Antimatter Blues: A Mickey7 Novel

by Edward Ashton

Overview

Edward Ashton's Antimatter Blues is the thrilling follow up to Mickey7 in which an expendable heads out to explore new terrain for human habitation.

Summer has come to Niflheim. The lichens are growing, the six-winged bat-things are chirping, and much to his own surprise, Mickey Barnes is still alive—that last part thanks almost entirely to the fact that Commander Marshall believes that the colony’s creeper neighbors are holding an antimatter bomb, and that Mickey is the only one who’s keeping them from using it. Mickey’s just another colonist now. Instead of cleaning out the reactor core, he spends his time these days cleaning out the rabbit hutches. It’s not a bad life.

It’s not going to last.

It may be sunny now, but winter is coming. The antimatter that fuels the colony is running low, and Marshall wants his bomb back. If Mickey agrees to retrieve it, he’ll be giving up the only thing that’s kept his head off of the chopping block. If he refuses, he might doom the entire colony. Meanwhile, the creepers have their own worries, and they’re not going to surrender the bomb without getting something in return. Once again, Mickey finds the fate of two species resting in his hands. If something goes wrong this time, though, he won’t be coming back.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250275066
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/14/2023
Series:	Mickey7 , #2
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	47,682
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Edward Ashton is the author of the novels Three Days in April, The End of Ordinary, and Mickey7, as well as of short stories which have appeared in venues ranging from the newsletter of an Italian sausage company to Escape Pod, Analog, and Fireside Fiction. He lives in upstate New York in a cabin in the woods (not that cabin in the woods) with his wife, a variable number of daughters, and an adorably mopey dog named Max.
Edward Ashton (he/him) is the author of the novels Three Days in April, The End of Ordinary, and Mickey7, as well as of short stories which have appeared in venues ranging from the newsletter of an Italian sausage company to Escape Pod, Analog, and Fireside Fiction. He lives in upstate New York in a cabin in the woods (not that cabin in the woods) with his wife, a variable number of daughters, and an adorably mopey dog named Max. In his free time, he enjoys cancer research, teaching quantum physics to sullen graduate students, and whittling.

Editorial Reviews

12/19/2022

In the 1,000 years since humanity dispersed into Ashton’s vibrant vision of far-future space, none of the limited contact between humans and aliens has ended well, but now retired expendable Mickey must cozy up to the Nifleim colony’s native “creepers” to retrieve an antimatter bomb that was lost in the previous novel, Mickey7. As an Expendable, Mickey’s died and come back six times already, but now he feels his life is precious. He’s got Nasha, a feisty recon pilot, to snuggle with; a job cleaning the hungry colony’s rabbit hutches; and a daredevil friend, Berto, he doesn’t want to lose. Still, when duty calls via vengeful colony commander Marshall, he’s off on a series of free-wheeling adventures among two sets of warring creepers to get that bomb back. If he fails, there’ll be no coming back this time. Ashton’s breezy characters, especially a few alien creepers able to communicate with the humans, delight, and the grungy details of colony life are rendered as realistically as Mickey’s hunger pangs. It’s good fun with a surprisingly effective closing twist that sci-fi fans will savor. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Ashton’s breezy characters, especially a few alien creepers able to communicate with the humans, delight, and the grungy details of colony life are rendered as realistically as Mickey’s hunger pangs. It’s good fun with a surprisingly effective closing twist that sci-fi fans will savor." —Publishers Weekly

"Ashton’s follow-up to his excellent Mickey7 (2022) is just as much fun as its predecessor." —Booklist

"A nonstop SF adventure from beginning to end." —Library Journal, starred

From the Publisher

★ 01/01/2023

Mickey Barnes, once the colony's Expendable Mickey7, retired from service on a lie. Now that the beleaguered colony is running out of fuel, he's stuck making that lie good, only to discover that the antimatter bomb he carefully hid under a rock pile was found by the native inhabitants and traded to their enemies—in the hopes said enemies would either leave them alone or blow themselves up. Which puts Mickey back in the expendable seat, leading a band of equally misfit crew members on a trek to either find the power source, start a war, or tell another really, really big lie. Or possibly all of the above. Readers who enjoy the nitty-gritty view of space colonization of John Scalzi or Michael Mammay will love this every bit as much as Mickey7. Through Mickey's own eyes, readers experience just how hard the knife edge between success and failure is, as he and his crew set out on a deadly adventure with a very questionable ally to save somebody's day. Possibly their own. VERDICT A nonstop SF adventure from beginning to end.—Marlene Harris

Library Journal