Monthly Archives: August 2011

Which universe would you like to spend time in? – Post a Day #235

This post a day was my suggestion so I guess I ought to answer it. I asked “which book would you like to spend a day in as an incidental character?”

I would most like to visit the planet of Dune and to watch the type of sandstorm that can strip flesh from bones, to fly over a migrating sandworm and visit a market in one of the cities.

I would also like to go travelling with The Doctor and see the universe, get shot at by daleks and see how long I can go without blinking when confronted with one of the stone angels.

If that sort of fiction appeals to yoiu then cam I recommend The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. The main character gets sucked into Jane Eyre. It is such a weird and wonderful world that it has to be seen to be believed.

At the moment I also wish I could have a walk around my steam city in order to get some inspiration!

Effective use of post titles

(Title changed from implication that I had a video of a certain High School Musical actress and the pop-singing / actress daughter of a country singer wrestling in mud, sans clothing).

Post a day gives this advice for increasing hits to your blog through effective use of post titles.

Personally, I have always found misleading headlines to be an irritation. I would rather my titles were pertinent and they certainly need to be short and punchy as the article suggests. The content, not the headline, makes the post and when titles are misleading people are unlikely to stay around or come back. Sure, the promise of “X and Y mudwrestling naked” or “fly BA business class for free!” or “win a Kinect” might increase my hits from average of 30 a day to 3000 but it wouldn’t be valuable hits and I desire quality, not quantity. Of course I would like more comments on here (hint, hint) but referrals and search engine terms shows I’m getting the right kind of traffic.

I’m not sure how much a good headline really draws people to blogs though. I’ve always used tags for that and when I look at the search terms that direct people here, it is nearly always the tags. The only instance I can think of where a post title has led to hits is “social commentary in science fiction” and that is pretty direct and to the point.

Bad journalism really annoys me and misleading headlines annoy me even further. Let’s take The Daily Mail‘s story “Facebook causes cancer“. Ignore for one moment (if you can) the horrendous pseudo-science in this article that the newspaper has become famous for, and just read the content. Does the headline justify the content? No, it refers to a lack of social interactions and hours and hours spent with technology and the potential health problems associated with a lack of personal interaction, too little sunlight, physical inactivity and the effects of monitors on our brains. Nothing to do with facebook or cancer specifically! The Daily Mail is not the only newspaper guilty of this sort of behaviour though.

Site of the Week: Storybook

If you know of any useful websites or perhaps run one yourself, feel free to recommend it. If I find your site suitable for my weekly feature then I will do my utmost to accommodate it. In return I might merely ask that you link to my blog. But please (and I mean this in the politest possible terms) do not ask me to advertise your commercial service.

Not so much a site but a tool this bank holiday weekend. With the nights drawing in and Autumn just around the corner, what better time than to start writing a novel to pass along those colder, darker evenings?

Feeling daunted? Worried about getting all in a muddle over plot threads, who is where and when, relationships, who knows who, what they spoke about last time and many other things that need to be carefully plotted out over the best part of 100,000 words? Storybook may be just the tool you need for a helping hand.

I’ve been testing it for the last couple of weeks. Its a free tool and here is my honest opinion.

Personally I find it a bit unnecessary. Sure, novelists get confused sometimes and are not sure who is supposed to be where at a certain point, how old a character is, who they know and have never met but that is where a notebook come in useful. That is also the point of numerous re-reads and edits in order to polish a long-term piece of work such as a novel.

It is a comprehensive planner which is fine if you need that sort of thing but I suspect that most writers are going to use one or two functions at most. I found only one feature useful and that is the chapter list as a quick reference guide to what is going on and when. This is the most useful part of the tool.

I can’t say I would make use of the character tool (at least not with established characters) as there’s too many details to enter in. However, I’m recommending it as “Site of the Week” because I like the idea, even if in practice I personally haven’t found it useful. Hopefully some readers of this blog might put it to good use.

The end of writing for a living?

I found this doom and gloom article (or visit the mobile version here) at The Guardian website the other day. As an unpublished writer (by that I mean somebody who has never sold writing through mainstream means) I would like to offer my opinion on the article, the publishing industry and how I perceive access to books to change in the future.

