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Planet of the Apes Movies #1
BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES
"Can the world exist half-ape and half-human?" Based upon characters created by Pierre Boulle. When it was discovered that the fantastic Planet of the Apes was their own Earth, it was only the beginning of the most incredible adventure of all time...
Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
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522 people want to read
About the author
Michael Avallone
172 books40 followersAlso wrote Nick Carter: Killmaster series under Nick Carter alias with others
Michael Angelo Avallone was a prolific American author of mystery and secret agent fiction, and novelizations based on TV and films. He claimed a lifetime output over 1,000 works, including novels, short stories, articles, published under his own name or 17+ pseudonyms.
His first novel, The Tall Dolores 1953 introduced Ed Noon PI. After three dozen more, the most recent was 1989. The final volume, "Since Noon Yesterday" is, as of 2005, unpublished.
Tie-ins included Man from U.N.C.L.E., Hawaii Five-0, Mannix, Friday the 13th Part III, Beneath the Planet of the Apes and even The Partridge Family. In late 1960s novellas featured U.N.C.L.E.-like INTREX. He is sometimes cited incorrectly as the creator of Man from U.N.C.L.E. (as in the January 1967 issue of The Saint Magazine), or having died March 1.
As Troy Conway, Rod Damon: The Coxeman novel series 1967-73, parodied Man from UNCLE. An unusual entry was the novelization of the 1982 TV mini-series, A Woman Called Golda, the life of Golda Meir.
Among the many pseudonyms that Michael Avallone used (male and female) were: Mile Avalione, Mike Avalone, Nick Carter, Troy Conway, Priscilla Dalton, Mark Dane, Jeanne-Anne dePre, Dora Highland, Stuart Jason, Steve Michaels, Dorothea Nile, Edwina Noone, John Patrick, Vance Stanton, Sidney Stuart, Max Walker, and Lee Davis Willoughby.
From 1962-5, Avallone edited the Mystery Writers of America newsletter. Personal Life:
He married 1949 Lucille Asero (one son; marriage dissolved), 1960 Fran Weinstein (one son, one daughter); died Los Angeles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_...
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/tri...
Michael Angelo Avallone was a prolific American author of mystery and secret agent fiction, and novelizations based on TV and films. He claimed a lifetime output over 1,000 works, including novels, short stories, articles, published under his own name or 17+ pseudonyms.
His first novel, The Tall Dolores 1953 introduced Ed Noon PI. After three dozen more, the most recent was 1989. The final volume, "Since Noon Yesterday" is, as of 2005, unpublished.
Tie-ins included Man from U.N.C.L.E., Hawaii Five-0, Mannix, Friday the 13th Part III, Beneath the Planet of the Apes and even The Partridge Family. In late 1960s novellas featured U.N.C.L.E.-like INTREX. He is sometimes cited incorrectly as the creator of Man from U.N.C.L.E. (as in the January 1967 issue of The Saint Magazine), or having died March 1.
As Troy Conway, Rod Damon: The Coxeman novel series 1967-73, parodied Man from UNCLE. An unusual entry was the novelization of the 1982 TV mini-series, A Woman Called Golda, the life of Golda Meir.
Among the many pseudonyms that Michael Avallone used (male and female) were: Mile Avalione, Mike Avalone, Nick Carter, Troy Conway, Priscilla Dalton, Mark Dane, Jeanne-Anne dePre, Dora Highland, Stuart Jason, Steve Michaels, Dorothea Nile, Edwina Noone, John Patrick, Vance Stanton, Sidney Stuart, Max Walker, and Lee Davis Willoughby.
From 1962-5, Avallone edited the Mystery Writers of America newsletter. Personal Life:
He married 1949 Lucille Asero (one son; marriage dissolved), 1960 Fran Weinstein (one son, one daughter); died Los Angeles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_...
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/tri...
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
July 6, 2025
I was HUGE Planet of the Apes fan back in the day. had to read all the books to make sure i didn't miss anything. Recommended
June 25, 2009
How do you review?
A book?
Where every sentence is a paragraph?
That's Michael Avallone.
He breaks every writing rule held sacred by your English teachers.
He published countless books.
Hack writing was never so goofy or so fun.
A book?
Where every sentence is a paragraph?
That's Michael Avallone.
He breaks every writing rule held sacred by your English teachers.
He published countless books.
Hack writing was never so goofy or so fun.
August 3, 2016
Michael Avallone, a prolific writer who always seems to deliver enjoyable books, kicks this up a notch.
