I like post-apocalyptic stories. Pandemics, zombies, empty cities, survival — all of it. So when I saw that a new major movie was coming and that it was a book first, naturally, I was interested. It worked with The Martian and Project Hail Mary, so maybe I would get lucky again, I thought. Not this time.
As a novel, it’s not the best. The protagonist is a nice person in a cruel world, in a constant loop of nostalgia for a world that is no more. Not traumatized, I would say, just sad. Doesn’t do much, doesn’t want much. Boring. The two other male characters are caricatures of the warriors you could see in 80s–90s action movies. Rambo and such. But somehow they miss the basic knowledge they would get in any infantry school of a modern army.
I’m pretty sure the movie will be different from the book, probably better. But I’m really curious who would read this and think ‘we need to buy it and make a movie’. The idea is not original, the writing is not good, and the story is also nothing special.