Firstly the flaws with the article. There seems to be a general air of intellectual snobbery; the idea that books are not books unless they are in paper form and therefore only the paper form could be of good quality (like a wine drinker who cannot come to terms with screw tops). I disagree; this is like saying that books are not books unless they are hand copied by monks and what sacrilege to use such infernal devices as the printing press! Interestingly, he points to the printing press and Penguin Books as previous market shifts expected to destroy the publishing industry or book writing as an art, but then takes the side of the naysayers over ebooks. If I can draw a comparison, he is proverbially suggesting that steak houses will no longer be able to make a living because McDonalds is undercutting them.

He is forgetting one major thing: people will always be prepared to pay for quality. Sure, there will be a lot of free fiction out there but I can’t imagine novel writers giving away their multi-year projects for nothing (I know I wouldn’t; my short fiction is different as until now I’ve never thought it was good enough to earn money, there is very little market for short fiction anyway). The idea that writers make a living and a lot more from the art is a myth. The overwhelming majority do not. Only the big names and top sellers can begin to hope to make good money and too often, the publishers get to dictate what we read. He is so focused on market trends that when he points the finger at digital media for the loss in profits of the industries he highlights he ignores one thing: they have been so concerned with mass produced, inane and boring content. The internet has allowed the fringe, the unconventional, the risky and the bizarre a wider audience. This leads me to my next point.

The more I read about the publishing industry the more I am concerned that it has become too insular and self-serving just like the record labels. I read sci fi magazine SFX every month. Writer Dave Langford has a regular column and I remember in an edition about six months ago that he discussed some of the outrageous clauses that publishers attempt to put in contracts. The one that shocked me most was a clause that required the right of the publisher to create “derivative works”, the rights to which the writer would wave and make no claim on royalties. What this means is that the publishing house alone has the right to license the intellectual creation of the writer to produce spin offs, sequels, potential movie rights (and in this day and age, video games) and the author would get no say in the matter and, having surrendered the copyright, would not receive financial reward. A seasoned professional such as Langford had the knowledge and self-assuredness to treat such a contract with the contempt it deserved but a new writer may not have the negotiating experience and end up selling their creation short. While they have the right to go elsewhere, I cannot believe that they have the audacity to even try this.

The sales approach in the book shop chains to stack it high and sell only mainstream titles may work as a model for most businesses but when I go shopping for books I want an experience, the opportunity to take pleasure in the occasion and discover something new… (this is the only time I like to take my time when out shopping). I was saddened at the demise of Borders. I can (and sometimes did) spend up to 4 hours browsing my local store. The great thing about Borders was that it catered for the book lover. It wasn’t a specialist but you knew you could rely on it to have more obscure stuff. I can only imagine that it went bust because of a lack of special offers and deals. Only the mainstream books ever appeared in “3 for 2″ and because they are big sellers they were being undercut by supermarkets and web retailers who bought in vast quantities. This and no discounts on the stuff a little out of the ordinary (where they could foster an environment of being a book specialist and buy in sufficient quantities to beat the supermarkets and web retailers at their own game) ultimately led to their ruin.

The book-selling approach of publishing houses is also part of the problem. Think about the biggest sellers of the last decade: Harry Potter, The Da Vinci Code and Twilight. Anything that gets people reading is great but the problem I see for new writers is that with each new fad comes the inevitable saturation of clones and some of those clones are not up to the same standard as the bandwagon they are jumping on. “Sorry but your novel about Jesus being a spy for the Roman Empire is sooooooo 2004″. This makes me wonder to what extent publishers decide what we ought to be reading instead of publishing and promoting on quality and letting bookworms decide. And when you take that approach, yesterday’s big seller becomes tomorrow’s recycle bin fodder. True book lovers know where to look. I bought six books last weekend at Waterstone’s. All six were books I had sought for some time and I only bought them because the store had a blanket “3 for 2″ offer. Only two of them were on the promotional table (Rivers of London and Catch-22) and in three other cases (The Difference Engine, Perdido Street Station and The Windup Girl), I bought the shop’s only copy.

Waterstone’s is getting better with regard to promoting the more unusual. They had a big promotion on Justin Cronin’s The Passage last year, a book that I never expected to have wide appeal despite that it has received critical acclaim. In this particular shop their popular science section leaves a lot to be desired and the traditional horror section reduced to three shelves in a corner swamped with teen horror fiction such as Twilight and True Blood.