July 7, 2025
Loved this story and I love the movie as well. Have all 5 original Ape movies on Blu-ray!
March 8, 2014
Since I am a huge science fiction fan I had to read Beneath the Planet of the Apes. It’s the last book of the series, which were movies before. I was sucked into this book very quickly and finished it in two days between reading other books. Packed with heroic action and cheesy romance, the story delivered quickly.
The plot of the story begins with 6 astronauts that mysteriously crash land on their home planet. Only two of them are left. Apparently they believed that they went through a rip of space and time. They are separated from the beginning of the first movie. Taylor meets a girl he calls Nova, a girl enslaved to the Apes. Years of silence had made them silent. I really enjoyed this portion of this story. It was really outdated in a way, apes obviously couldn't take over the earth now. The writing style is very nice. It’s almost as if the writer was taking down many notes when he watched the movie.
Then the story takes a sharp twist. After Taylor and Nova reunited with Brent, the other astronaut, they flee to the Forbidden Zone to evade the Gorilla Army. They discover an underground complex where mutant people way beyond the intellect of themselves were living, hiding. They also worship an atomic bomb named Omega, the end. The one before that was named Alpha. I thought the names were really stupid. Kind of reminds me of Megaton in the game Fall Out. I guess that this means that an atomic bomb was set of before and caused people to turn to apes? I don’t know, I never read the first one. I didn't really like this portion of the story it made it feel unreal. Too commercial almost. If the mutants were so powerful, why didn't they kill of the Apes?
The ending of the book was a little disappointing, but it worked. The Apes took control again, and caused the heroic Taylor to defiantly set the bomb off. And that’s the end. The last of line of the book really impacted me on how insignificant: In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe, lies a medium-sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead. It was really unfortunate that they couldn't overwhelm the Apes the save their lives (no pun intended).
If the astronauts and Nova managed to do so, I would have given the book a full 6 stars. This book is perfect for all audiences, it has great action to it, the characters are heroic, and it makes you really think if this could really happen. The author’s way of writing didn't bother me. It was pretty realistic.
The plot of the story begins with 6 astronauts that mysteriously crash land on their home planet. Only two of them are left. Apparently they believed that they went through a rip of space and time. They are separated from the beginning of the first movie. Taylor meets a girl he calls Nova, a girl enslaved to the Apes. Years of silence had made them silent. I really enjoyed this portion of this story. It was really outdated in a way, apes obviously couldn't take over the earth now. The writing style is very nice. It’s almost as if the writer was taking down many notes when he watched the movie.
Then the story takes a sharp twist. After Taylor and Nova reunited with Brent, the other astronaut, they flee to the Forbidden Zone to evade the Gorilla Army. They discover an underground complex where mutant people way beyond the intellect of themselves were living, hiding. They also worship an atomic bomb named Omega, the end. The one before that was named Alpha. I thought the names were really stupid. Kind of reminds me of Megaton in the game Fall Out. I guess that this means that an atomic bomb was set of before and caused people to turn to apes? I don’t know, I never read the first one. I didn't really like this portion of the story it made it feel unreal. Too commercial almost. If the mutants were so powerful, why didn't they kill of the Apes?
The ending of the book was a little disappointing, but it worked. The Apes took control again, and caused the heroic Taylor to defiantly set the bomb off. And that’s the end. The last of line of the book really impacted me on how insignificant: In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe, lies a medium-sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead. It was really unfortunate that they couldn't overwhelm the Apes the save their lives (no pun intended).
If the astronauts and Nova managed to do so, I would have given the book a full 6 stars. This book is perfect for all audiences, it has great action to it, the characters are heroic, and it makes you really think if this could really happen. The author’s way of writing didn't bother me. It was pretty realistic.
June 27, 2014
Not proud of this one. Think I've learned my lesson when it comes to picking up a book because, 'it looks like nostalgic fun.'
Nostalgic, yes...if you dig bad movies replaying in your head.
Fun...to laugh about, maybe.
The end.
Nostalgic, yes...if you dig bad movies replaying in your head.
Fun...to laugh about, maybe.
The end.
March 21, 2024
Again, loved the Apes movies, Apes are on the cover, Apes book in my collection.
May 28, 2020
It seems a lot of people don't much care for Beneath the Planet of the Apes as a movie, but I've always considered it an enjoyable continuation of the original. Perhaps not as thoughtful, but the bomb worshiping mutants are clearly a sharp satirical jab at the cold war mentality of "mutual assured destruction" and the balance of terror. Michael Avallone's novelization of the movie is a workmanlike effort. It doesn't add very much to the story, but it does a fine job of retelling the events seen onscreen.
