Henry V by William Shakespeare

I’d had a copy of this play for sometime, and recently I finally got around to reading it. Although I was aware of the Henry IV plays that preceded it, I didn’t really realise that they (and also Richard II) set up a lot of the events in this play, and so I was essentially starting a series with the fourth and final instalment. Nonetheless, this wasn’t apparent as I started reading (which speaks to its strengths) and I suppose to some extent, you’re always starting a story in the middle whenever you read something that’s based on real history.

I’ve often been averse to starting Shakespearean histories, as I’ve been worried that they might be a little too dry for me – and of course, I know that he was always writing to reinforce the version of history that was most favourable to Elizabeth I. However, when I finally got around to reading it, I found that my concerns were totally misplaced. I enjoyed this story quite a lot, to the extent that I’d say that it was one of the better Shakespeare plays that I’ve read so far.

The story is relatively simple: amidst growing tensions, Henry V grapples with the idea of invading France. In the end he does so, and there’s a lot of drama around the war (of course). Nonetheless, and despite the obvious pro-English bias, I actually found myself feeling pretty invested in this story. I think it as just a classic case of the writing being top notch, and if something is well written, I sincerely believe that anything can be engaging.

Speaking of the quality of the writing, “Once more unto the breach” has its origins in this play, which is pretty cool, and “band of brothers” also appears to have come from here too. As someone who always enjoys learning the etymology of words and phrases, this is something I always like about reading Shakespeare.

Also, while it deals with a lot of historic figures, Shakespeare still has a little bit of fun, as he always does. The characters Pistol, Nym, and Bardolph all stood out to me as particularly endearing, and they also happen to be unique Shakespearean characters. These soldiers add a element of comedy to the play, as they’re all quite ridiculous in one way or another and contrast nicely against the dramatic speeches about war and whatnot.

As I write this review, I find it genuinely difficult to put my finger on exactly what it was I liked about it. In the end, I think it’s just a fantastic combination of good writing with interesting characters. If, like me, you might have overlooked this for fear of Shakespearean histories being too dry, I strong recommend giving it a go.

Rating: 8/10

Buy it here.

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Goosebumps: Welcome to Dead House by R. L. Stine

Other than having a few very vague (but fond) memories of the Goosebumps TV series, it was a franchise I’d never really gotten into that much. Recently, I finally decided to start reading the books, starting with the first in the sixty-two-book-long series. I really wasn’t sure what to expect, as I find that some books written for a younger audience don’t quite have any appeal to me as an adult – but this was not one of those books.

The story follows a pair of siblings named Josh and Amanda who move into a new house with their parents after their father inherits it unexpectedly. This new house is creepy and unsettling to them and before long they start seeing what seem to be ghosts. Nothing seems quite right about the whole thing, and they try to figure out what’s going on, while integrating with the local kids – but there’s something a bit off about them as well.

I won’t say any more, as it’s the kind of story where it’s fun to figure out what’s going on as you read through. What I will say though is that I really liked the type of horror that you get in this novel. Yes, on the one hand, other than a relatively unique twist, the story in general relies on a lot of horror tropes and clichés – but sometimes it’s nice to enjoy a familiar type of horror. I found it familiarly spooky in the same way that I get a good feeling from Halloween decorations. No, it wasn’t new, but I didn’t need it to be. It pressed a lot of the right buttons, and it did so very well.

Having said that, I wouldn’t want to imply that there’s no substance to this story. Though never too intense because of its young audience, some bits are genuinely pretty distressing or even disturbing. In many ways, I think that it’s target audience helps with the horror, because it can’t rely on extreme gore and violence to drive up the horror, as some other authors do, causing R. L. Stine to find more creative ways to give readers the spooks.

It’s a really short book, so not much of a time investment, but it speaks to its quality that it was able to leave such an impression in that time. If you’re a horror fan in particular, or just happen to like YA fiction, then I definitely recommend Welcome to Dead House.

Rating: 8.5/10

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How to build a life

Although I am usually very conscious of when things happened, I was quite surprised when I saw Facebook saying that a status I wrote in 2015 was ten years ago. Of course, I shouldn’t be surprised at it, because it’s obvious, but it feels especially strange to look back at that year, because it felt very much like I was in a kind of ‘future’ year – not because it’s literally the year of the future in Back to the Future Part 2, but because I felt disconnected from what I felt was the ‘main’ part of my life, and that I was just withering away in a weird ‘future’ year.

