The story deals with one very unlucky astronaut - Mark Watney - who gets left behind on Mars, when a mission suffers a catastrophic failure. He's got no means of communication, limited supplies, and no way off the red rock. Basically he's f**ked. Well, of course he's not completely f**cked, because he's a very resourceful guy. He's also a very funny guy, so his fight for survival is both educational and entertaining.
It took me a little while to get used to the writing style of The Martian, though. The story is told through diary-like logs from the main character, transcripts of message conversations, ordinary dialogue-driven situations, and third person, God-perspective scenes. Initially the story is told only through the logs, and since I didn't have the text in front of me that was a little weird.
About three quarters through the book I learned that a major Hollywood studio had optioned it for a movie. I don't know how the hell they're going to squeeze this story into a traditional two-hour movie, but it makes perfect sense that they'd try, especially in the light of the all-out love fest Gravity received recently. Although, this story plays out over 1,5 years, not 1,5 hours, they're quite similar in the sense that they're both science-based, inspirational survival stories that deal with one person trying to stay alive off planet.
So that's it. Just a quick recommendation for Book Club April here on The Single-Minded Movie Blog.
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