Planet of the Apes

Génial ! J'ai mis du temps à lire ce classique mais il vaut le détour, très bien construit psychologiquement, les descriptions sont parfaites, l'étonnement, le retournement, un bon livre de science fiction à dévorer :)

Chimps I can deal with
orangutans freak me out
they're sneaky bastards.

Saw this book while at the World's Biggest Bookstore and picked it up, having been a fan of both movies. Of the two films, the Burton one is closer to the novel than the Heston one, which I found a little surprising, if I recall how many complaints I heard about the 2001 film being “just another Tim Burton movie”. [return]The plot: a trio of explorers go into space and find a planet with Earthlike living conditions, only this is a planet where apes are civilized, and men are not! [return]Despite the b-movie set up of the book, it's actually a Swiftian sort of satire on theories of animal intelligence and behaviourism, which was something that I didn't see coming, and which was a rather pleasant surprise. Boulle uses apes as a metaphor for different prevalent and problematic attitudes that he saw present in society as he wrote it, and which mainly still exist today. A must read for fans of social science fiction!

I had watched the movies before but the book was just so scary. Incredibly horrifying scenario! All the cruelty towards animals in the name of science suddenly turned grotesque, when the tables were turned and there were humans on the receiving end. The ending was awesome too - scary, but awesome.