy a pioneer planet, a pioneer group that met a terrible end due to a native virus on the pioneer planet, space refugees who left a planet in shambles due to civil war and came to another planet, an explorer who committed suicide in space after failing to reach their desired planet due to a miscalculation of their route, and a story about a probe that ended up turning to cannibalism due to its failure to cultivate.
This is a science fiction element of space exploration added to the historical records of mankind, and through this, the author aims to convey to the readers in detail the worldview of the play, where the extreme occupation called 'Expendable' exists, by revealing the appearance of pioneers struggling with a lack of resources and the harsh pioneering environment.

Director Bong Joon-ho's highly anticipated film is garnering attention overseas.

Overseas media and reviews of "Mickey 7" focus more on the fact that director Bong Joon-ho directed the film.
Although the world of "Mickey 7" has been described in various media outlets as a future space society, it is actually likened to the industrialization of the 19th century, when mechanization of labor, the efficiency of mass production, productivity, and machines embraced future values. Furthermore, the protagonist, the cloned human Mickey, is portrayed as a member of the lower-class workers of the industrial era who were treated as expendable commodities. This is why some analysts say that director Bong Joon-ho, who has successfully portrayed the dehumanization and class contradictions inherent in capitalism, is the perfect director for this film adaptation. Tor.com, an online media outlet specializing in science fiction and fantasy, expressed expectations that "Mickey 7" would be even more fun and scary than originally intended, and would be a familiar yet dark story. Meanwhile, "The Film Stage" reported that the film, with its compelling premise, social critique, dark humor, and startling horror, is the perfect fit for director Bong Joon-ho of "Parasite" to adapt.


Edward Ashton, the author of "Mickey 7," also said in interviews with various media outlets that he has already seen all of director Bong Joon-ho's works, and expressed his expectations that he is a genius and that "Mickey 7" will also be completed as a great film.
Director Bong Joon-ho will begin filming the film this August with the support of producer Brad Pitt and Warner Bros., along with popular Hollywood actors Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Tilda Swinton, and Naomi Ackie, as well as cinematographer Darius Khondji and production designer Fiona Crombie.
The film is scheduled to be released in late 2023 or early 2024.

▶ Explanation of key characters and terms to help understand the work

Mickey: Robert Pattinson

His full name is Mickey Barnes.
A 31-year-old historian working in Midgard.
But being an amateur historian is not a useful profession on this planet, so when his best friend Berto returns to the Fogball tournament he used to excel at after nine years, he outwardly cheers him on while secretly betting his entire fortune on his loss, which puts him in deep debt.
Eventually, unable to withstand the torture of the loan sharks who visit every day, he decides to leave the planet.
He tells Berto about his situation and asks him to recommend him to the Draka, the first pioneer group in Midgard that Berto left, but despite Berto's efforts, there is no way to enter Draka, which only accepts the elite upper class.
He succeeds in escaping from the planet Midgard by enlisting in the Expendables, which only supports criminals, but is later properly targeted by Commander Marshall, a Natalist.
Even though he sacrifices himself to save the pioneers from several crises during his journey to the pioneering area that lasts nine years and upon arriving at the pioneering area of ​​Niflheim, he is still looked down upon and marginalized by the pioneers.

Berto

He is a handsome, talented, tall genius who has been close with Mickey since they were students.
He is a genius because he becomes the best at anything he does, and he always seems to take care of Mickey, but he is suspected of lying to Mickey whenever he, the Expendable, dies during a mission, instead of properly reporting his death to him, and instead lying about it to his own advantage.
The events of this work also occurred because Berto did not save Mickey, calling him Expendable.
Currently, he is the only pilot in the Pioneer Corps along with Nasha, and it is speculated that Steven Yeun will play this role in the movie.


Nasha

Mickey's girlfriend and the Pioneer Pilot.
He became a lover with Mickey while coming to the pioneer group, and he is a character who always cherishes and loves Mickey.
Because he was born to refugees who fled to Midgard, he has no affection for Midgard and considers Niflheim his hometown, where he intends to be with Mickey.

Marshall

As the commander of the Natalist Pioneer Corps, he views Mickey as a thorn in his side.
If necessary, he would like to kill Mickey and never bring him back to life.
I don't think of Mickey as a consumable, but rather as a person.
He acts as a virtual villain throughout the entire work, reducing even Mickey's small rations and constantly drafting him into dangerous work. When he returns alive, he scolds him for living, and even orders Mickey to take an anti-matter weapon like a nuclear bomb and blow himself up in order to exterminate the Creeper, a native life form.

Cat

A female security guard who I met during the main story.
After going on a mission with Mickey and saving his life thanks to Mickey, he becomes kind to Mickey.
Besides my personal affection for Mickey, I am also interested in Mickey, who is constantly being reborn as a clone and is considered 'immortal'.

Gemma
A mysterious woman who first trained and taught Mickey about the Expendables' missions and related work.
Author Edward Ashton has said in a separate interview that he has a particular affection for Gemma.

The Expendables

It refers to expendable human resources, and they must take on the dirty work of the pioneering group.
If you die from a radiation leak, virus, or any other accident, you can revive yourself by injecting your previously uploaded memories into a cloned body.
The people of the Union (the planetary federation that is the origin of humanity) were basically against the Expendables, because in the past, they were able to freely print bodies using bioprinting, but it was impossible to put their minds into bodies.
However, Manicova, the genius son of a huge conglomerate, made this possible with his own money, but he closed down all his businesses and left his mother's home with the money to arrive at the pioneering land of Gault.
And he uses all his latest science and wealth to win the favor of the pioneers of Gault, but soon he kidnaps them one by one, kills them, and recycles them to create clones of himself.
The Union was in crisis after occupying the planet Gold in this way, and a punitive expedition was formed to eradicate him from the home planet, but it was annihilated by Manicova, who was already waiting.
Fortunately, Manicova's plot was foiled by a "bullet operation" on one of the other poor pioneer planets, but this left the Union with a deep-seated aversion to clones.

pioneer/pioneer group

Once you identify a pioneer planet through the diaspora, you form a pioneer group there.
The pioneer group is composed of the social elite.
However, going to the colony itself is a one-way trip, and in some cases, a wrong prediction can lead to the colony being wiped out from the universe, so it is a kind of life-threatening act.
The colonists take embryos that will be born as citizens of the colony onto a spaceship, and then colonize the planet and settle the embryos there.
In the novel, the dangers of the pioneers are constantly revealed. On one planet, all the pioneers die due to resistance from native life forms, and eventually, only the Expendables are regenerated infinitely, leading to the pioneers' tragic end. However, after several years of journeying to the destination planet, some of the pioneers commit suicide due to a mistake in location, some resort to cannibalism due to lack of food during the journey, and a war breaks out between the pioneers and the immigrants born from embryos on the pioneered planet. All of this is explained in the novel through the mouth of Mickey, the historian.

Natalist

A religion that believes that each body has only one soul.
That's why I don't consider the Expendables, who are resurrected as bioprinted clones, to be human.
The commander in the story, Marshall, is a natalist.

Diaspora

In the past, it meant expanding the power of the species to various places, leaving the paper region, and in this work, it means that the species has spread into space by continuing to pioneer through the diaspora of mankind.