Title: Planet of the Apes
Author: Pierre Boule
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 276
Rating: 5/5
When I first picked up Planet of the Apes, I didn’t have high expectations. I knew a bit about it from pop culture, but that was about it.
It turned out to be a cracking classic science fiction novel in the vein of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov, which is even more surprising when you realise that Boule’s other well-known book is The Bridge on the River Kwai.
I liked the setup to the book, too. We start out with a couple taking a pleasure cruise in space on their little space yacht thingy. They discover a message in a bottle, and when they crack it open (somehow avoiding getting floating shards of glass all over the place), they discover a manuscript which forms the bulk of the novel.
That story is told in first person by our protagonist, a guy who was part of a three-man venture into deep space to try a new propulsion device that could revolutionise space travel. The only problem is that when they arrive at their destination, a planet with an earth-like atmosphere, he discovers that biology has progressed in a very different (and also very similar) direction.
You can probably see where this is going.
Boule does a great job with the plot, the pacing and the characterisation here, but the thing I liked the most was the way that it had a message. Basically, human beings treat animals like garbage. And we don’t even realise it until we read a book like this.