Fredric Brown's "Knock" (short story, alien invasion, free)

Going by the comments online, it appears to be among the better known stories of Brown. Not a very believable conclusion, but light fun read.

Story summary.

Aliens called "Zan" have raided earth. They took a few hundred animal specimen alive - among them a man & a woman, & killed off all other life on earth. These specimen, including the humans, have now been put as exhibits in a zoo on earth, & this advanced raiding party of aliens is preparing to claim earth as permanent residence.

The man will pull off a coup of sorts, scaring aliens enough with his
ingenuity to make them leave earth...

Collected in.

1. Everett F Bleiler & T E Dikty (eds)' "The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1949".

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1948.
Download full text.
Download audio of X Minus One radio adaptation of this story from Internet Archive. (alt MP3 link)
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Fredric Brown.

H B Fyfe's "The Wedge" (short story, first contact, free)

A sole human exploring a far away world in his scout-ship is captured by local aliens. Aliens are interested in learning about the capabilities of humans, so our hero plays a dumb animal...

Fact sheet.

First published: If, September 1960.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks. [via Becky@ClassicScienceFiction]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of H B Fyfe.

A Bertram Chandler's "The Cage" (short story, science fiction): A shorter version of Pierre Boulle's "Planet of the Apes"

While there are many stories with "men as zoo animals" theme, these two are the only ones I've read where this is the main theme.

Because of shorter length, this is a simpler & less nuanced story than "Planet of the Apes". But plot idea is the same: A group of humans happen to be in a condition where they are mistaken as non-sentient animals by beings that are otherwise intellectual & technological peers. The humans get hunted, caught, & put in zoo & laboratory cages.

Problem for these zoo animals is to convince their captors that they are sentient & deserve better treatment.

Story summary.

About half the story is about how this group of humans ended up in the unfortunate situation; later half is about their capture by an alien "survey ship", life as zoo animals, & eventual release.

"At least two hundred days had passed since their landing on the planet without a name" - these human "survivors from the interstellar liner Lode Star". Ship had to make emergency landing. There was something wrong with its atomic "Ehrenhaft generators"; they had landed on a world in an unexplored region of galaxy & had only chance to send SOS (but not receive acknowledgment).

50 odd passengers were parceled off to a place somewhat away from wrecked ship while Captain & a small crew tried fixing things. They failed; the explosion destroyed both the ship & crew, & left a crater where ship stood. Survivors were stranded on this unfriendly world - always hot, always drizzling, though no hostile local animals, ample local food & water, & breathable air.

They have degenerated into a primitive existence in this period. And there is very skewed sex ratio. "There are fifty-three of us here, men & women. There are ten married couples... That leaves thirty-three people, of whom twenty are men. Twenty men to thirteen ... women... What sort of marriage set-up do we have?" They choose monogamy. If two men want the same woman, they must fight it out; winner takes the woman!

It's during one such fight with the crowd cheering that 6 of them are picked up by an alien hunting helicopter; alien spaceship is parked a little distance away.

"The world to which they were taken would have been a marked improvement on the world they had left, had it not been for the mistaken kindness of their captors. The cage in which the three men were housed duplicated ... the climatic condition of the planet upon which Lode Star had been lost." So hot atmosphere & constant drizzle, & same boring fungi as food that they had adapted to on the world they were taken from!

Of the 6 humans captured, 3 men in this cage are "Hawkins, Boyle, & Fennet". In a nearby cage is "Mary Hart". Remaining two - "Clemens & Miss Taylor" - probably ended up on the vivisection table.

Their captors "aren't the same shape.. And we, were the situations reversed, would take some convincing that three six-legged beer barrels were men & brothers." They try Pythagoras's Theorem with pictures made from twigs to interest their captors, without luck.

They try showing their "manual dexterity by the weaving of baskets" from stuff within their cage. Captors think its a mating ritual - like beaver's dams! So "Mary Hart was taken from her cage and put in with the three men"!

It's during the night of her stay in men's cage that Mary made a racket - when Joe, a little local mouse-sized animal, passed over her when she was asleep. Men consider Joe a kind of friendly pet. She insists men kill Joe; they instead make a basket type cage & put Joe there after trapping it.

It's this trapping & caging of Joe that reaches out to captors. They will be recognized as sentients & gain their freedom because "Only rational beings ... put other beings in cages"!

Collected in.