The only notable digression from the movie version is a short scene in one of the last chapters. It portrays Zira and Cornelius at home, speculating about the fate of the gorilla incursion into the Forbidden Zone. The scene caught my attention because it seems to unintentionally contradict events from the next movie in the series, Escape From the Planet of the Apes. I assume this is either Avallone's own addition, or a scene that was scripted but left out of the final cut. The fact that Zira and Cornelius' fates were left ambiguous at the end of the film version of Beneath is the only reason that Escape was possible at all. The novelization makes it seem as though they would have perished with all the others when Taylor detonated the Alpha-Omega bomb, which would have ended the series completely.
The only notable digression from the movie version is a short scene in one of the last chapters. It portrays Zira and Cornelius at home, speculating about the fate of the gorilla incursion into the Forbidden Zone. The scene caught my attention because it seems to unintentionally contradict events from the next movie in the series, Escape From the Planet of the Apes. I assume this is either Avallone's own addition, or a scene that was scripted but left out of the final cut. The fact that Zira and Cornelius' fates were left ambiguous at the end of the film version of Beneath is the only reason that Escape was possible at all. The novelization makes it seem as though they would have perished with all the others when Taylor detonated the Alpha-Omega bomb, which would have ended the series completely.
August 18, 2017
It was good and entertaining but also very -what the heck?-. I was not expecting that plot.. and it was cheesy sometimes. Uhh the incredibly beautiful savage girl whom all men appear to fall in love with... anyhow, I appreciate the author's imagination, it was like reading a fanfic.
The ending he didn't leave room for a continuation. New York as we know it destroyed by the worst enemy of the earth: humans. Mutant creatures and violence after a world destroyed by an atomic bomb.
The ending he didn't leave room for a continuation. New York as we know it destroyed by the worst enemy of the earth: humans. Mutant creatures and violence after a world destroyed by an atomic bomb.
April 18, 2015
I"m biased, sure... but this is actually better -- much better -- than the movie. The lackluster direction, second-rate makeup and low budget sets don't show up in the novel, and you're free to appreciate the dark, spiraling "end" of the Planet of the Apes.
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August 19, 2011after the crash in the first book Taylor the last astronaut find a underground city with mutant people with magic powers and he discovers a atomic bomb
May 13, 2018
Ein Buch zum Film, von einem Vielschreiber angefertigt, wohl um schnell abzukassieren.
Scheußlicher Stil, blöde, holzschnittartige Handlung. Nach 39 Seiten abgebrochen.
Scheußlicher Stil, blöde, holzschnittartige Handlung. Nach 39 Seiten abgebrochen.
September 4, 2020
I really wanted to like this book. It is the second in the 'Apes' series. Although it is actually the first of the adaptations. The Planet of the Apes book is something quite different and was adapted into the first movie where they changed things quite a bit. I wonder if there is an adaptation of the original movie anywhere? Okay, I enjoyed the 'Beneath' movie even though it looks like is was a tv movie of the week rather a major theater release. It was given quite a small budget and did what it could with the sets and makeup. So I had high hopes of the book giving me what the movie could not. Unfortunately like the movie and its lackluster direction this book has rather lackluster writing. It is a basic action-adventure story that is a quick read. It doesn't have anywhere near as much social commentary that the original first book and movie contained. The book did try to add a bit more commentary to the science/religion vs military idea than the movie and did add some welcome characterization to General Ursus, who was cardboard cutout military. You know the type, don't think, just fight anything you don't understand and anybody who disagrees is weak. Unfortunately that is where it stops and shows there really wasn't much to this story.
Considering the major point of the twist at the end of the Planet of the Apes being (spoilers if you have never seen the movies) the Statue of Liberty, it is quite odd the author has Miss Liberty at the coast at the beginning of the book then at the end of the story she is in New York. I guess she was back from her vacation at the coast? lol.
Considering the major point of the twist at the end of the Planet of the Apes being (spoilers if you have never seen the movies) the Statue of Liberty, it is quite odd the author has Miss Liberty at the coast at the beginning of the book then at the end of the story she is in New York. I guess she was back from her vacation at the coast? lol.
November 2, 2017
I'll be honest. This is not a three star book. I have a huge nostalgia bias going on here.
