This book was so much fun.  Space travel takes time, and for most it is a one-way trip.  Mickey just needed off his planet, and the only way to get out of trouble was taking a job as the expendable on a one-way trip to terraform a new planet.  His job is to die.  His conscience and everything that makes Mickey Mickey, is uploaded, preferably frequently, and when the crew need someone to do something dangerous, or something that will surely cause death, that is Mickey’s job.  

 

We start this book with Mickey out on exploration.  He is exploring a set of caves when he falls, and his friend/crew mate, says he’s not performing a rescue, and that Mickey can just pop the hatch and they will print a new one.  This is Mickey’s job.  He knows it, but he has this thing about purposefully killing himself.  He can’t do it.  With a little help of a giant fuzzy caterpillar, Mickey makes it back to base by morning, with minimal injuries.  The only problem, when he makes it all the way to his bunk, and finds out Mickey 8 is in his bed, freshly regenerated.  And while they are both the same person, they are both alive, and both hope to stay that way. 

This book is both a look at the complications of technology like this, as well as the ethical and religious beliefs in this practice (it’s not preachy).  But it is done with the whit and wisdom one would find in the Murderbot books.  This book is funny, heart tugging, and will keep readers at the end of their seats at times.  It is well thought out, flows at just the right pace and make you keep turning the page.  This is a duology, but one could just read this book and be just fine.  It has an ending, that works well, and will satisfy readers.