1. Isaac Asimov & Martin H Greenberg (Eds)' "Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 19 (1957)".

Fact sheet.

First published: F&SF, June 1957.
Rating: A

[dummy post] Arthur C. Clarke & Gentry Lee's "Garden of Rama" (novel)

Main post. Why this dummy post?

E E "Doc" Smith's "Triplanetary" (novel, science fiction): Lensman Series, Book 1 of 6

This is addictive stuff - at least the last two thirds. Juvenile, not very sane, but when in mood for light reading that doesn't require any thinking, it's addictive.

This story (& may be rest of the series too?) is not only the grand-daddy of all space opera, but a lot of other genre fiction too. There are just too many things mentioned here that are found in so many genre stories. I'm not sure Smith was first to talk about them - I've not read a lot of really old fiction - but this aspect alone makes this book important.

This is a complex story, with a lot of threads - including many irrelevant threads.

Full text of this story is available for download. I've not read this online version. Since there have been at least two versions of this story - original, & revised to make it part of Lensman series, I'm not sure how far this online version will match my post.

A note on first third of the story.

First third not only goes all over the place without really starting the story, it contains too much of "Americans are the best" & things related to European history. Depending on where in the world you are from, you might find it ok to irritating, but probably not great.

A note on Lensman series.

I checked web about the series only when writing this post. Looks like the original Lensman Series is books 3-6. #1 & #2 are sort of prequels, published after rest of the series. This #1 was an older story adapted into this universe; #2 was written as sort of link to connect #1 & #3.

Commonly suggested reading order is #4-6, then #1-2. Since I'm already past #1, I guess I'll go in chronological order rather than the recommended one.

"Coalescence" event.

2 billion years ago, two galaxies collided. Not so much of a collision, as passing through each other - since most of a galaxy is empty space! Question: I thought galaxies are moving away from each other? How did they collide?

Before the collision, neither galaxy had many planets. After that, there were just too many planets in each. One of the galaxies was Milky Way. Other will eventually be called "Lundmark's Nebula" by human astronomers, & is also referred to as "Second Galaxy".

Arisians - the good guys.

Before collision, Milky Way had a single race of sentient beings - Arisians; other galaxy had none. There is a mention of "Arisia"; I suppose this must have been their world. They were an immensely ancient & advanced race. And they communicated with telepathy - even over galactic distances! They are equivalent of devs of Indian mythology.

Eddorians - the bad guys.

There is another ancient race - Eddorian. They are also telepathic, about as powerful as Arisians, & equally long lived. But they are not of our universe!

They are nomads of "space time continuum", & a power-hungry warrior race at that. They just happened to enter our universe at the time of galactic collision, & see all the new planets being born. Now they can lord over all new creatures that these planets will eventually have!

I didn't understand why the immensely powerful beings would bother with creatures yet to even happen, but that's the story. They are equivalents of danavs in Indian mythology.

Arisian/Eddorian first contact.

Both races used to think they are the only sentient beings. When Eddorians entered our universe, Arisians telepathically figured out all there was to know about them.

And Arisians conclude Eddorians are a threat. While Arisians can hold them for a while, the warriors will eventually wipe them out.

So Arisians plant a kind of jinx in Eddorian minds - that Eddorians forget about the existence of Arisians! Reminded me of Durvasa's curse to Shakuntala in one of the Kalidas' poems.

Arisians' plan is to hand hold & develop new races of intelligent beings over geological times so these child races can defeat the Eddorians!!! These ultimate victors will then be the new guardians of the galaxy; Arisians will then leave our space-time!

Story is essentially about the clash of these two races - good Arisians & bad Eddorians. I suppose good will eventually win in the last book in the series. In this book, the bad cause a lot of pain, but otherwise the battle lines are wide open.

How Atlantis sank?

Eons have lapsed. Eddorians control most planets in both galaxies; Arisians only 4 - among them earth (sometimes called "Tellus" in this story; so earthlings are "Tellurians"). Existence of Arisians is still unknown to Eddorians because of ancient jinx. Mid-way through this story, the jinx will be broken & battle lines will move in the open.

Eddorians have noticed these 4 planets are not really behaving in expected ways. They've assigned Gharlane to bring them in line.

Earth now has advanced civilizations all over, with Atlantis the crown jewel. Due to Eddorian machinations, a nuclear war will break out - wiping out the civilization & sinking the Atlantis! A man named Captain Phryges will try to save Atlantis (& the world) along with a woman named Kinnexa; both will die & world will be gone too.

