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Logan #1
Logan's Run: Vintage Movie Classics
The bestselling dystopian novel that inspired the 1970s science-fiction classic starring Michael York, Jenny Agutter, and Richard Jordan.
In 2116, it is against the law to live beyond the age of twenty-one years. When the crystal flower in the palm of your hand turns from red to black, you have reached your Lastday and you must report to a Sleepshop for processing. But the human will to survive is strong—stronger than any mere law.
Logan 3 is a Sandman, an enforcer who hunts down those Runners who refuse to accept Deep Sleep. The day before Logan’s palmflower shifts to black, a Runner accidentally reveals that he was racing toward a goal: Sanctuary. With this information driving him forward, Logan 3 assumes the role of the hunted and becomes a Runner.
In 2116, it is against the law to live beyond the age of twenty-one years. When the crystal flower in the palm of your hand turns from red to black, you have reached your Lastday and you must report to a Sleepshop for processing. But the human will to survive is strong—stronger than any mere law.
Logan 3 is a Sandman, an enforcer who hunts down those Runners who refuse to accept Deep Sleep. The day before Logan’s palmflower shifts to black, a Runner accidentally reveals that he was racing toward a goal: Sanctuary. With this information driving him forward, Logan 3 assumes the role of the hunted and becomes a Runner.
167 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
327 people are currently reading
14374 people want to read
About the author
William F. Nolan
372 books241 followersWilliam F. Nolan is best known as the co-author (with George Clayton Johnson) of Logan's Run -- a science fiction novel that went on to become a movie, a television series and is about to become a movie again -- and as single author of its sequels. His short stories have been selected for scores of anthologies and textbooks and he is twice winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Special Award from the Mystery Writers of America.
Nolan was born in 1928 in Kansas City Missouri. He attended the Kansas City Art Institute and worked as an artist for Hallmark Cards. He moved to California in the late 1940s and studied at San Diego State College. He began concentrating on writing rather than art and, in 1952, was introduced by fellow Missouri native (and established writer) Ray Bradbury to another young up-and-coming author, Charles Beaumont. Moving to the Los Angeles area in 1953, Nolan became along with Bradbury, Beaumont, and Richard Matheson part of the "inner core" of the soon-to-be highly influential "Southern California Group" of writers. By 1956 Nolan was a full-time writer. Since 1951 he has sold more than 1500 stories, articles, books, and other works.
Although Nolan wrote roughly 2000 pieces, to include biographies, short stories, poetry, and novels, Logan’s Run retains its hold on the public consciousness as a political fable and dystopian warning. As Nolan has stated: “That I am known at all is still astonishing to me... "
He passed away at the age of 93 due to complications from an infection.
Nolan was born in 1928 in Kansas City Missouri. He attended the Kansas City Art Institute and worked as an artist for Hallmark Cards. He moved to California in the late 1940s and studied at San Diego State College. He began concentrating on writing rather than art and, in 1952, was introduced by fellow Missouri native (and established writer) Ray Bradbury to another young up-and-coming author, Charles Beaumont. Moving to the Los Angeles area in 1953, Nolan became along with Bradbury, Beaumont, and Richard Matheson part of the "inner core" of the soon-to-be highly influential "Southern California Group" of writers. By 1956 Nolan was a full-time writer. Since 1951 he has sold more than 1500 stories, articles, books, and other works.
Although Nolan wrote roughly 2000 pieces, to include biographies, short stories, poetry, and novels, Logan’s Run retains its hold on the public consciousness as a political fable and dystopian warning. As Nolan has stated: “That I am known at all is still astonishing to me... "
He passed away at the age of 93 due to complications from an infection.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 929 reviews
March 24, 2011
In the year 2011, it is impossible to discuss the Logan's Run novel without mentioning the 1976 movie, which I believe has surpassed the original work in terms of notoriety. Upon comparison, the reason for this is all too clear. While my modern tastes found the 70's movie to be rather charming, I cannot say the same for the novel.
The first problem comes with the age limit. With no character over 21, descriptions of people as "man" and "woman" are confusing and try the limits of my suspension of disbelief. At no point was I convinced of the youth of the characters. The author very clearly just wrote whatever personality he pleased with no consideration to the limits imposed by his setting. (as a side note, the movie sets the age limit at the much more believable 30)
Moreover, the novel fails to familiarize the reader with the structure and composition of the world before plowing around in it. New locales are clumsily introduced immediately before the scenes in which the appear and abandoned right as the reader begins to get acclimated.
I came to this book hoping for a deeper world than that of the movie, and I was completely let down. The premise is intriguing, but honestly if you'd like to look into Logan's world, watch the movie and save yourself a couple hours.
Recommended for:
*People who hate movies
*People with bad taste
The first problem comes with the age limit. With no character over 21, descriptions of people as "man" and "woman" are confusing and try the limits of my suspension of disbelief. At no point was I convinced of the youth of the characters. The author very clearly just wrote whatever personality he pleased with no consideration to the limits imposed by his setting. (as a side note, the movie sets the age limit at the much more believable 30)
Moreover, the novel fails to familiarize the reader with the structure and composition of the world before plowing around in it. New locales are clumsily introduced immediately before the scenes in which the appear and abandoned right as the reader begins to get acclimated.
I came to this book hoping for a deeper world than that of the movie, and I was completely let down. The premise is intriguing, but honestly if you'd like to look into Logan's world, watch the movie and save yourself a couple hours.
Recommended for:
*People who hate movies
*People with bad taste
February 27, 2021
Over the last several years I've watched a number of 70s science fiction movies: ( Logan's Run, Soylent Green, Westworld, etc.) and read the books when I could. I finally got a copy of Logan's Run and gave it a read.
I liked this but I have to admit that I think the movie is more engaging. Perhaps that's simply because it was my introduction to the story. I'll just mention here what I most liked and didn't in the book. The characters beyond Logan and Jessica (and maybe Francis to an extent) were mere sketches and not memorable at all. I didn't much mind that because the settings were pretty detailed and interesting. Logan and Jessica see many places in this world that were not at all in the movie so that kept things fairly exciting. The story does linger overlong in a few places and it became surprisingly tedious. It's a short volume and feeling like something could have been edited down is somewhat a disappointment.
My favourite part of the book was in the last third where many things come together but most importantly for me, the reader finds out how and why the United States turned into this place. It was fascinating, sad and somewhat disturbingly imaginable given the current real world. There's a climate crisis, over-population, government over-reach, civil uprising and what I can only describe as a complete breakdown of a society that ultimately trades one handful of horrors for a basket of other horrors. The use of propaganda was also a scary feature here and there's a whole section surrounding a Civil War re-enactment in Virginia that just boggled the mind. The book was worth reading for these parts alone. The ending was great, and I think I may have liked it more than the movie's ending. There's a great twist and the back third of this book had me up late reading.
In the end, both the book and the movie had things to recommend them and I am glad that I read this. I have noticed that there are subsequent books in Logan, so perhaps I'll find and read those at some point also.
Recommended.
A couple of favourite passages:
"Logan paused to survey the vast mural which gave the structure its name—a climbing mosaic composed of tiny bits of fireglass brilliantly arranged to commemorate the Burning of Washington. Orange, purple and raw red flames jeweled halfway up the façade; bodies flamed; buildings smoked and tumbled. Yet the awesome masterwork was flawed, incomplete. Stark, gaping areas broke the pattern. Only the famed muralist Roebler 7 could handle the corrosive fireglass, and when he had accepted Sleep his secret died with him. The project would never be finished."
