Sunshine [Paperback]

Alex Garland (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 2007

The Sun is dying, and mankind is dying with it. Our last hope is a spaceship and a crew of eight men and women. They carry a device which will breathe new life into the star. But, deep into their voyage, out of radio contact with Earth, their mission is starting to unravel. Soon, the crew are fighting not only for their lives, but their sanity.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber; 1st edition (August 21, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 057123397X
• ISBN-13: 978-0571233977
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,034,092 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another solid effort, December 7, 2007

By 

T. Manley (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sunshine (Paperback)

I am a big fan of Alex Garland. I loved 'The Beach' and especially his second book, 'The Tesseract'. After that, he sort of wandered off the reservation a bit with 'The Coma'. Nowadays, he seems more interested in writing screenplays than novels. I guess that's due to his association with director Danny Boyle, who directed the excellent '28 Days Later' and now his new story, 'Sunshine'. As for this screenplay, it's very good but I think I would have enjoyed it more in novel form. He's such a gifted writer, it's a shame he wants to strip his stories down to their essence in screenplay form rather than fleshing them out as a full-fledged novel. I suppose he is thinking more visually these days, and certainly a picture is worth a thousand words... but the beauty of a novel is that it forces the author to paint a picture with only words, and it forces the reader to see that picture using only his imagination. These screenplay stories are good but leave me wanting more. Anyway, if you like this author, by all means check out this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SUNSHINE: THE SCREENPLAY, April 3, 2008

By 

Jack A. Lana (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sunshine (Paperback)

Don't be fooled. When I open the UPS BOX I thought I just bought the movie-tie-in book. But for a shocker, this is the FULL SCREENPLAY of SUNSHINE. Alex's screenplay is so much better then what got into the full version of the film. Like the opening intro it had more to it. Pinbreaker was talking instead of Frank Capa. This is a wonderful piece of literature that should be taken seriously.

This book also contains a couple of pages of storyboards and concept drawings that made it into the film version. I strongly suggest that you also pick up the film, rent it or buy it. Some of you might not like it, others you will love it to its fullest.

"What do you see!"

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Almost there, September 29, 2008

By 

Andrew Hodges "AH" (New Orleans, LA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sunshine (Paperback)

I'm a big fan of Alex Garland. His novels the Tesseract and the Beach rank amongst my favorites. In his screenplay Sunshine, Garland tries his hand at the moody, psychological sci-fi thriller. He is successful at creating the pacing and mood that made such sci-fi greats as 2001: A Space Odyssey a success. At least for the first 2/3 of the screenplay. What begins as an eerie and fascinating pretext becomes hurried and mundane as the action reaches a crescendo. An unimaginative slasher film plot breaks out and interrupts the evocative moodiness that Garland had worked so hard to achieve with the character portraits and the unique plot elements.

I also watched Danny Boyle's film adaptation of Garland's screenplay, and unfortunately Boyle was unable to recreate the mood that Garland created in his written text and which was the primary worthwhile aspect.