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In the Rue Morgue, the jungles of Tarzan, the fables of Aesop, and outer space, the apes in these seventeen fantastic tales boldly go where humans dare not. Including a foreword from Rupert Wyatt, the director of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, this provocative anthology delves into our fascination with and fear of our simian cousins. "Evil Robot Monkey" introduces a disgruntled chimp implanted with a chip that makes him cleverer than both his cohort and humans alike. In "Murders in the Rue Morgue," a murder mystery unravels with the discovery of a hair that does not appear quite human. Merging steampunk with slapstick, "The Ape-Box Affair" has a not-so-ordinary orangutan landing on Earth in a spherical flying ship--where he is promptly mistaken for an alien. King Kong sets a terrible example with booze and Barbie dolls in "Godzilla's 12-Step Program." If you've ever wondered what makes humans different from apes, soon you'll be asking yourself, is it even less than we think?… (more)
User reviews
All in all this was a pretty good selection of stories and some of the essays that talked about the Ape in literature and movies were interesting.
The answer is a resounding “yes!”
From James P. Blaylock's steampunk-flavored romp of an opening to Karen Joy Fowler's bittersweet conclusion, The Apes of Wrath is a joyride, a roller-coaster that makes you shriek, makes you laugh, and, like those old funhouse mirrors of Ray Bradbury, shows you things about yourself that you might not be all that happy to see.
All of the stories here appear with their original attitudes intact, which can be difficult to read. As Rupert Wyatt points out in his foreword, part of our historical fascination with apes is how close they are to us: how familiar the gestures; how recognizable the expressions.
Apes have been used as a stand-in for many things through the years, including some of our less enlightened attitudes towards members of our own species. But I think that it's important that we look at these attitudes, even if we now (rightly) decry those attitudes. How can we chart a path to better understanding and behavior if we can't clearly see where we've been?
Some of my favorite stories are Blaylock's Victorian slapstick “The Ape-Box Affair,” Pat Murphy's devastating story of a little girl's consciousness transplanted to a chimpanzee “Rachel in Love,” Howard Waldrop's monster-movie saturated “Dr. Hudson's Secret Gorilla,” and Joe R. Lansdale's profane and hilarious tale of monsters in recovery “Godzilla's Twelve-step Program.”
I also love the non-fiction essays giving us the history of apes in literature, in comics, and on film. A little context is a beautiful thing.
I am a sucker for a good anthology. Show me an interesting theme, unfamiliar stories and authors nestled up against old favorites, and a good flow from one story to the next and I'm in love. The Apes of Wrath by Rick Klaw manages all of that and manages to be darn pretty to look at, too.
(This review originally appeared on RevolutionSF.com)
ISBN
DDC/MDS
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