"In his State of the Union address President Curtain had stressed the severity of the food shortage, as world population spiraled toward six billion. He called upon the young to exercise self-control in this crisis. But the sight of the fat, overfed President standing in living units across the country, talking of duty and restraint, had a negative effect on his audience. And the well-known fact that Curtain had fathered nine children made a showdown inevitable."
"The Little War had begun. By morning, half of Washington was in flames. Senators and congressmen were dragged in terror from their homes and hanged like criminals from trees and lampposts. The police and National Guard units were swept away in the first major wave of rioting. Buildings were set afire and explosives used. During the confusion an attendant at the Washington Zoo released the animals to save them from flames. The beasts were never recaptured."
I liked this but I have to admit that I think the movie is more engaging. Perhaps that's simply because it was my introduction to the story. I'll just mention here what I most liked and didn't in the book. The characters beyond Logan and Jessica (and maybe Francis to an extent) were mere sketches and not memorable at all. I didn't much mind that because the settings were pretty detailed and interesting. Logan and Jessica see many places in this world that were not at all in the movie so that kept things fairly exciting. The story does linger overlong in a few places and it became surprisingly tedious. It's a short volume and feeling like something could have been edited down is somewhat a disappointment.
My favourite part of the book was in the last third where many things come together but most importantly for me, the reader finds out how and why the United States turned into this place. It was fascinating, sad and somewhat disturbingly imaginable given the current real world. There's a climate crisis, over-population, government over-reach, civil uprising and what I can only describe as a complete breakdown of a society that ultimately trades one handful of horrors for a basket of other horrors. The use of propaganda was also a scary feature here and there's a whole section surrounding a Civil War re-enactment in Virginia that just boggled the mind. The book was worth reading for these parts alone. The ending was great, and I think I may have liked it more than the movie's ending. There's a great twist and the back third of this book had me up late reading.
In the end, both the book and the movie had things to recommend them and I am glad that I read this. I have noticed that there are subsequent books in Logan, so perhaps I'll find and read those at some point also.
Recommended.
A couple of favourite passages:
"Logan paused to survey the vast mural which gave the structure its name—a climbing mosaic composed of tiny bits of fireglass brilliantly arranged to commemorate the Burning of Washington. Orange, purple and raw red flames jeweled halfway up the façade; bodies flamed; buildings smoked and tumbled. Yet the awesome masterwork was flawed, incomplete. Stark, gaping areas broke the pattern. Only the famed muralist Roebler 7 could handle the corrosive fireglass, and when he had accepted Sleep his secret died with him. The project would never be finished."
"In his State of the Union address President Curtain had stressed the severity of the food shortage, as world population spiraled toward six billion. He called upon the young to exercise self-control in this crisis. But the sight of the fat, overfed President standing in living units across the country, talking of duty and restraint, had a negative effect on his audience. And the well-known fact that Curtain had fathered nine children made a showdown inevitable."
"The Little War had begun. By morning, half of Washington was in flames. Senators and congressmen were dragged in terror from their homes and hanged like criminals from trees and lampposts. The police and National Guard units were swept away in the first major wave of rioting. Buildings were set afire and explosives used. During the confusion an attendant at the Washington Zoo released the animals to save them from flames. The beasts were never recaptured."
December 28, 2019
Real Rating: 2.5* of five
I remembered this book fondly. The summer the film came out, I drove my licenseless buds to the Village Multiplex in Pygge, my 1968 Bonneville. (We'd passed the book around our Scooby-group, drinking it in.) There Michael York cheekboned his way into my, um, heart shall we say, and the rest of the film...and the entirety of the book...faded into insignificance.
Netflix loses the film on January 1st. I figured I'd rewatch it, while I give the book another go; after all, they're part of my formative years, so as I enter the last laps let's look back to the track, eh what?
You would think that, by now, I'd know better.
The book is just plain bad. The prose rises to the dizzying heights of serviceability a couple times, all the way up the slope of passable; the bulk of the 150pp are spent on the Plains of Puerility. A pair of fortyish numpties wrote about a world in which they'd be dead twenty years. It went about as well as that makes it sound. It's sexist, of course; it was ground-breaking for its day because the hedonism of its society isn't particularly concerned about who you do since there are no children born of sexual congress. Makes the property base of marriage pretty useless, so marriage simply isn't.
But the big draw, the martial arts bits, are tame and tedious 50 years on. (It came out in 1967, the film in 1976.) The action scenes are mildly fun. The story's versions of Logan and Francis are in a whole father/son dynamic that never gets much of anywhere because, well, you did see the page count, right? The ending takes place in Space. I won't say why, but it is the trippiest piece of dumbfuckery I can imagine. These guys were tripping when they wrote the ending, there's no other excuse. End it does, however, so I shook my head and started streaming the film.
Rob was here that day. He hadn't heard of the book or the film. He flipped through the book a bit and quietly reshelved it after about ten minutes. "Ready to see the film?" I asked; "not really" was the honest reply. Luckily Michael York is there from the get-go, cheekbones a-jut and body firmly and revealingly encased in a spiffy dark costume. I heard no further nose-sighs from little spoon...until a scene where Logan/Michael dials up a sex worker and gets, on his first try, a man.
"...?!!?..."
"Hey, even *I* had older mentors," I said. "Wait for the robot butcher scene. That's when we get to see Logan and Jessica naked!"
And that is pretty much it. The naked scene isn't him naked, it's just her, and some artfully obscured extras who earned that paycheck; a bit disappointing, but obscured by the fact that the film takes a turn for the idiotic from there on out. We ended up wondering what the hell was the point of this exercise, how far breaking ground can go in keeping a creative endeavor in active circulation. I think it's time to let this one slide into the background and we should pack it away in shredded copies of the awful book it was inspired by but doesn't much resemble.
I remembered this book fondly. The summer the film came out, I drove my licenseless buds to the Village Multiplex in Pygge, my 1968 Bonneville. (We'd passed the book around our Scooby-group, drinking it in.) There Michael York cheekboned his way into my, um, heart shall we say, and the rest of the film...and the entirety of the book...faded into insignificance.
Netflix loses the film on January 1st. I figured I'd rewatch it, while I give the book another go; after all, they're part of my formative years, so as I enter the last laps let's look back to the track, eh what?
You would think that, by now, I'd know better.
The book is just plain bad. The prose rises to the dizzying heights of serviceability a couple times, all the way up the slope of passable; the bulk of the 150pp are spent on the Plains of Puerility. A pair of fortyish numpties wrote about a world in which they'd be dead twenty years. It went about as well as that makes it sound. It's sexist, of course; it was ground-breaking for its day because the hedonism of its society isn't particularly concerned about who you do since there are no children born of sexual congress. Makes the property base of marriage pretty useless, so marriage simply isn't.
But the big draw, the martial arts bits, are tame and tedious 50 years on. (It came out in 1967, the film in 1976.) The action scenes are mildly fun. The story's versions of Logan and Francis are in a whole father/son dynamic that never gets much of anywhere because, well, you did see the page count, right? The ending takes place in Space. I won't say why, but it is the trippiest piece of dumbfuckery I can imagine. These guys were tripping when they wrote the ending, there's no other excuse. End it does, however, so I shook my head and started streaming the film.
Rob was here that day. He hadn't heard of the book or the film. He flipped through the book a bit and quietly reshelved it after about ten minutes. "Ready to see the film?" I asked; "not really" was the honest reply. Luckily Michael York is there from the get-go, cheekbones a-jut and body firmly and revealingly encased in a spiffy dark costume. I heard no further nose-sighs from little spoon...until a scene where Logan/Michael dials up a sex worker and gets, on his first try, a man.
