If the previous Planet of the Apes novels and films explored the ramifications of nuclear war and the possibilities of altering the future, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes serves as an allegory for the end of slavery in the United States. Milo, Cornelius and Zira's son from the previous entry, now known as Caesar, visits a city of the future where Apes make up a slave class that performs all the menial labor for their human masters. Naturally, that future, 1990, more reflects the ideas of the early 1970s than the reality of the last decade of the twentieth century. Responding to injustice, Caesar infiltrates the system of this city-state and begins fomenting rebellion among Ape-kind, all while hiding his identity. In the final, bloody struggle, it's easy to imagine the stirring chords of "John Brown's Body" playing in the background. The author of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, John Jakes, does not reach the same philosophical level as his predecessors Pierre Boulle and Jerry Pournelle, but he imbues his writing with a sense of action and righteous justice that will hold readers' attention. ( )