Arisians will later clean up the nuclear mess. This story of Atlantis is a tangent one, & plays no further role in the book.

End of Roman Empire.

Another irrelevant thread. Somebody named Nero was apparently a historical figure in the last days of Roman Empire & a sort of villain. We are told Nero was being telepathically controlled by Eddorian Gharlane.

We are treated to gladiators, killings, etc.

World War I.

Next irrelevant episode. We are given some glimpses of the fighting in some part of Europe, via a US military man named Captain Ralph Kinnison.

Ralph Kinnison's second innings.

An interesting story, even if still an irrelevant tangent. Another war is looming, Ralph is now an old man & not wanted by military.

He will get hired by "Entwhistle Ordnance Plant", quickly rise, discover some corruption in armament manufacture (with presumably Gharlane behind it, but I don't recall if he is explicitly mentioned), & will eventually get fired from the job.

Next War.

This story was published before World War II but apparently the political situation suggested a looming war; so we are given glimpses of the next war that involved nuclear armament.

Hero here is Ralph Kinnison's son, Theodore Kinnison. He is a fighter & will die during a battle.

This is about a third way through the novel. Time to begin the main story - set hundreds of years later.

The Triplanetary Service..

Earth, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, & Neptune all have intelligent beings of their own! First three have a common government called Triplanetary. Of the two organs of this government, one is Triplanetary Service (TS), headed by a man named Virgil Samms, & headquartered someplace in the US. Other organ is "Triplanetary Council" (I think); this doesn't play a direct role in the story.

TS is kind of administrative wing. Their primary role in the story is related to military & police operations, & espionage.

We are given some background about the wars Triplanetary have fought in the past with Jovians. But all is peace now, except for space pirates here & there.

Mystery of the disappearing ships.

Two big spaceships - Dione & Rhea - have recently vanished, I think somewhere between Mars & Jupiter (but I'm not sure).

"Interplanetary liner Hyperion" is currently on some voyage. This will be attacked & taken by "pirates" - with not many survivors.

An agent of pirates on board Hyperion will first add a poisonous gas called "Vee Two" to ship's air supply. A lot of people will die. But among the passengers is First Officer Conway Costigan of TS; he will save a 19 year old girl named Miss Marsden, warn ship's officers, & kill the saboteur. Romance of Costigan & Marsden is sprinkled through rest of the story.

Through this adventure, a team of 3 will form - Costigan, Marsden, & Hyperion's Captain Bradley. They will be one of the two human teams that will pay a key role in rest of the story.

Pirate ship has little trouble taking Hyperion. They tie the whole ship with a "tractor beam", & carry it off to their base.

The Pirates' base.

This is a planetoid invisible to humanity's instruments. And has amazing defense & offense weapons.

The place is run by a man name Gray Roger - who in turn is telepathically controlled by Gharlane! The place has a lot of robots & humans - later either zombies or otherwise made to do bidding of Roger.

Primarily with the heroics of Costigan, our team of 3 will make a daring escape in a craft stolen from the base. While there, Costigan has made enough detailed observations of the place to help scientists back home duplicate similar machinery; he will beam them home after escape.

Kidnapped the second time!

Just when the 3 escapees think they are safely on their way home, they find themselves kidnapped again, along with their ship! This time, by aliens from a world called Nevia.

Nevians are amphibians from their water world that also has other intelligent & warring creatures like "fishes" of the deep! Their main energy source is "allotropic" iron - they have a process to disintegrate its atoms! But their own iron supply is very limited - far more limited than our gold.

The Nevian ship, under the charge of Captain Nerado, has been exploring the stars for sources of iron. It apparently didn't find them in outer reaches of Sol nor in various outer planets. And deep inside Sol, it happened to be passing by our escapees' ship! Of course, ship has iron! Nevians take the 3 humans as curiosities to take back home, plus all their iron.

But our hero Costigan will end up closely observing both their systems, & battle about to happen. And will manage to send all this data back to earth - so earth can build a super-warship to take on the bad guys.

Our 3 friends will have many adventures on the alien world, including their being treated as biological test specimen, & zoo animals! They will make daring escape twice! Second time, after killing a city-full of Nevians!