"...?!!?..."
"Hey, even *I* had older mentors," I said. "Wait for the robot butcher scene. That's when we get to see Logan and Jessica naked!"
And that is pretty much it. The naked scene isn't him naked, it's just her, and some artfully obscured extras who earned that paycheck; a bit disappointing, but obscured by the fact that the film takes a turn for the idiotic from there on out. We ended up wondering what the hell was the point of this exercise, how far breaking ground can go in keeping a creative endeavor in active circulation. I think it's time to let this one slide into the background and we should pack it away in shredded copies of the awful book it was inspired by but doesn't much resemble.
November 6, 2011
Definitely a good bad book, which anticipated cyberpunk the way Robert Sheckley anticipated Douglas Adams. In Logan's world, everyone has to submit to voluntary euthanasia when they turn 21 and their palmflower goes black. But Logan decides he'll try and find Ballard, who's 42 and has lived a double lifetime. Maybe he can help him escape to the mythical Sanctuary.
It doesn't exactly make sense, but there are lots of very memorable sequences...
______________________________________
Just saw that Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling are going to be teaming up again to do a new movie version. If it's as good as Drive, it should really be worth watching. Though I'm disappointed to see that they've already announced one major change: people in Logan's world will be euthanased at 30, not 21 as in the book.
It doesn't exactly make sense, but there are lots of very memorable sequences...
______________________________________
Just saw that Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling are going to be teaming up again to do a new movie version. If it's as good as Drive, it should really be worth watching. Though I'm disappointed to see that they've already announced one major change: people in Logan's world will be euthanased at 30, not 21 as in the book.
December 24, 2025
Loved the TV show and the book was just as amazing to me. Recommended
August 18, 2024
Like other novels I've read from the 70's, this crazy thing makes me suspect that the authors took some kind of hallucinogenic drug and then just wrote down what they saw and heard while they were tripping. Then they added a few passages and organized it all into a story of sorts, albeit a ridiculous story that makes very little sense.
In a futuristic society circa the 2270's, life is all beautiful hedonism until you turn 21, when the glowing crystal embedded in your palm goes black, and you patriotically agree to take the dirt nap. This has to do with overpopulation and food shortages or something.
A few people somehow escape the lifelong brainwashing they've been subjected to, and they want to see what it's like to be 22. These "Runners" try to escape the domed city to reach a mythical Sanctuary. They are pursued and killed by trained assassins called "Sandmen," who are enthusiastically supported by the other citizens.
Logan is a Sandman who finds a strange key in the hand of a Runner he has killed. While investigating the key, he meets Jessica, the Runner's sister. She knows something about Sanctuary and how to get there. When Logan's crystal goes black, he decides to run, the first Sandman ever to do so. Jessica goes with him.
The rest of the book went like this:
Logan and Jessica run to someplace. They are attacked by someone/something that they can't possibly escape. They escape. Logan and Jessica run someplace else. They are attacked by someone/something that they can't possibly escape. They escape. Repeat 25 times.
Do they ever reach sanctuary?
I liked this quote, a realization Logan has at the end:
FYI for those of us who remember the cheesy 1976 movie starring Michael York and Jenny Agutter, the novel is very different.
In a futuristic society circa the 2270's, life is all beautiful hedonism until you turn 21, when the glowing crystal embedded in your palm goes black, and you patriotically agree to take the dirt nap. This has to do with overpopulation and food shortages or something.
A few people somehow escape the lifelong brainwashing they've been subjected to, and they want to see what it's like to be 22. These "Runners" try to escape the domed city to reach a mythical Sanctuary. They are pursued and killed by trained assassins called "Sandmen," who are enthusiastically supported by the other citizens.
Logan is a Sandman who finds a strange key in the hand of a Runner he has killed. While investigating the key, he meets Jessica, the Runner's sister. She knows something about Sanctuary and how to get there. When Logan's crystal goes black, he decides to run, the first Sandman ever to do so. Jessica goes with him.
The rest of the book went like this:
Logan and Jessica run to someplace. They are attacked by someone/something that they can't possibly escape. They escape. Logan and Jessica run someplace else. They are attacked by someone/something that they can't possibly escape. They escape. Repeat 25 times.
Do they ever reach sanctuary?
I liked this quote, a realization Logan has at the end:
...Dying young is a waste and a shame and a perversion. The young don't build. They use. The wonders of Man were achieved by the mature, the wise, who lived in this world before we did.
FYI for those of us who remember the cheesy 1976 movie starring Michael York and Jenny Agutter, the novel is very different.
January 10, 2023
Logan's Run is one of those movies I grew up with, so even if it is quite silly, it has a special place in my sci-fi heart.
Turns out the book is even sillier! The movie is much tighter, and better plotted.
The book does contain the most 1960s sci-fi line I've read in a long while:
"The tri-dimensional newsman was dressed in Lifeleather trimfits."
Of course he was.
Turns out the book is even sillier! The movie is much tighter, and better plotted.
The book does contain the most 1960s sci-fi line I've read in a long while:
"The tri-dimensional newsman was dressed in Lifeleather trimfits."
Of course he was.
March 26, 2017
The novel Logan's Run was published 40 years ago & still holds up well as an entertaining piece of science fiction. I've always liked the 1976 film version starring Michael York & Jenny Agutter & was pleased to see that there were noticeable differences between the film & the novel. I wonder had the novel had been published today, in a world of The Hunger Games, Divergent etc, it might have been a huge hit & inspired a whole series of films & merchandise spin offs. While I would recommend the book to any fan of science fiction I must admit that I still prefer the film.
June 14, 2008
So I picked this up for 87 cents basically for two reasons:
1. It's Logan's Run!!! What more need be said?
2. Come on, 87 cents? Did I mention that it's Logan's Run?
Ok, I hate reading the book after I've seen the movie (this pretty much goes with any book-to-eventual-movie combo), but really, I vaguely even recall the movie - I remember scant parts and I think most of the parts I remember aren't even in the book and I think the other parts I remember are those refreshed by stills wedged into the middle of the book after being reprinted in '76 to promote the movie. (Sigh, I hate movie promoting versions of books too, but oh well, it's not like I had a choice.)
Now, despite what I can remember from the movie, I loved it and more than anything, I sort of picked this up for a good laugh. Actually, I was pleasantly surprised. This was actually pretty damn good. It was short, fast-paced and amazingly gripping. Seriously, I couldn't put it down and rolled through in a few short hours...and now...well now I gotta go track down the movie again.
There's few book/movie combinations I enjoy - it's usually one or the other, either the book was fantastic and the movie was nothing more than shallow hollywood droll or...well, the other doesn't happen very often. This is one of the few exceptions where both were superb.
1. It's Logan's Run!!! What more need be said?
2. Come on, 87 cents? Did I mention that it's Logan's Run?
Ok, I hate reading the book after I've seen the movie (this pretty much goes with any book-to-eventual-movie combo), but really, I vaguely even recall the movie - I remember scant parts and I think most of the parts I remember aren't even in the book and I think the other parts I remember are those refreshed by stills wedged into the middle of the book after being reprinted in '76 to promote the movie. (Sigh, I hate movie promoting versions of books too, but oh well, it's not like I had a choice.)