In early 2014, I was very happy indeed as I was doing well at university and had cultivated a decent circle of close friends. Sadly, upon leaving university it was a lot harder to find work as a writer than I had anticipated, so I had no money at all – I even had to go to the Job Centre each week, losing money every time because they never factored in that I had to pay a bus fare to get there. Many of my closest university friends were no longer around anyway and most school friends had long-since moved, so even if I could afford to visit friends (which I couldn’t) I’d still have had a mostly empty social life. After going for months and months with so little social interaction, I’d almost started to think that I had lost the ability to make friends – or even that I was mistaken in the belief that I ever might have had it before. By 2015, I felt worn thin, and the death of the old family dog didn’t make things any easier.

However, while that was easily the lowest point of my life, in retrospect I can see that it was the year in which unknowingly I planted the seeds for the life I have now. If I wanted to be hyperbolic, I could say that it all stemmed from me writing a blog post titled Trusty Water Bottle. It’s a slightly silly piece of writing, but one that reflected my wistfulness at the time – I talk about how my Trusty Water Bottle (the very bottle this blog is named after) was a constant friend, and at least I still had it, even if my friends moved away. It was intentionally kind of funny, and as it happens, the boss at a writing job that I applied for happened to think the same thing (specifically bringing it up as a good piece of writing in my interview) and I ended up getting the job.

That felt like a pretty cool development. I was working full-time as a writer and that was validating. The pay was extremely low and I was still very lonely, but it was a step in the right direction – and actually, that little extra bit of money made it possible for me to start re-building a life for myself to some extent. Now that I could afford to see friends, it was time to re-connect with people who had been very important to me during my school days. Prior to that, I’d always been a bit anxious that people from the past wouldn’t be happy to hear from me, but at that point, I didn’t think I had much to lose.

The two people that I reached out to during that time were my friends Hayley and Ben. Both had been among my very best friends a few years previously, and the dinners I had with them were lovely – two of the highlights of the year. I started to feel like I was myself again to some extent, rather than some kind of husk, and it was nice to see that they seemed to enjoy reuniting with me as much as I enjoyed reuniting with them. Today, the pair of them make up one of the corner stones of my social life, and I’ll see both of them several times throughout the year, so I’m very glad I decided to reach back out to them, as the current landscape of my life would be a little sadder without them.

As the Christmas season approached, I knew that my fixed-term job would likely not last much longer, but I was determined to enjoy the festivities while I could and I’d worry about being back to square one later. One of the thing I decided to do was to book a trip to London to pay a visit to my friend Mairi.

I had an absolutely delightful time when I did. Mairi and I visited Winter Wonderland and had dinner in a delicious Nando’s. Once again, I felt like I was re-connecting with who I’d been before when I went to see Mairi – and funnily enough, as we’d started out as internet friends seven years earlier, it as actually only the sixth time that we’d spent any time together. I think this fact fed into it being a particularly healing experience for me though. We had fun, joked around, and talked somewhat deeply about life in a comfortable and familiar way. During that time, I felt valued and appreciated. I thought, if I can maintain such a strong connection with a person I’ve only seen face to face a handful of times, then perhaps I shouldn’t be so pessimistic about my chances of forming meaningful friendships again in the future?

Around the same time, I also got myself another writing job. Turns out it was kind of rubbish, but it was as stepping stone alone the way, and as it happens, it was in this job that I met somebody named Sarah. I didn’t know it then, but in the years that followed, she’d quickly cement herself as one of the greatest friends I’d ever have and is literally responsible for my continued presence in the world after driving me to the hospital in 2020.

I had another delightful couple of days with two Christmas meals that I arranged, both of which gave me a chance to reunite with several old friends, including many who didn’t live in the area anymore. Perhaps most notably, my good friend Eilidh came along after I’d been semi-estranged from her for most of 2014 and 2015. It was delightful to see her again – and today we’re in our sixth consecutive year of living together, so that worked out well.

Between Christmas and New Year, I went to visit Oscar (one of the very best friends I’d made in university) in Bristol. At this point, I feel like it’s worth mentioning that Oscar and also dear old Chloe were the two most consistent friends I had at that point and though I could barely afford to see anyone, if I did, it would be with either or both of them and I was and am very grateful for that. Through Chloe, I even got to consolidate a solid relationship with her partner Liam – and he’s the one who bought me the domain of this website!

After having a day in Bristol with Oscar, I was back in Bath. It was dark and it was cold, and I had a long wait until my bus home to Corsham. I was wandering around the places I’d gone with different friends before, and thinking about how lonely it seemed now. As much as I’d had some good times over Christmas, the post-yuletide depression was kicking in and I thought I was likely to have another year of the same.

