Once again Titan has teamed up with author Greg Keyes to deliver a prequel book in ‘War for the Planet of the Apes: Revelations’. Just like he did with ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Firestorm‘, Keyes has delivered a solid piece of work that helps capture the action that took place since the last film came to a close.
When the book opens, we see Caesar and his apes on the run as they’ve been driven from their home after Koba’s takeover. At this time, Caesar is still trying to put a stop to a war with humankind before things escalate past the point of no return. It almost looks like it can happen but his enemies are ruthless and are about to find an unexpected ally in the form of Colonel McCullough.
Setting the stage for a major motion picture with a prequel novel sounds almost like a daunting task, but Keyes writing makes it seem effortless. We’re able to continue on from ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes‘ as only days have gone by since the credits have rolled which allows there to be plenty of connective tissue from what Caesar had just gone through with Koba. The fallout from this coup is still real as Koba’s followers are still making an attempt to overthrow our leading Ape and establish their own way of thinking as the dominant way of life among Apekind.
Woody Harrelson’s Colonel McCullough has an excellent introduction and shows exactly why he is against the Apes being the ruling species on the planet as well as the reasons he believes the two species cannot coexist. The way he leads his men and follows his chosen path is actually very much like Caesar, just through a more militant nature.
Caesar isn’t the focus of the tale though, but instead, we follow Blue Eyes who is his son. For much of the work, he is on a scouting mission to find somewhere safe for the Apes to live. However, humanity and those who work against the rest of Apekind are hot on his heels. Helping him is a new orangutan named Ray and is clearly more of a thinker than many of the Apes. This seems to be a constant theme of the orangutans who I feel have been underused in the new films to date.
Keyes once again does a fantastic job at throwing us right into the middle of the world of the ‘Planet of the Apes.’ He does so in a way that gives us plenty of details to bridge the prior and upcoming films while also telling us a powerfully compelling story!
War for the Planet of the Apes: Revelations
By: Greg Keyes
Titan Books
June 6th, 2017
