Planet of the Apes Read online

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  PLANET OF THE APES ™: TALES FROM THE FORBIDDEN ZONE

  Print edition ISBN: 9781785652684

  E-book edition ISBN: 9781785652691

  Published by Titan Books

  A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

  144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP

  First edition: January 2017

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  TM & © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

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  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Also Available from Titan Books

  Title Page

  Copyright

  We Finally Really Did It — An Introduction

  by Rich Handley

  Unfired

  by Dan Abnett

  More Than Human, Less Than Ape

  by Nancy A. Collins

  Blood Brothers

  by Will Murray

  The Pacing Place

  by Bob Mayer

  Murderers’ Row

  by John Jackson Miller

  Endangered Species

  by Greg Cox

  Dangerous Imaginings

  by Paul Kupperberg

  Of Monsters and Men

  by Kevin J. Anderson and Sam Knight

  The Unknown Ape

  by Andrew E.C. Gaska

  Silenced

  by Jim Beard

  Who Is This Man? What Sort of Devil Is He?

  by Robert Greenberger

  Stone Monkey

  by Greg Keyes

  Milo’s Tale

  by Ty Templeton

  Message in a Bottle

  by Dayton Ward

  The King Is Dead—Long Live the King

  by Rich Handley

  Banana Republic

  by Jonathan Maberry

  A Question of Simian Survival—An Afterword

  by Jim Beard

  Acknowledgments

  About the Contributors

  Coming Soon from Titan Books

  WE FINALLY REALLY DID IT

  AN INTRODUCTION

  by

  RICH HANDLEY

  Let me tell you a story about apes.

  First, though, let me tell you a story or two about a story about apes.

  Twenty years ago and change, I found a copy of French author Pierre Boulle’s 1963 novel La Planète des Singes while perusing the shelves of a dusty bookstore in Canada. My wife Jill and I had driven to Toronto to celebrate our anniversary, and when I saw what I recognized as the novel upon which one of my all-time favorite films, Planet of the Apes, had been based, I had to read it. Thankfully, this copy was printed in English, as I don’t speak French… or ape, for that matter.1

  The title had been translated as Monkey Planet, which struck me as an amusing misnomer—not only because no monkeys appeared in the novel, but because in the films, apes found the term “monkeys” highly offensive. (I have to wonder, though, who would ever call them that, since they had no contact with other species capable of speech. But I digress.)

  I was fascinated by the similarities, and the stark differences, between novel and film. Like the movie, the book featured a human space traveler stranded on a world populated by highly intelligent apes, and offered thoughtful social commentary about religious dogmatism, bigotry, the misuse of science and technology, and how the weaknesses of the human species could bring about man’s own undoing. Unlike the film, however, it took place in a far more advanced simian society, and was set on (spoiler alert!) another planet, not Earth. It’s a brilliant read, and if you’ve never picked it up before, then you owe it to yourself, as a self-respecting Apes fan, to do so… after you’ve finished reading this book, naturally.

  I first discovered Planet of the Apes and its four sequels as a child, thanks to The 4:30 Movie, a daily film showcase that aired on our local New York ABC affiliate in the late 1970s. The 4:30 Movie introduced me to Charlton Heston’s non-Apes films, along with Godzilla, the Pink Panther movies, Fantastic Voyage, Westworld (and its sequel, Future World), and many other classics, some of which now inhabit my home-video library. But none of it compared to the Apes. When “Planet of the Apes Week” arrived each year, nothing else mattered.

  Having been born in 1968, the same year in which the first Apes film hit theaters, I had never seen any of the movies before Channel 7 propelled me to that upside-down world through the 13-inch, black-and-white Hasslein curve that was our family television. I was hooked, and have been ever since. That final image of Taylor kneeling on the shore, damning mankind to Hell after finding the Statue of Liberty’s upper half buried in the sand, shocked ten-year-old me, as it did countless viewers—and a lot of future filmmakers as well, it would seem. The Empire Strikes Back, The Crying Game, The Usual Suspects, The Sixth Sense, Fight Club, Memento… so many films made since then owe a lot to that now-iconic twist ending, which itself owed much to Apes co-writer Rod Serling’s prior work on The Twilight Zone.

  Of course, as a fan of the Apes, you already know that. You also know that the 1968 classic spawned not only those four sequels, but four additional films to date, starting in 2001. And you probably know that there were two television series as well—a live-action version set a thousand years before the original film, about three friends on the run from gorilla soldiers (basically, Apes meets The Fugitive), and an animated series, Return to the Planet of the Apes, that bizarrely featured alternate versions of characters from both the films and the prior TV show, in a technologically advanced Ape City similar to the setting of Boulle’s novel.

