This book is so good that the movie was confirmed before the book was even published. Mickey 17 hit the cinemas on March 7 in the UK but many don’t know that it’s actually based on the book with a slightly different name – Mickey7 by Edward Ashton.
The book was officially published in February 2022 but director Bong Joon-ho had already completed the screenplay for the movie in September 2021 based on an early draft of the novel. Mickey7 is a science fiction novel in which a clone reassesses his purpose and humanity. The story follows the main character, Mickey Barnes who has been cloned to complete dangerous work on space exploration missions.
For nine years, he has been deployed for hazardous assignments and subjected to experiments that test the limits of human endurance, his humanity sacrificed for the greater good. Each time his clone dies, a new one is sent.
While on a far away planet, Mickey7 meets its native species, thought to be incapable of feeling or understanding.
When he returns to base, he discovers that his new clone has arrived, Mickey8, but if anyone figures out they are both there, they will be executed. But this isn’t the only secret Mickey7 is hiding.
On Goodreads, the novel is currently rated at 3.78 stars out of five and it received a nomination from the site for Readers’ Favorite Science Fiction (2022).
One reader said: “Brilliant. I couldn’t sleep until I finished it.”
Another penned: “I had the worst book hangover after reading this. It’s one of those books I wish I could forget, just so I can read it again for the first time. In fact, I may go read it again now, just because. Excellent.”
In the new film adaptation, Mickey7 is played by Robert Pattinson.
Director Joon-ho told POC Culture how the film differs from the book, he said: “The concept of human printing is so fascinating from the novel, but I wanted to pull it down to Earth and make it more every day and more direct to our everyday life.”
He said the novel deals with this element in a philosophical way but that he wanted the film to feel closer to reality.
The director added: “At the centre of that attempt is the character of Mickey. In the novel, he’s sort of this historian, intellectual, but I wanted to make him more working class, a bit dumber, a bit more adorable, more unfortunate, nice, and also just too nice for his own good.”