Now, despite what I can remember from the movie, I loved it and more than anything, I sort of picked this up for a good laugh. Actually, I was pleasantly surprised. This was actually pretty damn good. It was short, fast-paced and amazingly gripping. Seriously, I couldn't put it down and rolled through in a few short hours...and now...well now I gotta go track down the movie again.
There's few book/movie combinations I enjoy - it's usually one or the other, either the book was fantastic and the movie was nothing more than shallow hollywood droll or...well, the other doesn't happen very often. This is one of the few exceptions where both were superb.
November 9, 2021
-Una idea interesante para su época, no tanto ahora, y una ejecución irregular, tanto entonces como ahora.-
Género. Ciencia ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. El libro La fuga de Logan (publicación original: Logan’s Run, 1967) nos presenta al Vigilante Logan, un agente de Sueño Profundo dedicado a la caza de Fugitivos, personas que no siguen la ley y, al cumplir los veintiún años, tratan de evitar su final en las Casas del Sueño. Hay más Fugitivos cada vez y parecen estar organizados, buscando un lugar llamado Santuario donde podrán evitar su destino dictado por el sistema sociopolítico en el que viven. Cuando llega su último día, Logan tiene dudas y un contacto casi fortuito con Jessica, la hermana de una de sus víctimas, hace que él mismo se convierta en un Fugitivo.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...
Género. Ciencia ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. El libro La fuga de Logan (publicación original: Logan’s Run, 1967) nos presenta al Vigilante Logan, un agente de Sueño Profundo dedicado a la caza de Fugitivos, personas que no siguen la ley y, al cumplir los veintiún años, tratan de evitar su final en las Casas del Sueño. Hay más Fugitivos cada vez y parecen estar organizados, buscando un lugar llamado Santuario donde podrán evitar su destino dictado por el sistema sociopolítico en el que viven. Cuando llega su último día, Logan tiene dudas y un contacto casi fortuito con Jessica, la hermana de una de sus víctimas, hace que él mismo se convierta en un Fugitivo.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...
February 15, 2023
Sometimes classic science-fiction isn't as good as one hopes. While a better written novel than the sequel it isn't as fun. As pointed out by Stacey it's really nothing more than a glorified chase through a exotic series of sets. The future world of "Logan's Run" isn't as developed as it should be while predictions of future events are wildly off the mark, weighing the story down and hurting it as a result. A product of its time (late Sixties) it's also apparent that the authors (who were in their late thirties and forties at the time of writing) didn't think very highly of the so-called Youth Culture/Counterculture. That isn't necessarily a bad thing (depending on one's political and social orientation I suppose), but it hurts "Logan's Run". This is one case in which the movie is better. Not a horrible book, but not all that great either.
October 24, 2023
I first read this a few years after it first came out (1967) and my just barely teenaged self thought it was fabulous. My original four star rating reflected my enjoyment of the book, back then. I'm going to leave the rating alone, even though my older, cynical self needed a lot more suspension of disbelief to get through it. The story's very much a product of it's time (the youth obsessed 60's) and place ( California), with it's retro future automated utopia of free love and halucenogenic drugs. But as a short, fast paced thriller, it holds up reasonably well. I was inspired to go back for another look because I'm reading Tanith Lee's "Biting The Sun" which has some similarities in plot but is more complex in its story-telling and in its ideas. Still, 4 big, nostalgia soaked stars.
.
.
March 28, 2023
A product of the 60’s, in particular the Vietnam war, and the fear of the bomb. Nolan creates a story about the young, for the young, and a future that’s a mishmash of politics and dystopian ideas found in better novels.
No one can live over the age of 21. Once the age is reached, death is mandatory. Sometimes people run. Logan is a hunter of such rebels. That is until his time comes.
The first half is really fun, even if the writing is pretty bad. The middle drags a little, with too many references to the civil war, but fortunately the ending is pretty satisfying.
Overall, Logan’s Run is exactly what you expect, a pulpy sci-fi adventure story that is easy to digest. Entertaining trash.
No one can live over the age of 21. Once the age is reached, death is mandatory. Sometimes people run. Logan is a hunter of such rebels. That is until his time comes.
The first half is really fun, even if the writing is pretty bad. The middle drags a little, with too many references to the civil war, but fortunately the ending is pretty satisfying.
Overall, Logan’s Run is exactly what you expect, a pulpy sci-fi adventure story that is easy to digest. Entertaining trash.
December 27, 2025
This is one of those rare cases where the movie is better than the book. It was a bit of a jumbled mess, but it had its moments. A lot of science fiction or dystopian books from the 60s suffer from same.
January 9, 2010
I read this back in the 70s. The movie appeared (not a bad science fiction movie for the day) and I ran the book down. It was better than the movie by quite a bit.
This is another cold war view of the future and a fairly dark outlook. While it's not the best or the worst one I read it's a fair read.
This is another cold war view of the future and a fairly dark outlook. While it's not the best or the worst one I read it's a fair read.
February 22, 2022
The most remarkable thing about this novel is that reading it is exactly like watching a B-movie. Uncannily so. Almost as if the author was visualizing "so bad it's good" film sequences as he wrote it. Haven't seen the '70s movie, but will definitely look for it now.
April 6, 2023
A bit dated, but still a fun, classic science fiction read. I'd have liked to see the end fleshed out a bit more, but overall enjoyed the book.
February 16, 2017
A bitter disappointment after waiting years to acquire this. Minus one star for ubiquitous, unnamed, and unnecessary opening female point of view (third present?) Minus another for head hopping without achieving anything the main character couldn't have conveyed. Minus a third star for being repeatedly tossed into the deep end of this world's vocabulary and left to float without a life preserver.
Minus another star for trying to turn narrative into poetry ( I believe Stephen King labels this stuff, "My Angry Lesbian Breasts," no offense to breasts, lesbians, or anger-heads intended on my part.) Whoops, straight outta fuc--stars--to give: whether they flash in handy color coded ways or not.
You'd have to self publish this if you wrote it today, because the technology is built around what the authors wanted to happen, and not what we know computers are capable of, like shutting off access to elevators and credit cards. I wanted to gain a series read from this, but it only furthers a sneaking suspicion I've been nurturing, that the only Sci-fi worth a look is hot off the presses, otherwise it smacks of the backward times in which it was penned. Blech.
Minus another star for trying to turn narrative into poetry ( I believe Stephen King labels this stuff, "My Angry Lesbian Breasts," no offense to breasts, lesbians, or anger-heads intended on my part.) Whoops, straight outta fuc--stars--to give: whether they flash in handy color coded ways or not.
You'd have to self publish this if you wrote it today, because the technology is built around what the authors wanted to happen, and not what we know computers are capable of, like shutting off access to elevators and credit cards. I wanted to gain a series read from this, but it only furthers a sneaking suspicion I've been nurturing, that the only Sci-fi worth a look is hot off the presses, otherwise it smacks of the backward times in which it was penned. Blech.
April 1, 2023
It's fair to say that Logan's Run is too fucked up for our time.
Its weird acceptance of ten year old prostitutes, no one over twenty-one being left alive (unless they "Run"), rape, rape everywhere!, some space shit, lots of post-WW3 shit, beau coup dystopian shit, a Cracker's wet dream in the form of a bizarro Civil War re-enactments, racism here, there and everywhere, and misplaced faith in youth, which is tragic.
It is full of shit but simultaneously full of wonderful (or critically wonderful) things: futuristic Roma, the negativity of nostalgia, the growth of Logan, the power that is Jess, and the conceit of the finale. It isn't anywhere the best Sci-Fi novel -- even of its year -- but it is worth a read (/listen), unless you are J. David Thompson because you might just get 35% of the text and consider yourself lazy. Poor bastard.