  What you might not know is that the story didn’t end there, with what happened on the big and small screens. An expanded universe of licensed fiction, set before, between, during, and after the apes’ filmed and televised exploits, has helped to flesh out the mythos. All of it proudly lines my shelves, alongside my now-dusted copy of Boulle’s novel.

  These ancillary tales have mostly been told in comic books—nearly 200 issues to date and counting. Yet, when it comes to prose, Apes fans have been limited to only Boulle’s book, a dozen or so novelizations, and six original novels in the past five decades. As for short fiction? Well, other than a few brief tales published decades ago in a trio of largely forgotten British childr
en’s books, licensed Apes short stories have been entirely nonexistent.

  Until now, that is.

  In 2015, Jim Beard and I proposed a project to Titan Books editor Steve Saffel that would be a first (though hopefully not the last) for Planet of the Apes: an anthology of prose stories covering the classic era of the franchise, written by popular and respected authors from multiple genres. With a landscape spanning thousands of years, we reasoned, the possibilities for new adventures were infinite. Our intent was to draw upon each writer’s unique individual strengths, background, and enthusiasm to craft entertaining tales of the sort that readers might not normally experience.

  Titan expressed strong interest in the anthology—which we called Visions from the Planet of the Apes—provisionally accepting our proposal provided that the author lineup satisfied both the publisher and Fox. We already had several writers in mind when pitching the book, but we needed to add more if we were to tip the scales in our (and fans’) favor.

  Jim and I began reaching out to numerous high-profile authors, with the goal of featuring a wide range of stories told with different voices and styles, set throughout the Planet of the Apes timeline and spotlighting characters both existing and new. Especially exciting was that we’d be allowed to include characters and settings from both the live-action and animated TV series, branches of the Apes family tree that are often overlooked but have loyal fans nonetheless.

  After a great deal of footwork, exchanged e-mails, and outreaches to novelists, screenwriters, and comic book professionals, we finalized our lineup. The enthusiastic responses we received to our invitations made it clear that we’d chosen a team of Planet of the Apes aficionados—a few of whom had written Apes novels or comics in the past, so we were excited to bring them back into the fold. We compiled a list of the pitches we received, then waited with fingers, toes, and eyes crossed as Titan and Fox considered the full proposal. Amazingly, every single pitch was approved… except for one.

  Mine.

  Somehow, I’d come up with a story that Fox felt was too close to the concept of the latest film, this year’s War for the Planet of the Apes, which was then still in production. How did I manage to do that, you ask, despite having had no knowledge of what the film would be about? Perhaps my years of living amid the radioactive ruins of a once-thriving civilization had awakened a latent talent for telepathy, enabling me to subconsciously read the filmmakers’ minds. Maybe I was stuck in a causality time loop, in which future events shaped those of the past and back again, causing me to watch the entire movie before any filming had even begun.

  Or, more likely, it was just an unbelievable coincidence. Thankfully, my precognitive powers proved temporary, as my alternate story idea received a thumbs-up. With the project approved, the authors all happily got to work.

  Other large franchises have spawned countless novels and short stories, but not Planet of the Apes. This meant that the authors, when conceiving their stories, pretty much had carte blanche. We encouraged them to think outside the box, and not to limit themselves to proposing only tales about the most popular characters and settings from the films. After all, while an entire anthology about Zira and Cornelius alternatively bickering and then rubbing their noses together in Ape City could be fun for fans of the chimp couple (titled Zira Loves Cornelius, perhaps), it would provide a rather limited and redundant scope for everyone else.

  This all paid off, as we ended up with stories from all over the timeline, exploring not only the chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, mutants, and mute humans you’d expect to see in Planet of the Apes, but also gibbons, baboons, and other surprises along the way. It also meant that in addition to new adventures for Taylor, Nova, Caesar, Milo, Virdon, Burke, Galen, Urko (both versions), Zaius (all three versions), and other fan favorites (Zira and Cornelius among them, don’t worry), we’d also be able to introduce more than a hundred new characters to the Apes pantheon—not only from Ape City, Central City, and the Forbidden Zone, but from areas across and even outside North America.

  Plus, we got to answer a few nagging questions along the way that fans have been asking for decades. Which ones? Ah, but that would spoil the fun.

  A few authors proposed stories that could only be written unconstrained by existing onscreen or published continuity, and to shake things up a bit, we let them have at it. While most of the tales fit snugly into established Apes lore, two authors contributed stories set years after the first film, ignoring Earth’s destruction in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, while a third crafted a tale about a certain group of hairy-faced space travelers that differed from other licensed accounts—but is no less exciting. Another writer, meanwhile, turned in a story combining elements of not only the films and the live-action TV show, but the cartoon as well, creating a sort of “Crisis on Infinite Planets,” so to speak.

