Planet of the Apes: Force was a novel published by HarperEntertainment in 2002 to tie-in with the previous year's movie re-imagining of Planet of the Apes. The book, written by John Whitman, covered events shortly before the era of the movie, depicting the youth of some of the principal characters from that film.
Synopsis
Set twelve years before Captain Leo Davidson of the space station Oberon crash-landed on the planet of Ashlar, Attar was a teen undergoing military training, and Ari was his good friend - sympathetic to the human cause, yet loyal to her simian friends as well. Ari embarked upon an investigation into a puzzling gap in ape history - a period known as the Dark Age - only to uncover the deadly virus that caused it and bring it to life again. Could humans and apes learn to work together against this common enemy? Or would this devastating force of nature threaten to wreak a new dark period on the planet?
Other characters featured included Senator Sandar, General Krull, Thade, Gaddi (a chimpanzee cadet at the military academy and a classmate of Attar), Maga (a gorilla soldier who fought with Attar), Kestos (a gorilla soldier and friend of Maga), Professor Nestor (an old baboon physics teacher of the young Attar and Ari), Timon (the chimpanzee high priest of Semos), Sarai (chief of the 'Tek' clan - descendants of the civilised human 'Hitek' city population - though her father was of the 'Wilding' clan, descendants of a feral human population), Karubi (Sarai's husband) and Daena (their daughter).
Notes
- Force was given the code ISBN: 0060083735, published by HarperEntertainment in April 2002.
- The story would continue in the follow-up novel Planet of the Apes: Resistance.