I gotta tip my hat to Ridley Scott for the successful adaptation of this novel. Although storytelling is never easy, there are certain tools that can make a particular kind of story easier within a specific medium. The idea of The Martian, which is kind of a lonely Macgyver in space, certainly would be easier in first person prose since readers internalize and interpret the author’s ideas anyway.
But to do that kind of story in film is another thing, especially when that character spends a large amount of time alone … mostly just building stuff. Scott does have to fallback on a quite a few montages, but–in the end–he delivered an awesome adaptation that, on paper, doesn’t seem like it would work that well.
Superheroes in Prose #13: A Fabulous Anarchy, on sale March 1st!