They will be caught by Nerado on first escape. On second escape, just as they are cornered by Nerado's ship on one side & the second Nevian ship returning its loadful of iron on the other side, there will be just in time rescue by human supership.

The Nevians.

While our 3 friends were being taken prisoner & also after their escape, detailed information about the location of pirates has been sent to TS headquarters on earth. A large military contingent is now heading towards the pirates' planetoid - with some new weapons that can hopefully meet the pirates' versions.

Before the fight breaks out, we are introduced to first member of the second human team that will play a crucial role in rest of the story - a scientist named Lyman Cleveland, "probably the greatest living expert in beam transmission". Both these are great theoreticians & can also put together amazing machines. We will meet the second member later.

During this military operation, the ship Cleveland is on ("Chicago") will be converted to a kind of war photography center. Cleaveland will quickly put together a gadget to gather the battle details. But his ship will be far from battle place.

Conflict takes place near Roger's planetoid. Roger's fleet takes casualties. When TS is coming under attack, the Nevian ship appears in the vicinity & decides to collect all the iron! Roger, with 4 assistants, will be able to escape. Everyone on his planetoid as well as the entire human fleet will go. Among the iron collected by Nevian ship will be the iron inside the bodies of people manning these fleets!

Having had its full cargo of iron, the Nevian ship heads back home. It has also sent a message home that this place is full of iron - other Nevian ship is on its way to collect more.

After the carnage, Cleveland's ship will come to the place of conflict & discover the aliens' fondness of iron. This investigation will also feed the making of human supership.

Human supership's trial run.

Cleveland's ship is heading back home to earth. His friend & fellow scientist, Frederick Rodebush - "the nuclear physicist" , has been working on supership.

Turns out, our superscientists have worked out how to use iron for fuel, build energy shields against iron-fetchers so human passengers will be safe, inertia-less drive, a ship that practically travels at infinite velocity, as well as the attack & defense weapons till now only in the arsenal of Roger & Nevians! "Boise", this magical ship, is now ready for its trial!

Only Cleveland & Rodebush will be on board during trial. After some tense action, we will learn that trial is super successful.

Second Nevian ship.

While Boise is on its trial run, second Nevian ship has arrived at "Pittsburgh", & has been collecting all the iron it can! There is a lot of loss of life & property, & human military is utterly impotent against it.

This is when Boise returns to base. Its duo learn of the situation. Take the original planned crew, & immediately go to the scene of the battle! There they will defeat the alien ship, & chase it while it's escaping.

Somewhere in deep space, there will be a battle again as Boise attacks. In the process, Nevian ship escapes, & Boise is severely damaged.

Roger's second base.

Boise can be fixed, but needs a solid planet on which to land for repairs; habitability of the planet is not an issue.

They will locate a nearby rocky planet, land, & fix the ship over the coming days. Just as they are taking off, they will learn that this place is the new base of Roger!

We are told of some of the adventures Roger went through after escape, & how he made this planet his base. Now seeing TS ship again, he comes out for attack. Roger, but not his telepathic alien controller, will be killed in this battle along with his team, ship, & base.

Our adventurers take off again out looking for the escaping Nevian ship.

The final war. And peace.

This is when the 3 human prisoners on Nevia have been making their second escape. Just when they are cornered by the two Nevian ships, Boise arrives - destroying its original query, rescuing the 3 humans, & chasing Nerado's ship.

During this chase, suspicious behavior of Nerado suggests Nevia is preparing for their welcome. They leave Nerado & rush to Nevia before the world is ready. Here they will utterly destroy one of the Nevian cities.

Now Nerado arrives. Negotiations. A peace treaty is signed - with hints that there won't be any more conflict between Triplanatory & Nevia.

See also.

1. Alfred Bester's "Adam and No Eve": A rocket propulsion system for moon travel that ends up starting a chain reaction of nuclear disintegration of iron - with disastrous consequences for earth.
2. Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The Iron Standard": Another story where iron is precious commodity among aliens.

Fact sheet.

"Triplanetary", novel, review
First published: As a 4-part serial in Amazing magazine, January 1934 to April 1934 (?). Am not sure about the last issue.
Rating: B
Lensman Series: "Triplanatary" (B); "First Lensman" (B); "Galactic Patrol" (not read); "Gray Lensman" (not read); "Second Stage Lensman" (not read); "Children of Lens" (not read).

