August and September 2026 Book Clubs

 For August our book club read Enchantment by Orson Scott Card. It was originally supposed to be our book for July, but we ended up having to cancel our book club meeting in July. 

  

Enchantment is the story of a Ukraine-born, American grad student who finds himself transported to the ninth century to play the prince in a Russian version of Sleeping Beauty. Early in the story, he muses that in a French or English retelling of the tale, the prince and princess would live happily ever after. But, "only a fool would want to live through the Russian version of any fairy tale." Although his fears turn out to be warranted, as he and his cursed princess contend with the diabolical witch Baba Yaga--easily Russia's best pre-Khrushchev villain--to save the princess's kingdom.  

 

This was a DNF for me.  I don't have a lot to say about it because I didn't get all that far into it. I just got bored and I didn't care for the way the story was told. This was a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, so I was expecting it to read like a fairy tale but it didn't read like one at all.  I also found the characters to be unlikable. Although I've liked a couple of things I've read by Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow), I think overall I just don't enjoy Orson Scott Card as a storyteller. 

 

 

Since Enchantment got pushed to August Mickey7 by Edward Ashton got pushed to September. I had already read this one so I did not reread it. Here's my review from way back when I read it.

 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Sci-fi
Content: Strong language, an off page threesome

 

Mickey7 is an Expendable: a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Whenever there’s a mission that’s too dangerous—even suicidal—the crew turns to Mickey. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact. After six deaths, Mickey7 understands the terms of his deal…and why it was the only colonial position unfilled when he took it.

On a fairly routine scouting mission, Mickey7 goes missing and is presumed dead. By the time he returns to the colony base, surprisingly helped back by native life, Mickey7’s fate has been sealed. There’s a new clone, Mickey8, reporting for Expendable duties. The idea of duplicate Expendables is universally loathed, and if caught, they will likely be thrown into the recycler for protein.

Mickey7 must keep his double a secret from the rest of the colony. Meanwhile, life on Niflheim is getting worse. The atmosphere is unsuitable for humans, food is in short supply, and terraforming is going poorly. The native species are growing curious about their new neighbors, and that curiosity has Commander Marshall very afraid. Ultimately, the survival of both lifeforms will come down to Mickey7.

That is, if he can just keep from dying for good.

 

When I originally read the description of this book it sounded pretty intriguing. I tend to like the books I've read that involve clones, and I thought it would be interesting to read about Mickey7 and Mickey8 trying to keep the fact that there are two of them a secret. Going into this, the story pulled me in right away and I was expecting it to stay that way, but as the book progressed the story began to get more and more mundane. 

There were so many parts of this story that could have been built out and explored. There is the problem with the alien species they call creepers, there is the problem of cultivating food and sustaining life on the planet, there is the problem of Mickey trying to stay alive through all the dangerous jobs he does, and then the extra Mickey who shouldn't be there. This all boded well for lots of tension and intrigue. Unfortunately the story never really lives up to its potential, because as I said, it goes the route of becoming mundane. 

We end up following Mickey around as he tends to duties on the colony, and interacts with a few other people, who, by the way, are never very well developed. The little tension that exists is over worrying when Mickey will be found out, because you know he will be, since there is no well thought out plan for how they will keep anyone from finding out. It's also funny how this is supposed to be two versions of the same guy, but from the moment I met 8, I disliked him. Maybe that's the way it was supposed to be? We are after all seeing things from 7s point of view. 

The author chose to focus mainly on the question of whether all these clones were really the same person, or not, and whether the original Mickey even still existed. I liked that, but didn't feel like it dug very deep into finding answers to those questions. And while that definitely something that should have been addressed in the book, I wanted more. Just more of everything that I mentioned above. Overall, I didn't dislike this book, I enjoyed it to an extent which is why I'm giving it 3 stars. I was just a little disappointed in it.

Also, if you read the description that compares this book to The Martian and Dark Matter, I have to warn you that this book is nothing like either of those books, so don't go into it with those kind of expectations. In general, I think those sorts of comparisons end up hurting rather than helping a book, because there are certain expectations that have to be met, otherwise disappointment ensues.