1963; 249 pages. New Author? : Yes. Translator: Xan Fielding. Genres : Dystopian Sci-Fi; Movie Tie-In; Time
Travel. Overall Rating : 8½*/10.
It’s 2500 CE, and the universe beckons!
Earthlings have figured out
how to build spaceships that can travel at close-to-the-speed-of-light
velocity, and the first trans-galactic flight in underway. The destination is
the giant star Betelgeuse, where hopefully we’ll find orbiting planets. Maybe we'll even find life.
Since the ship’s speed is
still less than that of light, it will take them more than a year to get
there. Meanwhile several hundred years
will have elapsed back on Earth. Once the
ship arrives at Betelgeuse, it will come to a stop, and the astronauts' time rate will
return to normal. They’ll scout whatever planet they find, then speed back to
almost light-speed, spending another year (their time) getting back to Earth.
If they encounter sentient
extraterrestrials, I wonder what they’ll look like. Little green men with great big eyes? Jello-like blobs of goo? Bipedal humanoids resembling us Earthlings.?
Guess again, guys
What’s To Like...
Planet of the Apes is a 1963 standalone novel
originally written by the French author Pierre Boulle.
In 1968 it was adapted into a critically acclaimed and immensely popular movie starring
Charlton Heston. The overall story
concept is the same for both, although the plot thread details differ quite a bit.
The story opens, and closes, with a third-person POV account of a couple out sailing in space who come
across a floating bottle containing a sheaf of papers. That turns out to be the journal of one of
the astronauts that made the trip to Betelgeuse, and so is written in the
first-person POV. It makes up the middle 34 chapters in the book.
Given the book and movie’s
title, it is no spoiler to reveal that humans and apes swap places as the
dominant sentient species. Pierre Boulle
uses this to demonstrate just how savage the top species can treat other
animals. For example, he examines
topics like hunting and killing animals for sport; laboratory testing on
animals; and whether a sub-species can actually “create” original thoughts
rather than merely mimic the actions of the dominant species.
Three types of apes have
evolved on the planet orbiting Betelgeuse: brutish gorillas, science-oriented
orangutans, and innovative chimpanzees. They
have achieved a tenuous coexistence, albeit rivalries remain. See the second excerpt below for an example
of this. But all apes agree that their
evolutionary dominance of humans is a natural and logical outcome. After all, apes are blessed with four
functional appendages; those savage humans have only two.
The ending is both horrifying
and hopeful, and leaves open the possibility of a sequel. Both the movie and the book contain a
startling plot twist to close things out, although they are substantially
different. AFAIK, Pierre Boulle never
penned any more books in this setting, but there are more than a dozen movie and
television spinoffs of the 1968 film, many of which were later adapted into print version.
Ratings…
Amazon:
4.5/5
based on 1,994 ratings and 418 reviews.
Goodreads: 3.99/5 based on 48,554
ratings and 3,379 reviews.
Kewlest New Word ...
Cynosure (n.): a person or thing that is the
center of attention or admiration.
Excerpts...
It was a classical hunting scene. Here again the apes worked methodically. They placed the bleeding bodies on their
backs, side by side, in a long row as though along a chalk line. Then, while the she-apes uttered little cries
of admiration, they applied themselves to making the game attractive. They stretched the arms down along the sides
of the bodies and opened the hands with the palms facing upward. They straightened the legs, arranging the
joints so as to give each body a less corpselike appearance, corrected a
clumsily twisted limb, and reduced the contraction of the neck. Then they carefully smoothed down the hair,
particularly the women’s, as some hunters smooth down the coat or feathers of
an animal they have just shot. (pg. 63)
“There are three distinct families, as you
have noticed, each of which has its own characteristics: chimpanzees, gorillas,
and orangutans. The racial barriers that
used to exist have been abolished and the disputes arising from them have been
settled, thanks mainly to the campaigns launched by the chimpanzees. Today, in principle, there is no difference
at all between us.”
“But most of the great discoveries,” I
persisted, “were made by the chimpanzees.”
“That is true.”
“What about the gorillas?”
“They are meat eaters,” she said
scornfully. (pg. 117)
Kindle Details…
Planet
of the Apes is currently priced at $5.99 at Amazon. I only see one other English translation of a
Pierre Boulle novel available in e-book format: a dystopian tale titled Desperate Games.
It sells for $9.99 and is 191 pages long.
What is it that
characterizes a civilization? Is it the
exceptional genius? No, it is everyday
life. (pg. 192)
There is no profanity in Planet of the Apes, although that’s the norm for
1960s science-fiction novels. There’s a
bunch of nudity, but hey, that’s to be expected of herds of savage
beasts. At one point laboratory sex
tests are run on captive humans. None of
this was lewd.
I didn’t spot any typos in the
book, and I didn’t feel like anything was lost in translation. As mentioned, the book version differs from
the movie version, but that just means you have two ways of enjoying the introduction to this scenario. The movie
contains more action scenes; the book relies more on thoughts and dialogue to
make its points. Both are effective,
and I’ve enjoyed both.
8½ Stars. One last thing. Pierre Boulle authored about three dozen books in his lifetime, all in French. Planet of the Apes was one of his two biggest hits. The other one is equally impressive, both as a novel and as a blockbuster movie: The Bridge Over the River Kwai. Alas, it seems it isn’t available in e-book format.