Its weird acceptance of ten year old prostitutes, no one over twenty-one being left alive (unless they "Run"), rape, rape everywhere!, some space shit, lots of post-WW3 shit, beau coup dystopian shit, a Cracker's wet dream in the form of a bizarro Civil War re-enactments, racism here, there and everywhere, and misplaced faith in youth, which is tragic.
It is full of shit but simultaneously full of wonderful (or critically wonderful) things: futuristic Roma, the negativity of nostalgia, the growth of Logan, the power that is Jess, and the conceit of the finale. It isn't anywhere the best Sci-Fi novel -- even of its year -- but it is worth a read (/listen), unless you are J. David Thompson because you might just get 35% of the text and consider yourself lazy. Poor bastard.
July 8, 2011
I always like the idea of reading old sci-fi more than the actual experience, and it certainly held true with this book as well. Logan's Run is, of course, iconic. Immortalized in a futuristic, and now cult-classic b-movie, it has cinematic influences on everything from Bladerunner to Minority Report. But there's really just not that much story here. Ultimately, that's what disappoints - that there could have been such an interesting story, but all we get is a chase through various decaying and exotic scenes.
Still, there are some passages that stand out, one being a (1967) impression of the modern Internet, described thus:
"Here was a constellation of winking fireflies stretching to infinity. Here was an immense electronic silence. In the endless, glowing dark was Tangier and London, Macao and Capri and Beirut, El Quederef and Chateau-Chinon and Wounded Knee. From these caverns leapt the motive force of a dispensary in Chemnitz, a glasshouse in Shropshire, a call box in Billings, Montana ... This vast mountain brain sent it's signals along Earth's nervous system to the distant places, the villages, towns and cities, bringing order out of disorder, calmness out of confusion.
They beheld the world.
The final realization of the computer age. A direct extension of the electronic brains at Columbia and Cal Tech in the 1960s, it was a massive breakthrough in solid-state technology. Computer was linked with computer in ever widening complexity."
Brilliant.
And a giggle-worthy description of a "dirty bomb":
“Brigadier General Matthew Pope authorized the use of one vest-pocket tactical atomic bomb. It was the last act of his life, and no other nuclear weapon was used in the Little War. Ground zero for the bomb was the site of the Smithsonian Institute – and the resultant crater was thereafter known as Pope's Hole. It was a remarkably dirty bomb, and for two weeks Washington was virtually uninhabitable – until the Geiger count fell low enough for observers to re-enter the city and test the atmosphere. Already the zoo animals had begun to breed.”
“Heat from the nuclear explosion stored in tidal salts beneath the earth was still leaching out after all these years. The furnace heat, combined with the high humidity, had created a tropical rainforest. Winter ceased to exist in Washington.”
I like a little humor in my fiction.
Still, there are some passages that stand out, one being a (1967) impression of the modern Internet, described thus:
"Here was a constellation of winking fireflies stretching to infinity. Here was an immense electronic silence. In the endless, glowing dark was Tangier and London, Macao and Capri and Beirut, El Quederef and Chateau-Chinon and Wounded Knee. From these caverns leapt the motive force of a dispensary in Chemnitz, a glasshouse in Shropshire, a call box in Billings, Montana ... This vast mountain brain sent it's signals along Earth's nervous system to the distant places, the villages, towns and cities, bringing order out of disorder, calmness out of confusion.
They beheld the world.
The final realization of the computer age. A direct extension of the electronic brains at Columbia and Cal Tech in the 1960s, it was a massive breakthrough in solid-state technology. Computer was linked with computer in ever widening complexity."
Brilliant.
And a giggle-worthy description of a "dirty bomb":
“Brigadier General Matthew Pope authorized the use of one vest-pocket tactical atomic bomb. It was the last act of his life, and no other nuclear weapon was used in the Little War. Ground zero for the bomb was the site of the Smithsonian Institute – and the resultant crater was thereafter known as Pope's Hole. It was a remarkably dirty bomb, and for two weeks Washington was virtually uninhabitable – until the Geiger count fell low enough for observers to re-enter the city and test the atmosphere. Already the zoo animals had begun to breed.”
“Heat from the nuclear explosion stored in tidal salts beneath the earth was still leaching out after all these years. The furnace heat, combined with the high humidity, had created a tropical rainforest. Winter ceased to exist in Washington.”
I like a little humor in my fiction.
October 27, 2019
A literary masterpiece this is not, but it's been influential to some extent in the world of sci-fi, especially film, and is good fun. Fueled by mid-20th century fears of global overpopulation, Logan's dystopian society is based on the concept of putting people out to pasture when they reach the ripe old age of 21 (30 in the film). It's rife with implausibilities and hastily explained settings and scene changes, but the action, at least, doesn't let up.
March 21, 2011
Can I make a confession here? I've never seen the movie version of "Logan's Run."
I know, I know. I should probably turn in my geek card at this point. Either that or I should dust off the DVD version I picked up for a low price and put the shiny disc into the player and cross it off my list of shame.
For a long time, my excuse has been that I'd never read the book. And once I found out that the book came first, as a book-a-holic, I could at least say that I wanted to read the book first. So, finally after years of searching used book stores and various books swapping sites for a reasonably priced copy of the book, I finally got one. And then it promptly sat on my to be read shelf for a long period of time.
Then, I actually promised the book to a friend who loved the film but hadn't read the book. So, it was that I finally found myself at a point in time that I felt like it was time I should sit down and finally crack the cover of "Logan's Run."
Was it worth the wait, the build-up and the hype?
Yes and no.
As with all books that are made into movies, it's nice to see what the authors originally intended for the world and characters to be on the printed page. The edition I acquired is an old one from the when the movie was out, so I had to resist the temptation to look at the 16 pages of full color photos from the film. Part of it was curiosity to see how my mental image of characters and settings was different and part of it was curiosity to see which parts of the books might be included and which might be dropped. Thankfully, I was able to resist the siren call of full color stills from the movie until after I'd read the final page.
The story itself starts off fairly well. The concept of a future society in which overpopulation means everyone submits to death at the age of 21 is intriguing. Logan is part of the police force that hunts down those who don't want to die and become "runners." Logan is very good at what he does and doesn't really question his place in things. That is, until the crystal on his hand begins to blink red, indicating he has 24 hours to live.
At times, the concept of people lining up for the death machines to terminate their lives reminded me a lot of classic Star Trek's "A Taste of Armageddon." But where that society was fighting a war via computers and counting up deaths to meet quotas and not violate a treaty, the society here is trying to curb overpopulation.
At this point, some interesting ideas begin to crop up, including why this society chose 21 as the cut-off point for its people and what kind of impact it was having on the world. Is part of the future world of "Logan" that people mature faster? And how does the society function when run by the younger set without the older group there to guide them and offer wisdom and/or insight?
Unfortunately, the novel never really delves into any of these questions. It also never delves much into how anything runs with any efficiency since it seems like there's not a lot of time to train people on how to do things or to give them time to learn new skills. How Logan becomes a great Sandman isn't really delved into and it's a question that could and should be addressed.
Instead, the story is more of a straight-forward chase and adventure narrative. In many ways, it reminded me of 24 with characters chasing about from location to location geographically without any consideration for how long it might take people to get from here to there in the real universe. The story also could have used a lot more development in Logan as he goes from a man who decides if he's going out, he's going to take out the rebel sanctuary known as "Sanctuary" in his final day to being a guy who is on the run and could be a leader of the new rebellion. As far as I can tell, the book seems to say all you need is love and you'll become a revolutionary.