Pierre Boulle's "Planet of the Apes" (novel): When man/beast differences disappeared

Most of this very interesting satire is essentially a mirror - on some common beliefs about what is human & about our place in the universe. But even without anything intellectual, it would have made a good story.

Weak point of this story is scientific detail - flimsy, often implausible, & sometimes just plain illogical. But I didn't mind. Because fun of the story lies elsewhere.

I cannot really compare it with Hollywood movie of the same name. I saw the movie years back, & in fragments, on TV - what little I recall doesn't quite match the novel.

Story summary.

Novel is structured as a frame-story. Interstellar travel is common.

A couple, Jinn & Phyllis, are floating in space in their photonic-powered yacht on a holiday when they see a bottle floating through space! They pick up the bottle, & it contains a message on many sheets - like old fashioned romantic movies (only movies had shorter messages). The message is a warning to humans - avoid certain planets because they are dangerous. And it tells its author's experiences - the main story.

Professor Antelle, his "disciple" Arthur Levain, & a jounalist Ulysse Merou "who had met the professor as a result of an interview", are on board a starship. Ulysse is the hero of the story, narrator, & also the author of bottle message.

Their target is "the region of space where the super gigantic star Betelgeuse reigns supreme" - 300 light years from earth. Prof Antelle is the "principal organizer of the enterprise - to which he devoted the whole of his enormous fortune; the leader of our expedition, he himself had conceived the spaceship and directed its construction." This is the first human interstellar ship ever. Year is 2500 AD.

Why is it traveling so far rather than something closer? Because ship takes a year to accelerate to "speed of light minus epsilon ... it can approach it to within an infinitesimal degree", & another year to decelerate. Most of the journey is made at near light speed - so time has slowed down drastically for passengers. From passenger's point of view, a journey that lasts 2 years & a couple of minutes, or two years & a couple of hours, is pretty much the same - so why not aim for an interesting star far away?

OK - they reach the destination. It's a huge star - "if its center were placed where the sun's center lies, this monster would extend to within the orbit of Mars"! About 30 AU from this star, they find a habitable planet that is pretty much a copy of earth - third of Betelgeuse's four planets. They dub the planet Soror, put the ship in orbit around it, & go down to surface on one of the 3 "launches" the ship has. All three humans go down, plus their pet Chimpanzee Hector; unmanned ship will stay in orbit.

They observe it's a planet at roughly the same level of development as earth, has many towns that look like home, etc. They land in a jungle.

While exploring on foot, they come to a little river. Get down to bath, & see a nude human girl who "belonged to the white race" there! They will later name her Nova. And she is behaving oddly - as if she doesn't know how to speak.

Some more adventures later, they will discover that humans on this planet are mentally non-sentient animals! Explorers will be attacked by these human-animals, their ship destroyed, weapons thrown away, cloths removed, Hector killed, ... They will end up nude where these humans live - an "encampment where the shelters were not even huts, but nest like constructions like those built by the big apes in our African forests". Our hero, Ulysse, will get soft feelings for Nova.

Soon, they find they are being hunted. Hunters are Gorillas & Chimpanzees, all sentient, at roughly the technology level of Europe, & behave like European hunters. Many humans will be killed - among them the professor's assistant, Arthur. Prof Antelle & Ulysse are captured but separated. Ulysse & Nova will end up caged in the "Institute for Advanced Biological Study"; professor will end up becoming a zoo animal. By the end of the story, Prof would have become a non-sentient animal - past any hope of redemption. Ulysse will eventually escape.

In captivity, the humans are given the kind of training given to laboratory animals. Like reflexively associating a the sounding of a bell with an electric shock. Later, we will also be treated to dissection of humans & some very extreme abuse that is common in animal labs.

Among other things, Ulysse will be forced to copulate with Nova so the lab masters can observe. This union will eventually result in a sentient son, Sirius.

Ulysse will learn that this planet has Gorillas, Chimpanzees & Orangutans as sentient species with roughly the same rights; humans are animals. Orangutans are status conscious drags on society, Gorillas are power hungry go-getters, & Chimpanzees are the brains of the society.

Super-smart behavior of Ulysse is initially taken with surprise by two Gorilla attendants of lab - Zoram & Zanam, the female Chimpanzee researcher - Zira, & their Orangutan boss - Zaius.

