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Planet of the Apes
by Pierre Boulle
On a whim I went to see if this movie was a book first. I had seen the Origins movie in the theatre a little bit ago and it got me thinking. (I enjoyed that movie a lot, btw.) Turns out Planet of the Apes was a book first, written in 1963. And a good book at that. It was a quick read, took me a couple days, but enjoyable. The style is that of a man telling a story, not living it. It was originally written in French and there is some feel of that left over in English. Spoilers. There is no Statue of Liberty. There is no "damn dirty apes". There is no fight to free the humans at all. The book is a study of evolution, pure and simple. It's a "what if?" taken to the extreme. It's fascinating and entertaining. But nothing like the movie at all. It's clearly satire and extremely well done at being one. It takes itself very seriously and that's okay since you don't have to. The twist at the end can be seen coming even if you've never seen the movie and you don't have a general idea about what happens, but that's okay. You don't lose anything already knowing how it ends. The character is essentially human and that's probably the most endearing part of the whole story. You can find yourself in his spot and wonder what you would have done. You can't take the book literally or seriously. It's not realistic except for the fact that you wonder if it could really happen. If you can manage that, you'll enjoy it. I recommend.