The industry needs risk takers and people who can see long term. No, scrub that. The publishing industry needs avid readers on its staff. People who see beyond bottom line profit of the next quarter and see the sort of work that will still be selling copies when the copyright expires 75 years after the death of the author (Catch-22 was published 50 years ago and is still a big seller). How many copies do you think The Da Vinci Code sells ten years after its publication? How many will Twilight sell ten years from now?

I do not have such a bleak view of access to books but I do have a bleak view of the future for the insular and over-cautious publishing houses. I’m no free market capitalist but I do feel in this case that the market will right itself. It will become more egalitarian, reading habits will drive the market instead of the market dictating reading habits while occasionally adapting to an unexpected fad only to asserts domination again. Do I think the Kindle will kill the book industry? No, but it will force the industry to adapt to a changing world just as the printing press and Penguin Books did in the past.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some bitter and failed writer. I’m just getting started and I haven’t put much effort so far into getting my work into print or trying to earn money from it. The opinion I express above is based solely on how I feel as a reader. I’m not about to rush out and buy a Kindle but I’m not saying that I will never buy one either).

Blogging style – is it serious writing?

The people at Post A Day posted this interesting article on blogging styles. I must confess that I have never really thought about my blogging style before or how it differs from my fiction.

I like to think of my blogging style as a mix of academic and conversational. I understand the complaints in that article that some bloggers are too wishy-washy. I agree that it is lazy writing to take the view that everybody is right and you are just presenting the variety of opinion. Not all opinions are valid and they should not be treated equally. In trying to be accommodating, and perhaps not wishing to offend, bloggers who write like this could be perceived as cowardly. It is important for bloggers to be clear in their opinions without sounding arrogant while leaving room for debate and that is why my lengthy essay pieces are categorised “discussion”. I genuinely would like to hear the opinions of others.

The other end of the scale happens too often in op-ed pieces in the media “I know everything about everything so bow down before me you peasants while I educate you”. Know your limitations but identify your knowledge base, play to your strengths and don’t be afraid to express yourself.

I went through some of my older posts tonight, especially the lengthy discussion pieces and I was surprised to see how much in style they resemble my academic work. I spent five years at university achieving a BA and MA. Looking back now, I think my fiction writing influenced my academic work then (I received comments about good flow and my undergraduate dissertation was described as a pleasurable read by the four academics that marked it). Now my academic work influences my blogging. I’m very conscious of varying opinions but always try to make mine clear. I may pose questions to others or just for myself but I’m always clear about what I think.

I also try to write as though I am reading aloud to an audience. This is partly that I pride myself on good flow and partly down to university presentations where I tried to strike a balance between presenting information and making it interesting to a virgin audience.

Finally, any blog is only as good as the blogger; not just for how good a writer they are but the effort and thought they put into the design and the content. The medium is irrelevant; quality is everything.

Will Silence Fall?

This bank holiday weekend sees the second half of the 2011 season of Doctor Who.

The first half was intriguing. In the first episode, a future version of The Doctor is shot and killed (shot a second time during regeneration so that he dies midway through the process) in 1969 by a figure in a spacesuit. The event was witnessed by Amy Pond, husband Rory and River Song who, having received strange envelopes beforehand, travel to the assigned place to meet… The Doctor (the current version of himself). I don’t want to tirelessly recap all seven superb episodes so I’ll just highlight the main talking points as I did a couple of weeks ago with Torchwood.

The Impossible Astronaut

I am completely at a loss for whom might be in that suit; it could be anybody. Suggestions have included River Song and the mysterious regenerating child (assuming they are not the same person – more later). At the moment there are no better suggestions but something about it just doesn’t seem right. If it is River Song as a child then why does she have no memory of the event?

The regenerating child

We discovered at the mid-season finale that River Song is the daughter of Rory and Amy and because of the nature of her conception has some Timelord DNA. We also know that she was stolen as a child to be trained as a weapon to kill The Doctor and was imprisoned for killing “a good man”. On the face of it, it would seem that the regenerating child at the end of The Day of the Moon (the same child we saw in the space suit throughout the two parter… Is it the same space suit that shoots The Doctor though?) is River Song. If this is the case and is not a red herring, then why did River Song not regenerate at the end of Forest of the Dead? Is this regenerating child actually the daughter of River and The Doctor (previous hints at romantic relationships suggest this as another possibility)? So many questions surround the issue of child River Song.