Slowly, Ulysse convinces Zira that he is a sentient & an alien there. They grow close, & fall in love - but this love affair is doomed. Attempts of Zira & Ulysse to convince Zaius fail; Zaius has a mental block & doesn't want to hear anything about human sentients.

Ulysse will get redemption with the help of Zira & her fiance Dr Cornelius. Cornelius is a high official in the lab. Plan is, during the forthcoming "annual biological conference", Zaius is planning to display Ulysse as a freak trained by him to do monkey-tricks.

Conference will attract a lot of public & media - aided in part because "rumor began to spread around the town that an absolutely extraordinary man had been discovered". Ulysse will force, during his display, a speech that convinces the media & public of his origins.

He succeeds. Gets out of cage, gets a place to live, etc. Officially, he is assisting Cornelius in his anthropological research.

That is when there is news of a new archaeological find of an over 10,000 year old city somewhere. Cornelius takes Ulysse with him. We will learn that this was actually a human city! And at roughly the same level of development that this planet of apes is now!

Back in labs, Cornelius's people working on dissection of humans have figured a way to make them talk by electrically simulating the subjects' brains. That is where we get the history of humans on this planet.

In these experiments, a woman subject narrates the incidents from that long lost time - from her racial memory!!! Humans were masters, & had employed apes as slaves, servants, & experimental subjects. Somewhere along the line, they lost their drive & apes took over. They chased humans from their homes & cities to jungles. And humans became non-sentient!

Cornelius is badly rattled. No one in this society of apes is prepared to face the discovery. And presence of Ulysse seems to be doing something to other humans in cages in the lab - a recognition of sentience is emerging. Cornelius is even more upset because he sees a chemistry developing between Ulysse & his fiancee. In the meantime, under extreme security, Nova & Ulysse's child is born.

In these circumstance, Ulysse is called to office of Cornelius with Zira. He is told the kind of things to expect soon. He will be killed, or they will "at least remove part of your brain on the pretext of some experiment". Nova will remain an animal & will be separated from other humans in lab. Their son will be sent far away to an Orangutan teacher who will ensure he never grows up sentient. Ulysse must run away, but how? Note that his lander was destroyed earlier.

Ulysse is offered an option. Cornelius has friends in space agency. One of his friends has located our explorer's ship in orbit. And a space launch is coming up, & is scheduled to put a human male, female, & child into orbit - presumably to study the effect of zero-gravity etc on these animals. These subjects will be replaced by Ulysse, Nova, & their child, & the launch vehicle will arrange to have them reach the ship. Locally, a declaration will be made that launch failed, & the humans sent will be replaced with stooges.

OK - so the three spend another two years of ship time traveling back to earth. On earth, 700 years have lapsed. They get down at the town called Orly in France, using the second launch. A vehicle comes to see what has landed, & ouch! Earth is also now a planet of apes!!! The three barely escape.

They are now on a voyage through space, looking for a safe planet!

Near end, we will learn that Jinn & Phyllis are Chimpanzees of earthly origin. And they think someone has joked via this bottle message. Sentient humans, huh!

Quotes.

1. "Ape is of course the only rational creature, the only one possessing a mind as well as a body. The most materialistic of our scientists recognize the supernatural essence of the simian mind."
2. "Simius sapiens, forming the three extreme points of evolution: the chimpanzee, the gorilla, and the orangutan."
3. "Ape's brain ... has developed, is complex and organized, whereas man's has hardly undergone any transformation."
4. "ape's mind was primarily the result of the fact that he had four agile hands... With only two hands, each with short, clumsy fingers ... man is probably handicapped at birth, incapable of progressing and acquiring a precise knowledge of the universe. Because of this he has never been able to use a tool with any success. Oh, it's possible that he once tried, clumsily. . . . Some curious vestiges have been found."
5. "our being equipped with four hands is one of the most important factors in our spiritual evolution. It helped us in the first place to climb trees, and thereby conceive the three dimensions of space, whereas man, pegged to the ground by a physical malformation, slumbered on the flat."
6. "apes alone can have a soul."
7. About apes taking over human civilization of Soror: "Rational man having had his day, a superior being was bound to succeed him, preserve the essential results of his conquests, and assimilate them during a period of apparent stagnation before soaring up to even greater heights."

Fact sheet.

"Planet of the Apes", novel, review
First published: 1963
Translated by Xan Fielding to English from original French titled "La planète des singes".
Alternative English title: "Monkey Planet"
Rating: A