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Planet of the Apes: The Fall (2003)
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Fiction Review by The Gravedigger
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07.30.03
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Written by William T. Quick, who wrote the novel adaptation of the Tim Burton 'reimagining' of PLANET OF THE APES. This new book follows the shipwrecked crew of the Oberon as they try to survive on an alien world. Among the survivors are Leo Davidson's girlfriend, Molly Benevides who is nine-months pregnant, and, of course General Vasich and Dr. Alexander who we were briefly introduced to in the movie. There are also two hundred other humans and the many apes.It turns out that they aren't alone on the planet-there is this huge hive of intelligent insect-like creatures that spew acid-and the queen sees these invaders as a threat.In order to protect themselves and ensure their survival the scientists start augmenting the newborn apes. And the first among these is Jonathan, and extremely intelligent chimpanzee. After Molly has Leo's child she also adopts this ape and raises it as her own son.Years later, as the war against the insects looms ahead, so does the ape population. One of their genetic enhancements is that they mature in five years, so that in twenty years the ape population is ten times that of the humans.But while the crew of the grounded Oberon are concerned about the alien bug threat they pay little attention to what the apes are doing, particularly to Jonathan, who has plans of his own. In fact, he's secretely planning revolution and has given himself a new name-Semos.I liked this book. Author Quick explains things that bothered me about the movie-such as why there are horses, how the apes so quickly became as intelligent as humans and why, in the movie, you don't see any of the planet's native creatures. After I was done reading this novel I had to rewatch the PLANET OF THE APES DVD-and, as a result, my perspective on it was a bit improved. Quick is clearly an APES fan, weaving in elements from the original movies such as CONQUEST and BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES. If you're itching for more Apes adventures then THE FALL will satisfy you.There is also another new APES book, COLONY, which follows the events in this one.
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Rating: nan out of 10.0 - votes cast total
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