By Andrew E.C. Gaska

Titan Books, out now

The last days of Planet Earth – and of Colonel George Taylor.

At the time that Planet of the Apes was released in 1968, a tie-in edition of Pierre Boulle’s Monkey Planet was all that was deemed necessary to accompany the movie, ignoring the fact that the screenplay differed vastly from the original. Each of the following four movies (and both TV series) received novelisations, as have all the 21st century reboots. Beneath the Planet of the Apes’ volume covered what was on screen – and even then there were differences between the print version and the final movie – not really delving deeply into anything that wasn’t part of that core story.

Enter Andrew E.C. Gaska, whose Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes reworked the first film successfully (or so I gather – it’s a book I’ve yet to acquire). This new book doesn’t just expand the canvas of the sequel film, it also acts as a prequel to the entire movie series (presenting us with scenes from the life of Charlton Heston’s character), as well as joining together many dots in the Ape universe you might not have thought connected. Death of… explains elements about the third film, Escape from…, that viewers at the time had to just accept happened (and that film’s novelisation didn’t fully cover); it links the TV series, both live action and animated, via characters who were in Taylor’s orbit during the 1960s. It fills in the huge gaps in Beneath…

…and does it without it feeling like it’s just ticking off elements of the mythos from a list on Wikipedia.

Gaska obviously knows and loves these characters, and immerses the reader in the societies from which they come – both the slightly alternate history of the 20th century, and the ape-dominated world hundreds of years later. Having been steeped in this mythos for nearly 50 years myself, it’s very hard to imagine how this will read to someone who’s never encountered the franchise before… but then, that’s not really who this is aimed at.

Verdict: An all-encompassing Ape novel – an essential for any fan of the franchise, no matter what version. 10/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to buy from Amazon.co.uk