The Silence

What Doctor Who lacks in blood and guts for the sake of appealing to all the family, it makes up for in sheer concept of its villains. Whereas the Daleks and Cybermen were a product of their time and terrifying to children because of it, the main addition of the modern Doctor Who era (the weeping angels) are terrifying for what they are. Similarly, The Silence appeal to adults on a more cerebral level. Think of the dangers of a creature that can remove you from time and make everybody you ever met forget you existed. Doesn’t it send a shiver down your spine to think that you forget you ever saw one of them the second you look away from it? I’m utterly fascinated with them and hope they become part of the regular mythos.

The second TARDIS

Somebody seems to have rigged one up to be controlled through telepathic means. At the moment, it appears to be the invention of The Silence but despite two appearances, we know very little about it.

A darker Doctor

I struggled to find the right word here because I’m not sure that what I mean is ‘darker’ in the sense of ‘grittier’ or ‘adult’. Certainly the themes are more adventurous and risky but what I mean is the implication that The Doctor is the universe’s worst enemy. He is a troubled hero and his heroics have sometimes led to chaos and darkness in the universe (the reason the alliance put him in the Pandorica in the first place). The way to hell is paved with good intentions and Matt Smith’s tenure as The Doctor has epitomised the idea of the best intentions having the most horrific consequences (this began with Tennant and his “Timelord Victorious” speech at the end of Waters of Mars).

The TARDIS exploding

We still do not know what caused the TARDIS to explode at the end of The Pandorica Opens. Nor do we know the source of the voice which proclaims ‘silence will fall’ just before it happens. The tagline of the previous series was ‘The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall.’ When The Doctor was imprisoned in the Pandorica, the natural assumption was that it meant that the stars would all go out leaving Earth alone. Since we discovered that this enemy is called “The Silence” it hasn’t been quite so clear cut.

Perhaps I should stop over-analysing and just go with it? Either way, I’m really looking forward to Saturday’s episode Let’s Kill Hitler.

Book Review: Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway

All I can say is: wow. This is eye-opening. I mean, I knew that the climate-denialist movement was largely funded and organised by corporate foundations and industry think tanks who actively bypass the scientific process but I never imagined half of the revelations in this book.

I make no apologies for my view that the climate-denialist movement is malevolent in nature. I am not a ‘green fanatic’. I have very little time for Greenpeace or other pressure groups on “my side”; my interest in this issue is now and always has been based on the science. I have spent seven years researching and understanding it for myself and I use credible resources for my information every week. I feel that green activists can be as anti-science as creationists and the climate denialists so I’m as cautious about claims from both sides of the media and I will always (where possible if not behind a paywall) check the data.

Now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get on with the review:

This is the story of two people named Fred (Seitz and Singer), both physicists who came to prominence in the Cold War later chose to make a career of spreading misinformation about the science behind some of the biggest social issues of the last half-century. Both were at the forefront of fostering doubt at the notion that cigarette smoke in general and later, passive smoking was harmful. Singer claimed it was a government plot to remove constitutional freedoms from the individual (sound familiar already?). As an aside, I cannot fathom how people can think that basic laws of physics can be overturned in the law courts but never mind.

These men recruited others and their movement went on to fight against the evidence of the causies of acid rain and CFCs damaging the ozone layer. They receivied a lot of money from industry in the process. What is worse (from a scientist’s perspective at least) is that over the period they conducted no research on the issues in which they were not qualified and published no papers through the academic press.

It is also a story of the corrupt nature of industries where, when challenged that their product is harmful, use underhand tactics, junk science, misinformation, mudslinging and cronies in governments to push their own interests. For example, when it was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that tobacco smoke was harmful, industry leaders encouraged the media to promote the idea that the science was split down the middle and manufacture a debate about “The Controversy” and in some cases point to economic damage by “environmentalists”. This is a tactic that they used time and time again: “science not settled”, “may be natural causes”, “more research needed”, “costs to economy too high”.

