PLANET OF THE APES

PLANET OF THE APES is familiar to most from the popular movie, but the original novel has intriguing differences. In the novel, the protagonist, French journalist Ulysse Mérou, portrayed in Greg Wise’s narration with a slight French accent, discovers, on an earth-like planet near Betelgeuse, a topsy-turvy world in which primates are the dominant “intelligent” life-form and Homo sapiens are primitive animals. Wise’s depiction of Mérou emphasizes his fear but also his curiosity and journalistic observations of the human-like apes. Wise subtly conveys the novel’s underlying message: a rebuke of the real-world use of primates for medical experimentation. This novel is still timely as well as entertaining science fiction, and Wise’s fluid reading will help remind listeners that we are the human animal. F.T. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2012]