Caution: Vague Spoilers Ahead

I don't really think that I can do this book justice in my review. I thought that it was brilliant. I know that I have seen the movie long ago, and remember the big reveal at the end and Charlton yelling about damning everyone all to hell, but I don't remember much more than that. I'll have to watch the movie again.

I really loved the subtle cautionary tale running throughout the story. Maybe it's just my feminist liberal bleeding heart whispering to me, but I feel that Boulle just plain hated live-animal experiments and was determined to show people that the tables could be turned one day. Easily. But more than that, the book cautions us not to be complacent and lazy about our place in life and in the food chain and to keep striving and learning and bettering ourselves, but NOT at the cost of other life-forms. We're on top now, but only time will tell if we stay there.

And do we actually deserve to be? We, the "Lords of Creation," seem to think that we can do anything and everything we want to do. We're so filled with pride that we never think that OUR civilization could fall. Those kind of things are for history books, not real life. Yet we consume resources like they're going out of style, and pollute the earth like we have a spare, and just generally act like there's a "Reset" button somewhere that we can just press when we've reached the point of no return. Why shouldn't another species give running things a try? If they can do it better...

But that's the thing. They imitate us, so WOULD they do it better? At one point in the story, when Merou was being shown the experiments, I thought to myself, "They are proud of the fact that they are keeping the "animals" down... Taking any vestiges of humanity or rational thought away as soon as it is displayed in order to protect themselves. They are so fearful of the possibility of human uprising that they commit atrocities to prevent them." And then I thought to myself, "Oh, snap! So do we." We can justify anything. And so can Apes, who apparently learned from the best. In examining the Apes, we're looking at ourselves. Can we really pass judgment?

But, I was happy to see that the three "races" of Apes could cohabitate and cooperate in peace, which is more than we've accomplished so far. Our differences divide us, but the Apes recognize and relish their differences and use them well. But Apes still seem to rival Man in the fear department: the unknown is scary, so just destroy it and move on.

I do have to say that I was kind of annoyed with Merou's assumption that life forms in a far, far away galaxy would automatically be human to be intelligent. It just goes to show that our pride will be our downfall. But it reminded me of a quote from another science-fiction book that I enjoyed, Solaris by Stanislaw Lem (which you should remember if you keep up with my reviews):

"...We take off into the cosmos, ready for anything: for solitude, for hardship, for exhaustion, death. Modesty forbids us to say so, but there are times when we think pretty well of ourselves. And yet, if we examine it more closely, our enthusiasm turns out to be all sham. We don't want to conquer the cosmos, we simply want to extend the boundaries of Earth to the frontiers of the cosmos. For us, such and such a planet is as arid as the Sahara, another as frozen as the North Pole, yet another as lush as the Amazon basin. We are humanitarian and chivalrous; we don't want to enslave other races, we simply want to bequeath them our values and take over their heritage in exchange. We think of ourselves as the Knights of the Holy Contact. This is another lie. We are only seeking Man. We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. [...:] We arrive here as we are in reality, and when the page is turned and that reality is revealed to us--that part of our reality which we would prefer to pass over in silence--then we don't like it anymore."

Oh, it's so apt. We inherently assume that anyone of any worth or intelligence will be just like us. Even the "Little Green Men" type aliens that pop up in the Weekly World News magazines are still modeled after humans, and hell, they are nicknamed "men"! I just hope that one day we'll be able to see the bigger picture.

I do want to mention two things that I wish were clarified a little more in the book. I'd been told that the twist in the book was different than the twist in the movie. I had had a theory that somehow during the journey from Earth, something got mixed up and the planet they landed on WAS Earth, only far in the future. Since it seems that was not correct, I'm confused as to how two planets so distant actually would be so very similar. The two main races (Apes and humans) are the same genetically (or so it seems as Merou was able to successfully mate with an "alien" human), and there are several other animals that are similar. Not to mention the society and transportation etc. It just seems so unlikely that Soror would be so similar to Earth without knowing of its existence.

And speaking of which, that brings me to the second thing. Merou named the planet Soror prior to meeting any sentient beings. Didn't they have their own name for the planet? I cannot believe that throughout ANY of the discussions they had regarding the origins of their species, or space travel, or anything, that they did not once say, "Oh, and by the way, we call our planet Apex." (Haha, get it?) But really, that point bothered me in the story.

Anyway, Aside from those two points, I thought that this was a really great book. I hope that everyone gets a chance to read it one day.

nadal za Małpami
vintage sci-fi, bardzo aktualne, ludzie i tak się nie nauczą

/ jest na Legimi

currently-reading update
well, w filmach byłam za Małpami, zobaczmy jak będzie tutaj

Do jakiej rasy należały zatem istoty wyłapywane i zabijane przez małpy? Czy były to zacofane plemiona? Jeśli tak, jakim okrucieństwem wykazywali się władcy tej planety, by tolerować, a może i nakazywać podobne masakry!

No tenía muchas esperanzas con esta novela ya que pensé que no había envejecido adecuadamente, sin embargo me ha sorprendido gratamente.
Un grupo de exploradores espaciales alcanzan un planeta lejano donde luego se dan cuenta que también viven humanos, sin embargo, la especie dominante es el simio.
La novela te hace analizar que pasaría si el humano no fuera el que domina, si el humano fuera desprovisto de su inteligencia, y si una de las especies más cercanas, que además es más fuerte físicamente, desarrollara dicha inteligencia? Efectivamente ocurriría lo que los humanos le hacemos al resto de los animales, cazarlos, encerrarlos para zoológicos y como sujetos de pruebas científicas, Agotarlos hasta extinguirlos o casi extinguirlos...