  In Escape from the Planet of the Apes, scientist Otto Hasslein described time as a highway with infinite lanes leading from the past to the future. Orangutan philosopher Virgil, in Battle for the Planet of the Apes, called time “an endless motorway,” noting, “It’s a blind choice, but you can change lanes.” In essence, the Apes films support the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, allowing for multiple timelines and realities. Viewed from that perspective, the “what if?”-style entries in this anthology follow the rules of physics as laid down by both Virgil and Doctor Hasslein.

  As I sat down to write my own contribution—an historic meeting between Ape City’s leadership and those living in the Forbidden City, twenty years after the events of Battle for the Planet of the Apes (the extended edition, of course)—I had much to consider:

  How might both societies have logically evolved during the decades since the war with Governor Kolp’s forces? Which characters from Battle would need to be incorporated, and what roles would they play? What aspects of mutant society established in Beneath should be present at this early point in history? Was there any other licensed lore from this era to take into account—and were there any contradictions, plot holes, or unanswered questions that I could address? Ultimately, how could I make sure it felt like a sequel to the fifth movie, while setting the stage for the world Taylor would find 2,000 years from now?

  Each author, in approaching his or her own unique vision of the planet of the apes, had similar questions to consider. As anyone who has written licensed books or comics could attest to, the greatest challenge, when playing in someone else’s sandbox, is to find the right voice for every character and for the story as a whole. It’s all well and good to have a great idea involving Doctor Zaius, but if you give him uncharacteristic dialogue (“Howdy, Ursus!”) or have him take actions ill-fitting to his onscreen persona (playing Texas hold’em with Taylor and Brent, for instance2), it won’t ring true and readers will notice.

  Given how adeptly each story in Tales from the Forbidden Zone captures the tones of the movies and TV shows, this was clearly on the mind of every author. The end result is a collection of sixteen stories that I think do the apes proud. I hope you’ll agree. I feel honored and privileged that Jim and I are able to present fans with original Planet of the Apes short fiction by an immensely talented group of writers, expanding a mythos that began when Pierre Boulle welcomed us to his planet long ago. If the Lawgiver allows, we hope to do so again in the near future.

  So let me… let each of us… tell you a story about apes. Unlike Taylor, I’m certain you’ll like what you find.

  RICH HANDLEY

  March 2016

  1 Yes, the apes speak English in the films, but in Boulle’s novel, they speak their own language.

  2 I would absolutely read a story about Zaius playing Texas hold’em with Brent and Taylor.

  * * *

  Dan Abnett’s “Unfired,” set several decades before the events of the original Planet of the Apes film, delves deep into the radioactive ruins left behind by the great cataclysm of the 1990s to bring those who dwell among them up and into a new light…

  *
* *

  UNFIRED

  by

  DAN ABNETT

  No one from the west went to see God anymore.

  The journey had always been hard. A long track, fraught with hazards, wearying to mind and body, without certainty of deliverance. But that was how a track ought to be. A pilgrim should not get to see God easily.

  The track was a test. Its trials and tribulations were a process of suffering that proved a pilgrim worthy. The journey prepared them for the presence of the divine. The elders of the west said the act of walking the ancient track was itself a part of meeting with God. If you endured it and prevailed, then God had looked upon you favorably. It was not the last step of the way that brought you to God. It was every step of the way, alpha step to omega.

  But times had changed. Though the track still existed, its demanding route recorded and passed down from one generation to the next, it had fallen out of use. It had become too dangerous to attempt the journey since the Third Race had arisen.

  It had become too dangerous since the apes had claimed the territory as their domain.

  * * *

  There had been seven of them at the start: Taul and the six pilgrims.

  Silat had turned back after the first month, hobbled by feet that had worn bloody and sore. She was slowing them down, and Taul knew she would never make it the whole of the way.

  Silat knew she had become a burden. In other ages, the pilgrims would have borne her up and carried her with them, taking on her trial as part of their own. Children helped each other and, by united effort, uprose in the sight of God.

  But when Silat went lame, all of them knew their journey would be compromised if they slowed to her rate or carried her. This journey was special. They weren’t walking the track for personal deliverance. It wasn’t about them. It was about the relic Calio carried in his satchel.

  They had stopped to confer, face to face. Silat had nodded to them, the truth unspoken, and had turned to limp back the way they had come. The last Taul had seen of her was a distant figure, receding into the west as evening fell violet across the desert.