I really liked this book on Audible as well and agree with everything the OP said. A film of it should work well, assuming the author keeps control of the script so the producers can't ruin it. If the film of "The Martian" is anything to go by, it should be great.
Another sci-fi book I have just listened to on Audible is Anathem by Neal Stephenson. While I enjoyed the story and the narration was good I'd recommend getting the paperback for this one due to the style in which it is written. There are lots of little explanatory notes between the chapters which I'd have liked to have been able to refer back to easily. This made the early chapters a little confusing and hard to get into. It is a very long book and it takes a while for the story to get going but once it does it is well worth the wait.