Początek trąci myszką, jak to w SF z lat 60, ale wciąga niemal od razu. Koncepcje i pytania stawiane w książce nie straciły jednak na aktualności. Świetnie się przy tej lekturze bawiłem.

Nie mogłam się oderwać. Prosty pomysł na powieść, a dający dużo do myślenie. I stałe aktualny.

"Haklısın. Ben de senin gibi düşünüyorum... Mantık kullanabilen insanlar mı? Zeki insanlar mı? Aklını kullanabilen insanlar mı? Hayır, bu mümkün değil; bu noktada yazar ne yazık ki maksadını aşıyor!"
5/5

Son derece çarpıcı, bir solukta biten bir bilim kurgu eseri. Filminden de oldukça etkilenmiştim ancak kitaba karşı olan beğenim açık ara önde oldu. Son sayfaları soluksuz okudum diyebilirim. Hele ki finali, muhteşem. Kitabın önsözünde İnsanlardan Tanrılara Homo Sapiens'e olan atıflar da bence son derece yerinde olmuş. Başlangıçta var olan 6 türden, hayatta kalan ya biz olmasaydık senaryosunu çok etkileyici bir şekilde gözler önüne seriyor kitap. Tavsiye ederim.

For the last read of the year I wanted something short, fun, light, but not that light, if it makes any sense, so I thought to give Planet of the Apes a try, since it seemed that it fit all of those criteria.

I have to say I've seen the original movie, from 1968, when I was a kid and even though I remember I liked it, it didn't stick with me. I've also seen the 2001 remake and the newer trilogy, which I've really enjoyed, so, obviously, I went into reading this with some preconceptions, but, as I found out, the movies are just loosely based on the book.

Most of the novel is kind of what you'd expect from a 60's sci-fi, not necessarily outdated in terms of world building, or even the science parts (which aren't that many and actually are a little bit dated, but they didn't bother me that much), but the lines, the behaviour of the characters seem so.

Actually, the main character, Ulysse (probably named after the Ulysses the hero of Homer's Odyssey) was so annoying with his self-importance and lack of any humility, that, at times I would be rooting for the apes.

The novel is at the same time a fun little sci-fi, but also a social commentary from which I've found interesting the following two ideas:

- the vast majority of us are just imitators, with zero original ideas and we just recycle things that are already invented, or said, or written. Progress comes only from very few individuals that are innovators, if no such individual would be born for ten thousand years, then that future society would look exactly the same as we see it today, with the same kind of cars, buildings, rules and so on;
- complacency of an individual, or of all of society would bring that individual's or society's demise. One must keep the spirit to fight for a better everything and ultimately, to survive.

I also liked the twist at the end, so I would say that the first two thirds of the book are worth a 2 stars rating, while the last third is worth a 4 stars.

Not a necessary read, but you can give it a try if you like sci-fi.

“But once an original book has been written-and no more than one or two appear in a century-men of letters imitate it, in other words, they copy it so that hundreds of thousands of books are published on exactly the same theme, with slightly different titles and modified phraseology. This should be able to be achieved by apes, who are essentially imitators, provided, of course, that they are able to make use of language.”

4,5 nie spodziewalem sie że mnie wciągnie, daje dużo do myslenia o podziałach społecznych w sumie tez o przyszlosci ludzkosci
mimo, że domyślałem sie jakje bedzie zakończenie to mialem ciary przy ostatnich zdaniach

Zakończenie tej książki to jedno z moich ulubionych zakończeń ever!!

Ocena: 4,0.

Kitabından çok filmiyle ünlü olan meşhur "Maymunlar Gezegeni / Planet of the Apes / La planète des singes" eserini okuduktan sonra bu durumun neden böyle olduğunu anlamak hiç de zor değil. Fransız yazar Pierre Boulle hayran olunası bir hikaye yaratmış. Evet, kitabın sonu filmdeki gibi sürprizi içermiyor belki ama yine okuyucuyu çok şaşırtacak bir sürpriz var ve de kitabın sonunu aratmıyor. Maymunlar Gezegeni’yle insanlık alegorisine imza atan Boulle’nin yarattığı dünya "Gulliver’in Gezileri"ndeki (1726) Houyhnhnm’ların dünyasına fazlasıyla benziyor ki yazarın Antik Yunan'la beraber bu eseri de referans aldığı net ortada. Kendi çıkarlara uğruna başta doğa olmak üzere çevresine zarar veren bir yapıya sahip olan insanların da bir nevi hayvan olduğunun sinyalini veren Boulle, bir yandan Darwin’e atıfta bulunurken diğer yandan da George Orwell’in "Hayvan Çiftliği"nin izinden gidiyor. Akıllarda ise şu soruyu bırakıyor: Kötülüğü yaratan aslında benlik mi? Kesinlikle her edebiyat severin okuması gereken bilimkurgu klasiklerinden biri. Yarım not verilemediği için tam notum: 4.5 / 5.

17.07.2017
İstanbul, Türkiye

Alp Turgut

http://www.filmdoktoru.com/kitap-labo...

Interlibrary loan courtesy of the Everett Public Library, Everett, WA

This is the book that launched the Planet of the Apes movies, television, etc. It inspired that incredible scene with Charlton Heston: "YOU DID IT! YOU FINALLY DID IT!"

But this book rather than being a campy, dated 60s piece of sci-fi, is much more elegant than that. It is a cautionary tale and a criticism of how we treat our own world, our own society.

I had read this once before, I think, just after high school - I found a copy in the local library. (They must not have had it anymore, as I had to get this edition via interlibrary loan.)