I just finished the original book of planet of the apes, by Pierre Boulle, who also wrote Bride over the river kwai.
It is a very good book and I highly recommend it, especially for fans of both the old and new movie

I heard in the original book the apes had advanced technology and were not the semi-primitive apes we've seen in the movies.

In fact, I heard the cartoon is the MOST ACCURATE because the apes have planes and cars.

yes, plus


basically they were at the some basic level as 1960's Earth, which is when the book was written (1963 I think)

Did you know there is also a separate movie novelization? I saw it at Barnes and Noble. So they released two editions for this movie.

I wonder who did the movie novelization. My copy is new and the cover has a new movie looking gorila and the new style lettering from the movie for the title, but it is the original story. I'm glad I read it, good time killer between classes

His name is William T. Quick. I never heard of him. Here's a link to Amazon for it: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...686545-3039203

Having a movie tie in book is ridiculous when there's an original book to be re-released. It's bad enough when they take a good novel and put a movie star's face all over it, but to release a movie tie in book when a real book exists is unforgivable, IMHO.

I think a lot of people are doing what MH is. I tried to reserve Boulle's book at the library, and in all of the county (like 20 copies of it available for lending) I'm 36 or so on the wait list

I didn't even know it was a book first, I think I first learned of it when amazon recommended it because I had ordered the box set when it first got released.
It'll be worth the wait, even if you hate waiting

<small></small>Total Recall was also "novelised" despite there being a perfectly serviceable short story!!

Hmmm I see your point but I don't know.....

POTA 2001 isn't the same movie or book from the 60's so in a essence it IS a different deal.

So a seperate novel makes sense

You need to be in marketing!

Except "We Can Remember it for you Wholesale" was pretty different to the movie .

When you change a movie that much the original book, while having the same plot, may be saying a completely different thing. That rerelease of the book of the movie may be a completely different feel. (Think "10 Things I Hate About You", and then having to read Shakespeare to read the original text).

I would like to read the original, but I can understand many people wouldn't.

You are right nj: I was playing, following on from renaldow's post earlier on.

riiiight....if you were you wouldn't be wasting time here

What I really hate is when a book has been out for a long time and then a movie is made out of it, and suddenly every copy of the book from then on has the poster on the cover!!! Grrrr

tor_greg what about when the novel on which a film is based but from which the film diverges cconsiderably is effectively re-titled to tie-in with the film?

When Blade Runner was released, Philip K Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was issued with the film poster graphics and its original title reduced to obscure small print!

I bet this would have confused a few readers. At least PKD's estate benefitted, I guess!

I lucked out and my library must've ordered extra copies to meet the demand because I got a brand new copy checked out on Fri! Read it over the weekend, and was impressed with it.

It read like a lot of other 1st person Sci-fi from that era, the idea of stranger explaining an alien society isn't a new one. But I really liked the subtle social commentary that runs through out the book.

I don't want to post any spoilers for people hoping to read the book, but it wasn't hard to guess the 'racial identity' of the couple at the beginning of the book. I did like it's originality in storyline compared to the 2 films out there. Next time anyone complains about the ending of the Marky Mark movie I'm going to make them read the book!

that surprised me too

Spoilerized for people not wanting the book ending ruined for them.