Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle

Goodreads synopsis: "I am confiding this manuscript to space, not with the intention of saving myself, but to help, perhaps, to avert the appalling scourge that is menacing the human race. Lord have pity on us!"

With these words, Pierre Boulle hurtles the reader onto the Planet of the Apes. In this simian world, civilization is turned upside down: apes are men and men are apes; apes rule and men run wild; apes think, speak, produce, wear clothes, and men are speechless, naked, exhibited at fairs, used for biological research. On the planet of the apes, man, having reached to apotheosis of his genius, has become inert.

To this planet come a journalist and a scientist. The scientist is put into a zoo, the journalist into a laboratory. Only the journalist retains the spiritual strength and creative intelligence to try to save himself, to fight the appalling scourge, to remain a man.

Out of this situation, Pierre Boulle has woven a tale as harrowing, bizarre, and meaningful as any in the brilliant roster of this master storyteller. With his cutomary wit, irony, and disciplined intellect and style, the author of The Bridge Over the River Kwai tells a swiftly moving story dealing with man's conflicts, and takes the reader into a suspenseful and strangely fascinating orbit.

My rating: 3 stars.

Content warnings: PG-13. Brief, bloody violence, nudity both sexual and non sexual, a possible rape undertone, thematic elements. 

Thoughts: I honestly would really have enjoyed this except for Nova. But I don't know if I've ever seen a female character so degraded in a story, where the intent was to play it off as a romantic thing. A friend of mine did posit the idea that perhaps Boulle was trying to make a statement by it, and if that was the case it would make it slightly less utterly disgusting. However, on a face value reading, I honestly doubt that was the point of that subplot, and I actually felt gross any time that subplot was brought up in any way.

Beyond that the story was interesting and entertaining. And definitely thought provoking about the use of test animals in science, even if I don't necessarily agree with the conclusion. The main character was an unlikable ass, and painfully arrogant, but it's telling of the genre and time it was written in. 

I honestly wouldn't recommend it to anyone, but it is a quick read and a cultural staple, so from that standpoint it was probably worth the read.