As I wandered around Bath that night, I thought to myself “Hey, maybe one day you’ll end up being friends with your colleague, Sarah, and that’ll be one more friendly face in Bath”. Looking back, that’s kind of a weird thought, because I don’t typically think that after meeting people, and I guess it was strangely cognizant too, since not only did I become very close with Sarah in 2016, but also with her partner Edward.

It’s comforting to think that even in the lowest point of my life so far, the seeds for better times ahead had been planted. Ben and Hayley were the first of many old friends that I’d re-forge my bond with in the years ahead. My first tentative writing jobs would pave the way for what’s actually been a much more lucrative career than I’d ever have imagined. Mairi gave me a revitalised sense of self-confidence, which helped me in making new friends in the years ahead, and I often think about how I randomly thought about Sarah when I was wandering around Bath that night, as it’s a warming reminder that you never know when a new person might go on to become one of the most important people in your life – meanwhile, when I look at my relationship with Eilidh at that point, and think about how I wasn’t sure that we’d even get back in touch, let alone live together one day, and it just goes to show that you never know when friendships will come back and be stronger than ever.

Ultimately, I was very lucky. Things fell into place perfectly and thanks to the love of good friends, I’m now living a life that I am perfectly happy and contented with – but I look back to 2015 and I think that it could just as easily have been the turning point that sent me down the path of becoming a mean and bitter person. I’m glad that, unbeknownst to me, the seeds of happiness were growing quite rapidly.

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The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

This is probably the best ghost story I have ever read, and quite possibly even the best horror (though there are some other strong contenders). What helps this short novel by Shirley Jackson really stand out (and send shivers down its readers’ spines) is that it genuinely feels the most realistic of any horror novel that I’ve read before.

Of course, realism is hard to do when dealing with anything supernatural, but she’s done a fantastic job here. The story goes that a man called Dr. John Montague invites a group of people to stay with him in a place called Hill House because it is allegedly one of the most haunted houses in America and he wants to bring them together in order to document their experiences and potentially find evidence for the existence of ghosts. A pretty plausible setup.

The kinds of frightening things that end up happening are extremely minor – doors seeming to slam shut on their own and so forth, but I think this actually really helps it. When you read other novels that have unfathomable monsters chasing after people, you really can’t fathom how something like that would feel, because it’s not rooted in reality. Meanwhile, almost most all of us have had the experience of something weird, or slightly unsettling happening that we can’t properly explain. The fear and anxiety they feel is very relatable.

Meanwhile, not only are all the characters masterfully written (especially Eleanor, who is essentially the main character) and compelling, but their reactions to the inexplicable events feel completely natural, with them often making jokes in the face of the unexplained as they try and dismiss what’s happening as ridiculous, and later even question themselves about what they’ve experienced. For a lot of what happens a “rational” possibility is given, and a lot of it makes you start to question the characters’ sanity, in much the same way that you’d do so with yourself if you kept having ghostly experiences.

At the end of novel, I wondered whether it was really about a haunted house at all, but I loved how things weren’t spelled out directly one way or another. It was Eleanor and Theodora at the heart of it that I felt most invested in, and their strangely intense and uncomfortable relationship helped compliment the horror perfectly, as there were social tensions alongside the supernatural ones. Ultimately, it all comes together brilliantly, and reflects Shirley Jackon’s perfect understanding of human minds and feelings.

Rating: 9.2/10

Buy it here.

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The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

A classic Dickens novel that tells a sympathetic story of people living in poverty in Victorian society. In this particular novel, you’ve got an old man who is trying desperately to look after his granddaughter, Nell, but who ends up getting involved with some pretty horrible people in the process of trying to get his hands on some money, causing them to go on the run.

The novel opens absolutely beautifully, with a man going out to take an evening stroll and ultimately coming across Nell and her grandfather in the curiosity shop that they live in. Curiously, the style of the novel changes completely after a few chapters, because the narrator essentially removes himself from the narrative and never comes back, switching to a third person narration instead. This was a side effect of the way it was originally written (serialised in a magazine) where Dickens wanted it to be told by his existing character, Master Humphrey, who was involved with all stories in the magazine, but later decided it was best to distance the projects. It’s not a problem at all, but it’s really interesting and not something you’re likely to see in modern pieces.