It all ends up feeling like the novel is being written to be quickly and easily adapted as a screenplay.
And it may work better as a movie. Looks like it's time to dust off that DVD and find out.
I know, I know. I should probably turn in my geek card at this point. Either that or I should dust off the DVD version I picked up for a low price and put the shiny disc into the player and cross it off my list of shame.
For a long time, my excuse has been that I'd never read the book. And once I found out that the book came first, as a book-a-holic, I could at least say that I wanted to read the book first. So, finally after years of searching used book stores and various books swapping sites for a reasonably priced copy of the book, I finally got one. And then it promptly sat on my to be read shelf for a long period of time.
Then, I actually promised the book to a friend who loved the film but hadn't read the book. So, it was that I finally found myself at a point in time that I felt like it was time I should sit down and finally crack the cover of "Logan's Run."
Was it worth the wait, the build-up and the hype?
Yes and no.
As with all books that are made into movies, it's nice to see what the authors originally intended for the world and characters to be on the printed page. The edition I acquired is an old one from the when the movie was out, so I had to resist the temptation to look at the 16 pages of full color photos from the film. Part of it was curiosity to see how my mental image of characters and settings was different and part of it was curiosity to see which parts of the books might be included and which might be dropped. Thankfully, I was able to resist the siren call of full color stills from the movie until after I'd read the final page.
The story itself starts off fairly well. The concept of a future society in which overpopulation means everyone submits to death at the age of 21 is intriguing. Logan is part of the police force that hunts down those who don't want to die and become "runners." Logan is very good at what he does and doesn't really question his place in things. That is, until the crystal on his hand begins to blink red, indicating he has 24 hours to live.
At times, the concept of people lining up for the death machines to terminate their lives reminded me a lot of classic Star Trek's "A Taste of Armageddon." But where that society was fighting a war via computers and counting up deaths to meet quotas and not violate a treaty, the society here is trying to curb overpopulation.
At this point, some interesting ideas begin to crop up, including why this society chose 21 as the cut-off point for its people and what kind of impact it was having on the world. Is part of the future world of "Logan" that people mature faster? And how does the society function when run by the younger set without the older group there to guide them and offer wisdom and/or insight?
Unfortunately, the novel never really delves into any of these questions. It also never delves much into how anything runs with any efficiency since it seems like there's not a lot of time to train people on how to do things or to give them time to learn new skills. How Logan becomes a great Sandman isn't really delved into and it's a question that could and should be addressed.
Instead, the story is more of a straight-forward chase and adventure narrative. In many ways, it reminded me of 24 with characters chasing about from location to location geographically without any consideration for how long it might take people to get from here to there in the real universe. The story also could have used a lot more development in Logan as he goes from a man who decides if he's going out, he's going to take out the rebel sanctuary known as "Sanctuary" in his final day to being a guy who is on the run and could be a leader of the new rebellion. As far as I can tell, the book seems to say all you need is love and you'll become a revolutionary.
It all ends up feeling like the novel is being written to be quickly and easily adapted as a screenplay.
And it may work better as a movie. Looks like it's time to dust off that DVD and find out.
May 4, 2024
The year is 2116. In order to “solve” the overpopulation, it is required by law for those who turn twenty-one to go into a Deep Sleep (a form of forced suicide). Individuals have a crystal flower inserted into their hands and when it turns from red to black, it is deemed Last Day.
However, as you can imagine, some people will not just accept and go off so easily into the far beyond without some sort of fight. These people who fight the system are Runners, and it is up to Sandmen, enforcers of the system, to take them down.
Initially, there is a little bit of heavy lifting for the reader as we are just randomly thrust into the novel and this world haphazardly and jarringly without much in the way of exposition. However, this is a case where the novel almost works backwards, as we are given more context about the dystopic world individuals live in and how things came to be gradually, especially in the novel’s second half.
I felt like my opinion of this book changed quite dramatically (and favorably) from the initial stages to when we get into the meat of the book, and especially in the later stages.
The basic premise and the novel’s main crux is Logan 3, a DS man (Sandman), getting an epiphany when his unlucky number is called on his twenty-first birthday and deciding to break from society and become a runner himself. When Logan hears one of the runners, a man named Doyle 10, whisper the words “Sanctuary” on his last breath, he becomes intrigued with the mysterious place, and it becomes his quest to find it. He eventually ends up meeting Doyle’s sister, Jess, and eventually winning her trust, and the two try to make their escape.
One of the more distinctive and impressive features of Logan’s Run from the duo of authors is simply creating such a topsy-turvy, futuristic, bizarrely dystopian world. This is most evident when Logan and Jess are in flight and on the run-- in pursuit and quest for Sanctuary--which consumes much of the plot, and is easily the most exciting and engaging parts of the book.
A frantic, energized tempo ensues, especially after they are hit with pitfall after pitfall, danger after danger and villains of all types, from robotic guards sounding the alarm, to psychotic half-man, half-machine artists, to a band of crazed youngsters, etc. It takes on almost a carnivalesque, dystopian dark amusement park with impending doom at every turn as they trek into various futuristic, post-apocalyptic wastelands. (One of the most bizarre points is when Logan and Jess make their escape past a group of androids doing a reenactment of a battle from the Civil War with onlookers).
Additionally, the futuristic, dystopic concepts are quite innovative and impressive considering this book was written in 1967. For example, one of the features of society is an all-consuming artificial intelligence named Thinker, who basically runs the show and keeps everything in order for this upside-down world. There is also a hovercraft of sorts that Logan and others use as a means of transportation. There are so many fascinating (and scary) technological concepts brought forth, and it seems evident that these ideas were likely inspiration for more modern dystopian works.
I guess if there was one drawback is that the world building and character development could have been more flushed out a bit and gone a little deeper. However, at a lean 165 pages, this was difficult to accomplish.
Still, I enjoyed this book thoroughly, and Logan’s Run is a wonderful addition to the science fiction classic collection. I have actually never sat down and watched the classic 1970s film version with Michael York, but that is next on my to-do list.
However, as you can imagine, some people will not just accept and go off so easily into the far beyond without some sort of fight. These people who fight the system are Runners, and it is up to Sandmen, enforcers of the system, to take them down.
Initially, there is a little bit of heavy lifting for the reader as we are just randomly thrust into the novel and this world haphazardly and jarringly without much in the way of exposition. However, this is a case where the novel almost works backwards, as we are given more context about the dystopic world individuals live in and how things came to be gradually, especially in the novel’s second half.
I felt like my opinion of this book changed quite dramatically (and favorably) from the initial stages to when we get into the meat of the book, and especially in the later stages.
The basic premise and the novel’s main crux is Logan 3, a DS man (Sandman), getting an epiphany when his unlucky number is called on his twenty-first birthday and deciding to break from society and become a runner himself. When Logan hears one of the runners, a man named Doyle 10, whisper the words “Sanctuary” on his last breath, he becomes intrigued with the mysterious place, and it becomes his quest to find it. He eventually ends up meeting Doyle’s sister, Jess, and eventually winning her trust, and the two try to make their escape.
One of the more distinctive and impressive features of Logan’s Run from the duo of authors is simply creating such a topsy-turvy, futuristic, bizarrely dystopian world. This is most evident when Logan and Jess are in flight and on the run-- in pursuit and quest for Sanctuary--which consumes much of the plot, and is easily the most exciting and engaging parts of the book.