Michael Avallone, by any of his 15+ pen names, is not really a three star author. I mean, may he rest in peace and kudos to him for working pretty damn steady as a writer cranking out a steady stream of books, but the guy was no Shakespeare or Steinbeck. He was more like Dan Brown. No, wait...he actually wrote better than Dan Brown. But the guy churned out a series of mysteries built around The Partirdge Family, of all things. (Yes, I'm serious. I'll wait here while you fact check me on that.) And they were hilariously bad and hilariously entertaining, although I don't think they were supposed to be hilarious at all. Anyway, that's what we're dealing with here. He wrote a lot, but he wrote a lot of novelizations of TV/Flim, and he wrote a lot of very simplistic spy stuff. He wrote whatever was going to pay the rent that month. Can't blame a guy for that (long as he sticks to fiction.)
Ages ago, during a particularly bad winter where I seemed to spend more time home sick and doped up on children's nasty-ass cherry-flavored cough medicine than in school, I went through a Planet of the Apes and Jules Verne phase. I remember this being hugely entertaining if not particularly well-written. Or maybe it was the codeine that made me think so
Michael Avallone, by any of his 15+ pen names, is not really a three star author. I mean, may he rest in peace and kudos to him for working pretty damn steady as a writer cranking out a steady stream of books, but the guy was no Shakespeare or Steinbeck. He was more like Dan Brown. No, wait...he actually wrote better than Dan Brown. But the guy churned out a series of mysteries built around The Partirdge Family, of all things. (Yes, I'm serious. I'll wait here while you fact check me on that.) And they were hilariously bad and hilariously entertaining, although I don't think they were supposed to be hilarious at all. Anyway, that's what we're dealing with here. He wrote a lot, but he wrote a lot of novelizations of TV/Flim, and he wrote a lot of very simplistic spy stuff. He wrote whatever was going to pay the rent that month. Can't blame a guy for that (long as he sticks to fiction.)
Ages ago, during a particularly bad winter where I seemed to spend more time home sick and doped up on children's nasty-ass cherry-flavored cough medicine than in school, I went through a Planet of the Apes and Jules Verne phase. I remember this being hugely entertaining if not particularly well-written. Or maybe it was the codeine that made me think so
September 27, 2024
"Beneath" was probably the weakest of the original POTA movies due to its bleak, nihilistic ending and its numerous inconsistancies with the first film. (How, for instance, does Taylor suddenly have dog tags? He certainly didn't have them while he was a prisoner of the apes for most of the first movie.)
But Michael Avallone--expert novelizer--does a fine job of retelling the movie in prose form, giving life to Brent, Nova and Taylor while even getting us to like Dr. Zaius just a little bit.
Brent is the only survivor of a rescue mission sent after Taylor's spaceship. Taylor, in the meantime, has been captured by Atom Bomb-worshipping telepathic mutants who live in the ruins of New York City. Brent meets Nova and the two also end up as prisoners of the mutants. In the meantime, Dr. Zaius and the militaristic gorilla Ursus are leading an army into the Forbidden Zone, to eventually clash with the mutants.
Avallone does handle both story and characterizations well, perhaps even succeeding in giving the story a little more depth than the movie had.
But Michael Avallone--expert novelizer--does a fine job of retelling the movie in prose form, giving life to Brent, Nova and Taylor while even getting us to like Dr. Zaius just a little bit.
Brent is the only survivor of a rescue mission sent after Taylor's spaceship. Taylor, in the meantime, has been captured by Atom Bomb-worshipping telepathic mutants who live in the ruins of New York City. Brent meets Nova and the two also end up as prisoners of the mutants. In the meantime, Dr. Zaius and the militaristic gorilla Ursus are leading an army into the Forbidden Zone, to eventually clash with the mutants.
Avallone does handle both story and characterizations well, perhaps even succeeding in giving the story a little more depth than the movie had.
March 22, 2020
My goodness what an awfully badly written book. Yet strangely compelling much like the movie itself which is the weakest of original Planet of the Apes series. No character development, no back story, nothing approaching verisimilitude to reality so we could suspend our sense of disbelief. Michael Avallone was a cheap hack of private dick novels and tv novelizations - he had no business writing a sci-fi novel but the studio heads didn't care one bit about that. I'm certain they wanted a hack to hammer out a novelization quick to capitalize on the movie's release. If you've seen the movie, you've read the book but I couldn't help myself I had to read it to it's grim end. At least it was a quick read. Thank you very much.