Sadly, I did like the style just a little more while it still had a narrator, but I think that’s because some of the slower, more boring chapters only came after he had gone. Dickens almost always has pacing issues, and The Old Curiosity Shop is no exception – but I was pretty deeply invested in the story of Nell and her grandfather. It’s just a shame that there were quite a lot of chapters set in a law clerks’ office which I was nowhere near as interested in. It is relevant in the end, but a lot of the chapters didn’t really captivate me, especially those without Nell’s old friend, Kit.

The villain of the novel, a man named Quilp, is potentially a little problematic. It didn’t bother me enormously, but a lot is made of the fact that this amoral criminal is a dwarf, and he’s constantly described as obscenely hideous. I have no issue with the fact that he’s written a person with dwarfism as being awful, because of course there are loads of awful people with dwarfism, just like anybody else – but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen him write a dwarf character of any kind, so it’s unfortunate that he is an irredeemably terrible person. The amount of time spent describing how ugly he was didn’t feel great either. I was still able to enjoy it and take a step back from what was almost certainly a case of unpleasant 19th century ideals, but it may be less easy for other readers. I seem to recall some off-handed casual racism too.

While I didn’t find it as profound as A Tale of Two Cities, or as all-round amazing as A Christmas Carol, I did have a good time with this novel. The ending, which is somewhat controversial, was really moving for me, despite some people calling it melodrama. All in all, its a great example of Dickens being able to create lovable, engaging characters, while highlighting the inequality of his society… even if he does waffle a bit.

Score: 7.7/10

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The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle

This is the fourth full-length Sherlock Holmes novel (and the seventh in the series, counting the short story anthologies) and I have to say that it’s potentially my favourite one. This might be a somewhat unexpected perspective though, as while Holmes and Watson themselves have always been what I love most about the series, in this one, their involvement largely feels like a framing device for a story set in America.

However, while Holmes and Watson themselves have roles that feel diminished, I’d say that the cast of this story are the most interesting characters Arthur Conan Doyle ever created for the Sherlock Holmes series (outside of Irene Adler and Moriarty). Set in a place called Vermissa, the character, known as Douglas in the ‘present’ of the story, gets involved with a criminal gang working under the guise of a trade union.

The characters in Vermissa feel a thousand miles apart from those you usually encounter in Baker Street (I guess that’s because they are). The way Douglas gets entwined with the criminal world, and the relationships that he builds with other members (including the leader of the gang) is so enticing. You even begin to understand the twisted sense of morality that they operate under and feel sympathy for them – it makes you realise how somebody really could get involved with something like this. There’s also a massive twist that I never saw coming.

The novel also loosely ties into Holmes’ pursuit of Moriarty, so is evidently intended to take place before The Final Problem. Continuity-wise, I don’t think it meshes perfectly with The Final Problem, as he seems to tell Watson about Moriarty for the first time in both of them, but as far as I’m concerned it’s a very minor problem in the light of such a gripping story.

Even if you’ve never read a Sherlock Holmes story before, I think that this could be an excellent place to start, as you really don’t need any knowledge of the other stories. It’s especially worth reading if you enjoy gritty crime dramas. It’s a bleak novel, for sure, but it did a tremendous job of immersing me in its world.

Rating: 9.3/10

Buy it here.

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Reflecting on 2024

Usually I get towards the end of the year, and I’m quite excited to write up my reflections on all that I’ve experienced across the past twelve months. Curiously, I’m feeling notably less reflective this year. I suppose I’m often in a position where I think either “phew, thank goodness those horrible experiences are over – I can’t wait for things to get better in the year ahead” or I think “What an incredible year – I feel so lucky and want to look back on it all” whereas this year, I don’t really fall into either of those categories, it was more of a neutral year – and that’s not a bad thing at all. There are still lots of things for me to look back on and feel grateful for.

In the middle of the year, my good friend Lydia invited me to join a “girls’ holiday” to Pembrokeshire, which was a delightful weekend filled with long walks, swimming in the sea, exploring caves, and more. It was definitely one of the highlights of 2024 and during that time I met lots of good people, including someone named Emilie, who has since become a good friend that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting for long discussions about literature and life over delicious dinners.

It’s a fun coincidence that I’d end up going on holiday with a group of strangers again after doing the same thing when I went to Portugal in 2023. Speaking of which, my friend Malena (who I’d met briefly before, only properly befriended in Portugal) has been a significantly positive influence this year, because I’ve discovered that the two of us have an enormous amount in common in the way that we view life and relationships. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone else whose mind works so similarly to mine, so the cultivation of that friendship has been extremely valuable. No wonder we were able to become friends so quickly.

