Book #6 of 2018:

Planet of the Apes: Tales from the Forbidden Zone edited by Rich Handley and Jim Beard

Some of the short stories in this anthology are better than others, but on the whole it’s an incredibly strong collection of tales spanning the length of the classic Planet of the Apes film and television series. Indeed, there are so many plot holes filled and details shaded in from those original adventures that this book is close to a must-read for any fan of the franchise. Individual reviews below:

1) Unfired by Dan Abnett: This opening story focusing on a group of underground mutants helps set up the events of Beneath the Planet of the Apes. It’s a welcome fleshing-out of the mutant culture, and the story as a whole is suffused with a sad dignity. A great contribution to the Apes mythos. ★★★★★

2) More Than Human, Less Than Ape by Nancy A. Collins: A fairly straightforward story in which a young Cornelius discovers a tribe of savage baboons, the first known monkeys with the power of speech. That’s some neat worldbuilding, but it doesn’t really go anywhere. ★★★☆☆

3) Blood Brothers by Will Murray: Clumsy writing and a pretty racist attitude towards Native Americans, which is inexcusable for a book that came out in 2017. And it’s a shame, because this is one of the few stories in the volume to involve characters from the 1974 live-action TV show, and it would have been great to finally get a decent plot with that set of characters. Instead this reads like a bad missing episode of an already-bad TV show. ★☆☆☆☆

4) The Pacing Place by Bob Mayer: Finicky fans might not like that this story takes place outside of the proper canonical timeline of the film series, imagining a different future for astronaut George Taylor than the one seen in Beneath the Planet of the Apes. But alternate timelines and parallel worlds have always been part of the Apes franchise, and this story is a solid, reflective piece on how human society might have developed under Taylor away from the apes across the Forbidden Zone. It’s a lot like the classic post-apocalyptic novel Earth Abides as he struggles to describe his old reality to the new children who have grown up in a radically different world, and a neat look at what could have been. ★★★★☆

5) Murderers’ Row by John Jackson Miller: Escape from the Planet of the Apes has a very different energy to it than the other films in the series, and this story taps into that comic vibe quite nicely. Its tale of a TV producer trying to arrange for Zira and Cornelius to appear on a new variety show amidst the events of Escape is fun, albeit somewhat inconsequential. ★★★☆☆

6) Endangered Species by Greg Cox: One of the basic thrills of the Planet of the Apes series has always been in the reversal of humanity’s accustomed dominance over our closest primate relatives, and this story delivers that inversion in spades. Set decades before the first movie (with the cameo of a newborn Zaius), it casts an idealistic chimp naturalist in the Dian Fossey role of studying wild humans and attempting to save them from gorilla poachers. She’s a great character, and this look at her struggle adds a nice depth to our understanding of Ape City society. ★★★★☆

7) Dangerous Imaginings by Paul Kupperberg: Another what-if story that ignores Beneath the Planet of the Apes to depict ape society sometime after the first movie. In it, chimp scientists find some of Taylor’s old technical equipment and run afoul of the government censors who insist that all technology must spring from ape knowledge, not human. It’s a fine idea, but the story never really justifies its deviation from the movie timeline, and the characters are little more than a sketch. ★★☆☆☆

8) Of Monsters and Men by Kevin J. Anderson and Sam Knight: A talking dinosaur is kind of a strange fit for the Planet of the Apes franchise, but the authors of this story about Dr. Zaius’s first expedition into the Forbidden Zone just about make it work. Their version of the jaded doctor as an idealistic young orangutan lends some intriguing shading to his familiar character from the movies, as we see how similar he was to Zira and Cornelius before surviving the events depicted here. The fact that those events include the brutal spectacle of a raptor attack in no way detracts from the engaging character work — but I’m still not sure one of the creatures needed to talk. ★★★☆☆

9) The Unknown Ape by Andrew E. C. Gaska: This one’s a little cartoonish, but that’s only fitting for a story that draws so heavily on the animated Return to the Planet of the Apes TV show. It seeks to address once and for all why the world depicted in that series differs so drastically from that of the original movies, and the answer it proposes is audacious but more or less plausible. Time travel, alternate timelines, and a poignant end to a beloved character? I’m not the biggest fan of the cartoon show, but this story has everything I love about the Apes franchise as a whole. ★★★★☆

10) Silenced by Jim Beard: At first this story seems like a disjointed series of vignettes from across Apes history, ranging from a scene of Taylor before leaving earth to the aftermath of Caesar’s rebellion in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes to humans losing their ability to speak in the time before the original film. They all tie together in surprising fashion in the end, though, and the individual pieces are brief but strong. ★★★★☆

11) Who Is This Man? What Sort of Devil Is He? by Robert Greenberger: Another story set during the live-action TV show, this time bringing some pathos to the villainous General Urko. The insight into his motivations fleshes out what had been a fairly one-dimensional character on screen, while also resolving a slight plot hole from the pilot episode. ★★★☆☆

12) Stone Monkey by Greg Keyes: Easily the best-told story in the book, and a delightful expansion of the Apes world. The main character is a clever trickster of a siamang, and the story is set in China, where ape society apparently developed somewhat differently than in all the familiar North American settings for this franchise. I would read a whole novel-length treatment of this story in a heartbeat. ★★★★★

13) Milo’s Tale by Ty Templeton: The long-awaited backstory of Dr. Milo, the chimpanzee genius who single-handedly discovers time travel and allows the Planet of the Apes franchise to continue past the bleak apocalypse of the second film. I’m docking a point for the fact that we don’t get to see that discovery here, but Milo’s origin on a human-free continent where his technologically-advanced nation of chimps wages war against gorillas is utterly fascinating. This is another story I’d love to see expanded in some fashion. ★★★★☆

14) Message in a Bottle by Dayton Ward: The live-action Planet of the Apes TV show ended without a proper finale, and although this story doesn’t quite fulfill that function, it offers more resolution to the ongoing plot of the series than the show itself ever did. It’s also just a strong, satisfying piece of storytelling that avoids the show’s usual foibles. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this one. ★★★★☆

15) The King is Dead — Long Live the King by Rich Handley: There’s always been an open question as to the meaning of the Lawgiver’s tears at the end of Battle for the Planet of the Apes, and whether this go-around will ultimately result in peace among species or in the bloodshed and inequality that greeted Taylor at the start. Reopening that ambiguity is a tricky proposition, and I’m not sure that this story ultimately brings anything fresh to the matter. As nice as it is to check in on Caesar late in life, pursuing peace with his former enemies, it’s not nearly as weighty as the conclusion of Battle itself. ★★★☆☆

16) Banana Republic by Jonathan Maberry: There’s a darkness that creeps up on you in this final story, which at first just seems like the usual business of apes discovering advanced human relics and not being as surprised as they should be if they truly believed in their Sacred Scrolls. But the ending moments have a real bite to them, and a stark reminder of the ruthlessness of this world. It’s the perfect note for this book to go out on, with shivers to last until the next anthology gets written. ★★★★☆

Overall rating for the book: ★★★★☆

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