Classic SF, translated from the original French version. Only slightly dated, thin on science, but still worth reading.

Unexpected beginning, considering that I see Charlton Heston in my head, when I hear the book title. But he appears in chapter 2. Well, a French equivalent of a sort… Interesting propulsion method for the spaceship in chapter 1. The science is generally pretty wonky. Yes, that‘s a technical term.

Anyway, back to the account of the main character‘s travel. Together with two others he is headed to Betelgeuse. First stop in this audio for me, because I had to read up on Betelgeuse. Meeting humans and primates on another planet is a conundrum, obviously. The same evolutionary development in another star system? Convergent evolution to this degree?

I want to discuss a few things, but it would mean spoiling the story, so I won‘t. It‘s pretty short, give it a go, especially if you have seen and liked any of the movies.

Written in 1963 from a typically white, male perspective of the time, women having to be beautiful to be attractive, some light racist vibes to it, etc. Mild though. The author is generally a little obsessed with beauty. And the main character is pretty full of himself and his superiority.

Ignoring all that, the story is simple, but quite smart. There are a lot of parallels to our own history strewn in. Coming close to the end of the story, all kinds of alarm bells went off in my head. Well done. I would have liked to get more of an explanation of how all of this happened, aka what triggered it.

I listened to the audio narrated by Greg Wise. It was pretty good.

There is something so bizarrely enticing about throwing your conceptions of the world utterly and completely upside down. In so doing, you see yourself and the world in a whole new way, one which you might not like. This is what Planet of the Apes does so well. This is a great read. Compared to the film, I found it quite a bit more introspective, lacking much of the action, violence and campy drama.

Pierwsza połowa tej książki była bardzo interesująca i z dużym zainteresowaniem śledziłam tą historię, niestety w drugiej połowie wszystko się zepsuło. Zachowanie głównego bohatera stało się ogromnie pretensjonalne i irytujące, do czego doszło zadufanie w samym sobie. Myślę że dużym czynnikiem wpływającym na moją ocenę był fakt że czytałam tą książkę w audiobooku czego nie polecam.

nie spodziewałam sie ze mi sie tak spodoba