Meanwhile, two of my very best friends, Sarah and Edward, had a beautiful baby named Rowan and he is an absolute delight. He is the first baby I’ve ever got to hold or really interact with for any substantial period of time and I love him. Such a friendly and engaging little human. The amount of enjoyment he seems to get out of conversation when he can’t even talk back is pretty amazing and he makes you feel pretty special while you’re talking to him.

I should also mention that two of my other very best friends, Chloe and Liam, asked if I would officiate their wedding. That’s pretty much the highest honour that I’ve ever been granted. Sadly, it turned out not to be possible for me to do this in the end, so I was downgraded to Master of Ceremonies – but that’s still pretty darn cool and something I am looking forward to in the year ahead.

Work-wise, I’ve been promoted to the highest level of seniority that I’ve ever reached in my career, with a salary far beyond what I ever imagined I’d make. Sadly though, the latter half of the year has come with a sizeable chunk of work stress, which consequently meant that I was feeling worn down and getting unhappy about things that ordinarily wouldn’t phase me. Fortunately, that’s all resolved now though. Earlier in the year, I also had one of my articles quoted in a game trailer, and I always love it when that happens.

The hardest thing I’ve found about this year is that horrible things keep happening to the people I care about. My inclination is always to treat people to a dinner or get them a present to lift their spirits, but the things that happen to people end up so being so horrible and so complicated, that it begins to feel like there’s nothing I can do to ever help them. I’m fortunate that my life continues to remain very simple and easy, but I do hate feeling powerless while others are having such a hard time.

Nonetheless, the lingering memories of 2024 will be of the fun times I shared with friends. A trip to Thermae Bath Spa with Chloe and Eilidh, watching Big Shark with Rory (absolutely hilarious), getting to meet Sophie Aldred with Oscar and Jess, game nights with Ben, Hayley, Tasha, Richard, and Nick, getting to see a lot more of Stacey, reuniting with Will after five years, getting to meet up with Tonicha in person, and much, much more.

A very special thank you to Eilidh, Chloe, Liam, Kat, Amy, Rory, Sarah, Edward, Lydia, Tonicha, Davey, Laura, Mairi, Malena, Neus, Lorette, Lorena, Jess, Emilie, Tonicha, Tom, Leo, Elissa, Rowan, Elliott, Christie, George, Nick, Hayley, Tasha, Ben, Lin, Christian, Callum, Lauren, Oscar, Jess, David, Natasha, Hester, Isabella, Mia, Will, Stacey, Christopher, Dalfino, Helen, Stephanie, Anthony, Sam, Kristen, and my mother. Whether we’ve done stuff together in real life (which most of us have) or just kept in touch online, you’ve all had your part to play in making this a good year.

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Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time by Paul Cornell

Twice Upon a Time is possibly my favourite Doctor Who Christmas special, and I think it’s one of the best episodes overall. I was quite surprised to see it get a novelisation, when it is so heavily tied to the World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls two-parter that preceded it, but I’m very pleased it did. I’m also very happy that Paul Cornell (one of the best Doctor Who writers) was the person to end of doing it, because everything I’ve read by him has been fantastic.

For those who need a refresher, the original Doctor Who episode that this is based on (written by Steven Moffat) is about the Twelfth Doctor coming to the end of his life and refusing to regenerate because of the amount of pain and trauma he’s experienced beforehand. He encounters the First Doctor, at the end of his own life, who, to his surprise, is also refusing to regenerate – the two of them then get caught up in an adventure involving a time-displayed captain from the First World War and a mysterious woman made of glass.

The novelisation doesn’t make any huge deviations to the storyline, but it does flesh certain things out quite well – especially the First Doctor’s motivations. It reveals that part of his reason for not wanting to regenerate is that he wants to see his granddaughter Susan again in the same body that he originally knew her in and also strongly suggests that the uncharacteristic misogynistic nonsense he comes out with during this story is purely said for the sake of winding up the Twelfth Doctor (rather than being what he actually believes).

Another excellent addition, which I won’t spoil, is that it gives a detailed account of what happened to both Bill and Nardole after the end of The Doctor Falls. I was especially glad that we got some closure for Nardole, since his fate was left pretty open-ended. These were probably the biggest new revelations in the book, but throughout the whole thing there are countless nuggets of information which are just absolutely delightful if you’re a Doctor Who fan.