May 2, 2022
Astronauts coming through a bend in time land on earth in 3955, a desolate, wasteland, the Gorilla's are now rulers of the wasteland, the apes keep humans in cages, the genocide of humans, man are now slaves they are nothing. General Ursus the leader of the apes live in Ape City and want to take the Forbidden city, the gorillas brandishing truncheons, holding rifles, leatherbound jackets an ungodly sight of fear and destruction. One of the Astronauts will enter the forbidden city and understand that a Bomb is ready to destroy every living cell. The leaders are mutants from centuries of nuclear fallout their faces expose veins, arteries, muscle and tendons, an anatomical nightmare, unbelievable and totally hideous. Everyone wants to annilate.
June 20, 2025
Ugh gawd, this was AWFUL!!!!!! 😡👎🏻😤
I don’t know how this book/movie ever got green lit!
The ONLY connection to the original book/movie was the fact that they were, indeed, ON the planet of the apes.
This author lost EVERYTHING that made the first book so incredible. There was NONE of the charm or other worldliness of the original. This was a complete and other bastardization of the source material.
And don’t even get me started on the writing and the overwhelming ICK that some of the descriptions gave me.
ABSOLUTE SHITE!!!
I don’t know how this book/movie ever got green lit!
The ONLY connection to the original book/movie was the fact that they were, indeed, ON the planet of the apes.
This author lost EVERYTHING that made the first book so incredible. There was NONE of the charm or other worldliness of the original. This was a complete and other bastardization of the source material.
And don’t even get me started on the writing and the overwhelming ICK that some of the descriptions gave me.
ABSOLUTE SHITE!!!
April 4, 2020
I remember buying this in Romford Shopping centre back in the mid-70s. I had never been able to get into to see this film at the cinema because they put the certificate up to an AA and they would not let me in. I read the story and enjoyed it. Soon after this movie came to Romford Odean as a double bill with Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Both were AA. I was 13 but managed to convince the ticket lady that I was 14.
July 17, 2025
Much more descriptive than the film, from which it is adapted. Astronaut Brent crash lands on the planet we know as Earth, but he doesn’t. He meets Nova and gets captured by General Ursus. Rescued by Cornelius & Zira, he and Nova flee to the Forbidden Zone ahead of Ursus and his invading army. Once there Brent recognizes where he is, and captured by the inhabitants of the Forbidden Zone.
March 6, 2022
I read it in the 1970's when the original movies were all the rage. I liked it then but I have not read it since then. I seem to remember that it was easy enough read and reflected the movie script.
June 12, 2018
4 out of 10
Poorly written novelization.
Poorly written novelization.
March 13, 2022
this book SUCKS
five stars for the following excerpt: "Nova was being similarly manhandled. Gorilla-handled?" which feels like a joke they forgot to cut out
five stars for the following excerpt: "Nova was being similarly manhandled. Gorilla-handled?" which feels like a joke they forgot to cut out
August 8, 2023
Short, breezy read. It is a novelization of the 1970 movie "Beneath the Planet of the Apes."
Don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed.
Don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed.
October 30, 2023
Dated and a bit short, but a fun enough trip down memory lane
May 18, 2024
Love thew Apes
July 9, 2024
Very silly book featuring the culture of the 60/s with a bomb, aliens in skin suits and killer apes.
July 1, 2025
This is grim. I loved it and toyed with the idea of giving it 5 stars.
But I'm probably getting carried away.
A hugely enjoyable novelisation though, and if you can find one, I recommend reading it.
But I'm probably getting carried away.
A hugely enjoyable novelisation though, and if you can find one, I recommend reading it.
July 22, 2017
From Bantam Books comes the novelization of the 20th Century-Fox sci-fi epic Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Adapted from Paul Dehn’s screenplay, the story follows ANSA astronaut John Brent who’s sent to find Taylor and his crew after their ship was lost, and ends up slipping through the same time disturbance and crashing on the future Earth ruled by apes; but unknown to him a war is brewing as the apes prepare to invade the Forbidden Zone where an unknown enemy awaits. Unfortunately author Michael Avallone’s writing style is rather poor, using a lot of needless, elaborate language and choosing some odd narrative techniques. Additionally, he compounds “The Negro” problem; using this placeholder from the script as a proper character name. Still, he does capture the macabre, apocalyptic tone of the film and creates rich, vivid imagery. Yet ultimately Beneath the Planet of the Apes is a mediocre adaptation that doesn’t really have a good handle on the material.
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August 15, 2013Second in Series.
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