Perfect book to kick off my holiday weekend! Old school sci-fi with a familiar plot (if you've seen the movie) but with enough deviations to keep it fresh & interesting.

Fast paced and easy to read. Makes you think hard about how our world operates and how we treat our fellow primates.

On a side note, I'm a big fan of orangutans so I was sad they are the big jerks in the story!

Also - I'm going to have to rent Rise of the Planet of the Apes now... ( )

This felt like a mixture of Jules Verne and "Gulliver's Travels". There is nothing wrong with either, yet why would any author feel obliged to write something like that in the 1960's? The writing style left me cold, the characters had no personality whatsoever, the sci-fi elements were ridiculous. This novel hasn't aged gracefully. I do realize that I am looking at a satire/social commentary/animal rights statement masquerading as a sci-fi novel, but I would have appreciated a bit more effort from the author. I was bored out of my wits and had to take a break once in a while, reading other books. Frankly, I am surprised by the high ratings here on Goodreads. Is that because many have seen the movies (I haven't), loved them and were then prepared to love the book no matter what? It is also possible that this book simply wasn't for me.

The best thing about finishing "Planet of the Apes": I can finally focus on other books, yay :-) ( )

I started off disliking this book quite a lot. In fact, I was very tempted to take it back to the library only a few chapters in. However, by the end, I loved it. I mean, it's not amazingly written, the first person narrative doesn't quite work, the concept's completely ridiculous and Boulle uses the word “latter" far too many times BUT it really does turn out to be a great story. It's quite different from the film in a lot of ways but it's still easy to go through the book thinking that you know exactly what's coming. Well, likelyhood is you probably don't. If you've seen the film then it's much better just to forget everything you remember and tackle the book afresh. Think of the film and the book as separate entities. Both have good twists and both are worth feasting your eyes. The film's worth watching just for Charlton Heston, “damn dirty ape!" and the “you blew it up!" speech. The book is worth reading simply because it has a fuller story than the film and a different/better twist. ( )

Interesting concept. I can see why they made a movie about it. Not very interesting to read though. ( )

Old school French science fiction told in the first person. I wish it were available on audio, likely I would have persevered and enjoyed it.