Although I would recommend watching the original episode first (it’s fantastic) this is a great way to re-experience it and is sure to be a fun read for anyone who’s especially fond of the Twelfth Doctor. It’s probably the best Doctor Who novelisation I’ve read so far.

Rating: 8.9/10

Buy it here.

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The Muppet Christmas Carol by Brooke Vitale

The Muppet Christmas Carol is one of my favourite adaptations of my one of favourite books, and with this illustrated picture book, things have come full circle because the adaptation the novel has itself been novelised – or indeed, picture bookised.

If you know the movie, then it will no doubt be a wonderfully charming and nostalgic experience to see several key moments from the film re-imagined in Luke Flower’s beautiful art style. There are several big scenes in particular, where it’s fun to pause your reading and just take a moment to take in all the scenery and appreciate the small details. Funnily, I think they have intentionally tried to avoid making Scrooge look like Michael Caine, but I don’t think it’s an issue.

As for the writing, it’s what you’d expect of a picture book for very young children. This has been designed to be read to kids by an adult (not that it can’t be enjoyed by adults on their own) and I have to admit that Brooke Vitale did a pretty good job of condensing the whole of A Christmas Carol to something that can be enjoyed within the space of ten minutes.

One minor detail that I found slightly silly was the fact that it did change some pieces of dialogue to avoid directly saying that Tiny Tim died (even though it is very strongly implied). I guess I can kind of understand wanting to keep things light in a book for young children, but I saw the movie as a young child and don’t think it did any harm to see references to Tiny Tim dying. Also, I think most kids are quite inquisitive, so they will probably ask their parents or figure it out.

Nonetheless, that’s a nit-pick, really. I love this book and as a fan of The Muppets, A Christmas Carol, and The Muppets Christmas Carol, I am delighted to have it on my bookshelf.

Rating: 8/10

Buy it here.

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Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle

This novel tells what is probably one of the most iconic sci-fi stories of the twentieth century which is a good indicator of its quality – although the downside of this is the fact that I don’t imagine there are many people who will read this without knowing the final twist. While I saw the movie adaptation as a child many years ago (and several other times since) I won’t mention the final twist on the off-chance that there is anyone who doesn’t know what happens – and to be fair, the twist is slightly different for the novel anyway.

The story begins with a couple of space travellers finding a message in a bottle – that message makes up the entirety of the book. I did think to myself that it must be an abnormally large bottle in order to contain such a large manuscript, but I quite liked this faming device. Indeed, there was quite a charming level of whimsy to it, and it was not at all how I expected it to start. This framing device comes back in a really interesting way at the end too.

But as to the story itself, it’s about a man named Ulysse Mérou who goes on an interstellar journey with a couple of scientists and a chimpanzee. It takes many hundred years for them to make the journey and it is made with the understanding that they will never be able to return to the world as they know it. When they get to the planet of their destination, they find that the humans are essentially animals, living out in the forest and unable even to talk – meanwhile, apes are the dominant species and they hunt and use humans in much the same way that humans do to apes in reality.

I enjoy the moderately progressive way in which the treatment of apes (and indeed, all animals) is condemned here. Though generally speaking, Ulysse is an absolutely loathsome character. Not only is he arrogant without ever really being shown to have particularly noticeable qualities, but he’s an absolute creep too. Near the start he meets a woman who he names Nova (she doesn’t have a name as she and the other people of her tribe are unable to speak) and he immediately becomes infatuated with her. Though in his own words, she is “more a girl than a woman”, so, yeah, and the fact that she obviously is not mentally developed in the same way that he is creates a power imbalance. The stuff that happens between them is downright disgusting in my mind, and he’s super possessive of her too… I guess Pierre Boulle is not immune to the classic trope of fantasy and sci-fi writers being massive creeps (or at least, writing as if they were).

My favorite character was Zira, a female chimpanzee who is sympathetic towards Ulysse and completely accepts the fact that he is intelligent. She’s proof that Boulle can write a good female character too, as her character arc of over-coming the long-standing beliefs of her civilization is a really interesting one. Honestly, I’d say that she grows more than Ulysse himself. She is also, rightly, not approving of his relationship with Nova.

Overall, despite Ulysse being unbearable, I really enjoyed this novel. It’s got some really cool ideas in it, and I think the writing style is pretty engaging too. If you’re a fan of classic sci-fi, or of the Planet of the Apes movies, I strong recommend giving it a read. I think the twist is slightly improved in the movies, but I still really enjoyed how it was done here.

Rating: 8.3/10

Buy it here.

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