A frantic, energized tempo ensues, especially after they are hit with pitfall after pitfall, danger after danger and villains of all types, from robotic guards sounding the alarm, to psychotic half-man, half-machine artists, to a band of crazed youngsters, etc. It takes on almost a carnivalesque, dystopian dark amusement park with impending doom at every turn as they trek into various futuristic, post-apocalyptic wastelands. (One of the most bizarre points is when Logan and Jess make their escape past a group of androids doing a reenactment of a battle from the Civil War with onlookers).
Additionally, the futuristic, dystopic concepts are quite innovative and impressive considering this book was written in 1967. For example, one of the features of society is an all-consuming artificial intelligence named Thinker, who basically runs the show and keeps everything in order for this upside-down world. There is also a hovercraft of sorts that Logan and others use as a means of transportation. There are so many fascinating (and scary) technological concepts brought forth, and it seems evident that these ideas were likely inspiration for more modern dystopian works.
I guess if there was one drawback is that the world building and character development could have been more flushed out a bit and gone a little deeper. However, at a lean 165 pages, this was difficult to accomplish.
Still, I enjoyed this book thoroughly, and Logan’s Run is a wonderful addition to the science fiction classic collection. I have actually never sat down and watched the classic 1970s film version with Michael York, but that is next on my to-do list.
March 4, 2014
I admit I'm a little torn on this one. Written in the late 1960s, this sci-fi thriller had an interesting message and seems to have influenced a fair bit of modern sci-fi, but it was done in a somewhat superficial manner.
A synopsis: It's a couple hundred years after the 20th century and nobody is allowed to live past age 21. The entire world is connected by a giant subway system controlled by a powerful computer in the heart of a mountain in the middle of America. Everyone wears implanted "flowers" on their hands that are programmed to change color every seven years to denote different phases of life and, ultimately, to alert everyone to when a person is scheduled to go to Sleep, or surrender their lives at age 21. The people who refuse to go to Sleep are called Runners, and they are tracked down by an elite police force called Sandmen, who kill the Runner on sight. Presumably, all Runners are looking for Sanctuary, or the place where they can live out a natural human life. Logan is a Sandman who decides to run on his last day, teaming up with a female runner and going on an intense journey within the course of 24 hours that leads them to an underground railroad seeking Sanctuary.
It reminded me a lot of the movie In Time, with regards to an artificially-set end of life for political and economic reasons. Whenever I read mid century sci-fi, I have to take a step back and remember that it's not derivative, but rather informative. Right now, this type of story seems completely overdone, but that's probably because it actually helped influence a fair amount of mediocre sci-fi currently being released. This story was a sort of "what if" scenario that doesn't really transcend time like 1984 or other great and beloved sci-fi stories have.
Logan's Run was a result of the writers watching a cultural revolution take place in the late 60s, where young people changed the country, something not really seen before in America. With all the protests, riots, and incredible news coverage, the future probably felt incredibly tentative at that time. In that way, Logan's Run is an interesting historical document, looking into the minds of writers who were unsure what the cultural revolution could engender and wanted to pursue one outlandish avenue to its natural conclusion. Looking at that idea now, it seems ridiculous since all those hippies mellowed out and became the much-maligned baby boomer generation who grumps about the laziness of their kids and saps social security - basically what the authors of Logan's Run thought might be avoided if everyone committed suicide by 21. Ok, so maybe there still is something poignant about the story after all.
On the flip side, I didn't love the writing. It was an action-packed thriller, low on character development and high on quick, sparse sentences and crazy-fast plot movement. The runners are dashing around the country, encountering new villains here and there and defeating them just as quickly as they meet them. It all felt more like a comic book than a novel, which just isn't my cup of tea. The authors (sci-fi guys William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson teaming up) do a decent job of quickly creating a vivid world and dystopian future, but it feels quite dated and more pulpy as opposed to literary. Though we are meant to have mixed feelings about Logan, who we know to be a killer but also a seeker of human connections, there's no real character arc that occurs and in fact, there's a strange climax to the novel where he maybe seems to go through some sort of inner turmoil, but it is very strangely executed and unclear whether or not his whole dash for freedom was planned by the Sandmen or not. This is part of the blurriness of the writing, where settings are much more fleshed out than people. The climax takes place in Washington, DC, which has become a tropical jungle due to a nuclear bomb explosion, and is infested with escaped zoo animals. I loved the imagery of this place, but everything that occurs there is like a fever dream of incomprehensible plot. I'll also say that Logan's fellow runner, Jessica, is a painfully useless character, playing the part of a beautiful, weak woman who constantly needs saving. *Eye roll*. It really makes me appreciate the new sci-fi heroines in the form of The Hunger Games and probably Divergent and stuff, according to the movie trailers I've seen.
Because of its messy and immature writing style I can't say I really enjoyed it, but I do appreciate it as a valid influence on its genre and as a statement about the era in which it was written.
A synopsis: It's a couple hundred years after the 20th century and nobody is allowed to live past age 21. The entire world is connected by a giant subway system controlled by a powerful computer in the heart of a mountain in the middle of America. Everyone wears implanted "flowers" on their hands that are programmed to change color every seven years to denote different phases of life and, ultimately, to alert everyone to when a person is scheduled to go to Sleep, or surrender their lives at age 21. The people who refuse to go to Sleep are called Runners, and they are tracked down by an elite police force called Sandmen, who kill the Runner on sight. Presumably, all Runners are looking for Sanctuary, or the place where they can live out a natural human life. Logan is a Sandman who decides to run on his last day, teaming up with a female runner and going on an intense journey within the course of 24 hours that leads them to an underground railroad seeking Sanctuary.
It reminded me a lot of the movie In Time, with regards to an artificially-set end of life for political and economic reasons. Whenever I read mid century sci-fi, I have to take a step back and remember that it's not derivative, but rather informative. Right now, this type of story seems completely overdone, but that's probably because it actually helped influence a fair amount of mediocre sci-fi currently being released. This story was a sort of "what if" scenario that doesn't really transcend time like 1984 or other great and beloved sci-fi stories have.
Logan's Run was a result of the writers watching a cultural revolution take place in the late 60s, where young people changed the country, something not really seen before in America. With all the protests, riots, and incredible news coverage, the future probably felt incredibly tentative at that time. In that way, Logan's Run is an interesting historical document, looking into the minds of writers who were unsure what the cultural revolution could engender and wanted to pursue one outlandish avenue to its natural conclusion. Looking at that idea now, it seems ridiculous since all those hippies mellowed out and became the much-maligned baby boomer generation who grumps about the laziness of their kids and saps social security - basically what the authors of Logan's Run thought might be avoided if everyone committed suicide by 21. Ok, so maybe there still is something poignant about the story after all.
On the flip side, I didn't love the writing. It was an action-packed thriller, low on character development and high on quick, sparse sentences and crazy-fast plot movement. The runners are dashing around the country, encountering new villains here and there and defeating them just as quickly as they meet them. It all felt more like a comic book than a novel, which just isn't my cup of tea. The authors (sci-fi guys William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson teaming up) do a decent job of quickly creating a vivid world and dystopian future, but it feels quite dated and more pulpy as opposed to literary. Though we are meant to have mixed feelings about Logan, who we know to be a killer but also a seeker of human connections, there's no real character arc that occurs and in fact, there's a strange climax to the novel where he maybe seems to go through some sort of inner turmoil, but it is very strangely executed and unclear whether or not his whole dash for freedom was planned by the Sandmen or not. This is part of the blurriness of the writing, where settings are much more fleshed out than people. The climax takes place in Washington, DC, which has become a tropical jungle due to a nuclear bomb explosion, and is infested with escaped zoo animals. I loved the imagery of this place, but everything that occurs there is like a fever dream of incomprehensible plot. I'll also say that Logan's fellow runner, Jessica, is a painfully useless character, playing the part of a beautiful, weak woman who constantly needs saving. *Eye roll*. It really makes me appreciate the new sci-fi heroines in the form of The Hunger Games and probably Divergent and stuff, according to the movie trailers I've seen.