Capped with a thorough refutation of a relentless 30 year long character assassination of Rachel Carson (a woman who hasn’t been able to defend herself for almost 50 years now), it paints a picture of malevolent forces it labels “free market fundamentalists”, people who think that business ought to be able to do whatever they please without comeback. It discusses how such people have lied and flung accusations of nazism and communist agendas while promoting destructive behaviour under the guise of liberty.

As for the writing style, it is approachable and educational having been written by two historians of science. This approachable writing style of science books is becoming a trend now. Perhaps started by Richard Dawkins, many of the works I’ve read over the last few years have used education, entertainment and a free-flowing writing style in equal measure.

Meticulously researched and referenced, they seem to leave no stone unturned in their investigation into the history behind the anti-science movement.

If you are interested in learning more about climate change and the problems we face, then Skeptical Science is a superb resource. Don’t be daunted, you can choose your access level depending on your education and experience.

Six word story – Post a Day #227

Challenging post a daytoday. I’ve seen on other blogs that some writers rise to the challenge of flash and micro fiction. These are incredibly short stories typically, 1000 words or (far) fewer for flash fiction, 500 characters or fewer for micro fiction. There is no formal set limit, different websites have different ideas about what is flash and what is micro, some don’t make a distinction.

Though I’ve never tried it, I have researched it and it seems quite a challenge. I’d like to give it a go sometime in the future, time permitting.

For today, WordPress has set a challenge to write a whole story in six words. I wanted to see how many I could do, so here are my efforts:

He facepalmed: The butler did it!

The message read: its a boy!

Sobbing, I watched his car leave.

That last punch made me champion.

SETI finally translated: We are coming

The forest echoed a demonic roar

Becoming a vampire prevented my suicide.

That was the most difficult 42 words I’ve ever written and I’m pleased to have included seven major genres in there (crime, romance, chic lit, sport drama, sci fi, horror and young adult fantasy/horror).

I’m going to seek out some flash fiction prompts in the coming months. I’m not sure that I would post one every week as I have my sights set on several goals right now; I’m about to submit The Weight of Reason to the L. Ron Hubbard Award and I’m aiming to enter into the James White Award too. I can see the value of very short fiction, mostly keeping writing tight and punchy. It has been a long time since I’ve written a story as short as 3000 words (which I think is the limit for the James White Award) so perhaps flash fiction might help me keep the words down. Watch this space!

Site of the Week: Read It Swap It

If you know of any useful websites or perhaps run one yourself, feel free to recommend it. If I find your site suitable for my weekly feature then I will do my utmost to accommodate it. In return I might merely ask that you link to my blog. But please (and I mean this in the politest possible terms) do not ask me to advertise your commercial service.

If like me you read a lot… a hell of a lot and your book addiction is getting to be a bit of a habit (or they just aren’t selling on Amazon or ebay as you would have hoped) I might have just the thing. Yes, books are getting increasingly expensive and unless you have particularly good second hand book shops near you or charity shops run by canny bookworms, you aren’t going to find what you really need very often.

Never fear, you may want to look at the free service provided by the website Read It Swap It.

It is a simple idea. You register and list the items you want to be rid of. Other members surf through your list and if they see something they like they make a request. You are then invited to look at their list to see if there is anything that takes your fancy. Sounds easy doesn’t it? Next week I’m going to go through all my old books and see if there is anything I may want to offload this way.

Social Commentary in Science Fiction 2 – Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes screencap

hollywoodreporter.com

Last week saw the release of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a loose remake of the 1972 prequel Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. I saw it this past Wednesday and got to thinking about the heavy social commentary that has been a theme of the films (perhaps with the exception of the Mark Wahlberg 2001 effort).

The first film was released way back in 1968 and starred Charlton Heston as the protagonist, an astronaut sent on a deep space mission. When their ship crash lands on a seemingly desolate planet, the survivors (one of their number dies) take time to explore their surroundings. It doesn’t take long for them to realise that they are not alone; that there is an advanced civilisation of apes. What’s more, this planet has humans who are not particularly intelligent, cannot speak and are treated as vermin.

When Taylor is captured by the apes, his apparent intelligence intrigues Animal Psychologist Zira and her Archaeologist fiancé Cornelius. Cornelius had a long time ago found the city of a lost civilisation in the Forbidden Zone and had been laughed at by his academic community for suggesting that humans might have been responsible. At the end we get confirmation that this is Earth, that Cornelius was correct about everything.

I myself have a Master’s Degree in archaeology and as somebody who has spent a lot of time trying to argue with people who flat our reject evidence in favour of wishful thinking, this is very familiar. We are also talking basic human psychology here. When we have entrenched beliefs and those beliefs are challenged by contrary evidence, instead of accepting it and adjusting our beliefs we lash out. On a personal level we might express how offended we are, imply malevolence on the part of the person who challenges us or insist that we are being victimised. On an institutional level, we portray non-conformists as dangerous to our way of life. We use terms like “heretic”, “unbeliever”, “apostate”, “unpatriotic”, “Orwellian”. This is true no matter what the belief: those who claim that the bible is an accurate history book (it isn’t), that evolution is an atheist plot to destroy Christianity and that evidence for supernatural creation is being systematically suppressed, that climate science is a conspiracy to destroy capitalism (spread by those who have turned capitalism into a religion with its own unquestionable truths and heresies), alternative therapists, ancient astronaut theorists all ignore the evidence to cling to personal beliefs and anecdotes while ignoring the evidence.

But back to the film, Zaius takes Taylor to a cave where he shows him the evidence of human civilisation and explains that the truth must never be revealed. Afterward, he orders the cave sealed and sends Taylor on his way to discover the biggest secret of all and the most memorable scenes in science fiction history.

the big reveal

In its first sequel Back to the Planet of the Apes, probably the weakest in the series, we discover a group of humans surviving in the underground ruins of New York. They have created a religion devoted to the worship of a “holy” bomb. We soon discover that it is a nuclear weapon and these humans intend to use it against their simian oppressors. But this is the war to end all wars and far from returning humans to dominance, the planet is sterilised. The theme here is how humans are doomed to never learn from our mistakes.

The third is probably the most theme-heavy. In Escape From the Planet of the Apes, Cornelius, Zira and a companion escaped the destruction and, having taken the module that arrived in the second film, end up in the USA in 1973. They are immediately imprisoned, interrogated and through the course of the film experimented on. The debate over whether the apes ought to be treated as sentient beings with the same rights as humans is reminiscent of slavery-based films such as Amistad. Other themes include animal experimentation, civil rights, feminism (expressed through Zira’s treatment) the prejudice and suspicion of those with political motives considered unsavoury to the government of the day (back then McCarthyism but still relevant today).

This theme of civil rights is the major plot device in the next sequel Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. In a world where apes have become favoured pets, Caesar (Zira and Cornelius’ surviving son) is more intelligent than the docile beasts of burden and most importantly, he can speak. Ill treatment of apes and the death of his kindly owner leads Caesar to train and educate the other apes into rebellion. It is a film for our time still. Had it been made 10 years later, we might have drawn parallels with the miners strikes in Thatcher’s Britain, another ten years later we might associate it with race riots.

The final film Battle for the Planet of the Apes shows a post-apocalyptic world where Caesar must contend with infighting to prevent an escalation of hostilities between humans and apekind. He must also learn about what his parents knew about the future and prevent a civil war between chimpanzees and gorillas. Many want peace but on all three sides there are malevolent forces trying to start a conflict. I see this largely as a metaphor for those who worked tirelessly to prevent nuclear war struggling against the jingoism and militarism of the 1960s, the labelling of peace activists as “communist sympathisers” or generally “unpatriotic”.

This new film, expected to be the first of a new franchise, deals with a genetic treatment for Alzheimer’s that far surpasses the expectation. Caesar (the son of the test subject in this case) is super intelligent and self-aware. After witnessing human cruelty, he passes the treatment onto other apes and leads them in rebellion. Far less social commentary than I thought there might be after seeing the extended trailer, there are still issues to mull over. Largely, this modern version is about cruelty. Cruelty of humans toward animals, particularly those creatures to whom we are most closely related, and secondly to each other. Caesar’s loss of faith in the inherent goodness of humans comes as the result of witnessing a series of events (rather than a single incident). Ultimately he never seems to desire revenge or the bloody overthrow of the human oppressors, but to escape to the giant redwood forest on the other side of San Francisco Bay and live in peace. In the closing credits we see the spread of a disease that will lead to the actual Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I’m quite interested to see how this develops.