Because of its messy and immature writing style I can't say I really enjoyed it, but I do appreciate it as a valid influence on its genre and as a statement about the era in which it was written.
April 16, 2012
This might be the worst book I have read this year.
Here is the plot: In a dystopian future world, nobody should live for more than 21 years. They should go to ‘Sleep’. Logan who is a sandman - policeman of the future - who catches the ‘runners’ (people who run instead of going to ‘Sleep’ when their time has come), decides to become a ‘runner’ himself when it is his time to die.
End of the Story. Really.
William F. Nolan never thought beyond this point. Even the end could not salvage this wreck of a novel. It felt forced and cheesy.
I have read grocery lists better written and more interesting than this abomination.
Here is the plot: In a dystopian future world, nobody should live for more than 21 years. They should go to ‘Sleep’. Logan who is a sandman - policeman of the future - who catches the ‘runners’ (people who run instead of going to ‘Sleep’ when their time has come), decides to become a ‘runner’ himself when it is his time to die.
End of the Story. Really.
William F. Nolan never thought beyond this point. Even the end could not salvage this wreck of a novel. It felt forced and cheesy.
I have read grocery lists better written and more interesting than this abomination.
February 7, 2020
¿Pero a dónde te querías fugar, alma de cántaro? Si todo es la misma mierda.
August 14, 2011
This is a book I have been searching for, but was having trouble finding at the used book shops. I have always wanted to read it and to my great surprise, recieved it from my parents on my 25th birthday. It is the 1976 version with the silly picture insert of movie images. To say I was thrilled is a drastic understatement. In fact, no words can come close to describing the nerd-uphoria I felt. It took me very little time to read the tiny book, but it was quite the adventure and I would love to see them make a technologically advanced film version that actually matches the book instead of the weird 70's one.
Logan's Run takes place in the not so distant future of 2116. There is rumor that one man, Ballard, is the oldest living man at age 42 which is twice the normal lifespan of 21. The new America is goverened by the young and moderated by an implant in the palm that signals when their life will end. Once the implant turns black, the person must voluntarily embrace the big Sleep. This has created runners and the Sandmen are forced to hunt them down and kill them. Logan is a Sandman who embarks on a journey, with a runner named Jessica, in his last 24 hours before his palm implant turns black.
The break neck pace leaves very little time for deep character development, which is the only downside. You get a sense of who Logan is and his inner turmoil, but it isn't spoon fed to us like most novels. We can only see glimpses of Logan is flashback and see his choices to understand who he is. I personally loved it, despite its flaws and give it 4 out of 5 because I wish Logan and Jessica were developed on a deeper level.
Logan's Run takes place in the not so distant future of 2116. There is rumor that one man, Ballard, is the oldest living man at age 42 which is twice the normal lifespan of 21. The new America is goverened by the young and moderated by an implant in the palm that signals when their life will end. Once the implant turns black, the person must voluntarily embrace the big Sleep. This has created runners and the Sandmen are forced to hunt them down and kill them. Logan is a Sandman who embarks on a journey, with a runner named Jessica, in his last 24 hours before his palm implant turns black.
The break neck pace leaves very little time for deep character development, which is the only downside. You get a sense of who Logan is and his inner turmoil, but it isn't spoon fed to us like most novels. We can only see glimpses of Logan is flashback and see his choices to understand who he is. I personally loved it, despite its flaws and give it 4 out of 5 because I wish Logan and Jessica were developed on a deeper level.
August 17, 2015
I'm not sure how old Nolan and Clayton were when they wrote this, but it definitely felt like it came from the mind of 12 year old boys. Why develop character or plot points when you can just add in a change of scenery and a robot every couple of pages? Seems like a solid strategy. My copy had pictures from the movie stuck in the middle which only confused me more, since the movie seems to have a totally different but equally bad storyline. I do not recommend this book unless you are an actual 12 year old boy.
August 27, 2023
Oof, that was…bad. A hazard of having a book where everyone is under 21, any sex scene involves a child, so the yuck factor starts early. The main characters are also incredibly lucky at every turn…and near death is written away in just a few sentences. I’m at a loss to explain what even happened, but at least it’s done.
October 12, 2015
The Tyranny of Pleasure
6 November 2012
I was wondering through a second hand book shop one day and found a book called 'Logan's Search'. I picked it up and discovered that it was the third book in the Logan trilogy, which made me realise that that really awesome movie that was made in 1975 was actually a book, and in fact the first in a trilogy. So began my quest to find a copy of the original book (as well as part two, which was easier than finding the first book, which I did eventually accomplish, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this commentary). Anyway, I found it, and I read it, and I must say, I so much preferred the movie, which is generally odd because it is that the book is supposed to be better.
Now, I could give you a run down of the plot to this book, but I won't waste my time. Rather direct you to the IMBD page relating to the movie which was made of this book, and if you what to read my review of the film, you can find it here. So, rather than go over old ground, I think I will simply jump straight to what this book is about and the themes which arise from it. In a way this book (I keep on wanting to write movie because, as I have said, the movie is substantially better than the book) is very much like 1984, though unlike that novel this book has a happy ending because the blinkers are taken off of the eyes of the people and they are freed from their dystopian world to be able to think for themselves.
This book (or movie) is about freedom and how, in many ways, what we think is freedom may actually enslave us. In this dystopian world people live a hedonistic life. While there are basic laws (I suspect murder is still illegal) there is no barrier to any hedonistic desire. There is no marriage, no commitment, and no property. Everybody has everything they want and they can take anything they want. However, there is still some barriers, because it appears that people have a right to say no (as Jessica does to Logan's advances). However, there is a catch: they must die at the age of 30 (21 on the book).
I suspect the age of 21 is more relevant, and by raising it to 30 in the movie undermines this somewhat. Basically what is happening is knowledge is being destroyed. The only knowledge that is stored and allowed to be stored, is by the computer (while there appears to be no government, there is a government and it is a dictatorship of the machine). Simply put, by preventing people from growing old, and in fact by preventing multiple generations from being alive concurrently, the machine is able to control knowledge. Nobody is able to pass knowledge down from one generation to another, and thus people live in blissful ignorance.
Society, in Logan's Run, is stagnant. It simply does not move. There is no incentive to learn, and in fact it is quite clear that one of the major crimes is to think. Further, by destroying marital relationships the machine is further able to control society. There is no bonding, no friendship, and thus no ability to rebel. Further, there is no family unit, which is another means of control and another means of destroying knowledge. Without a family unit, there is no respect, and no older person from which one can learn, and as such the computer once again controls the people.
I have seen that this is the case in this world. In one way the sexual revolution in the sixties freed us from the tyranny of the religious right only to enslave us in the tyranny of the hedonistic world. Fifty years on we can see that the tyranny of hedonism has become almost complete. We are bombarded with advertisements telling us that what is important is to feel good. While we have legalised abortion and prostitution, which in one sense frees us from one form of tyranny, it also enslaves us in another form. I am not one to seek to overturn those laws, I believe those laws are necessary, but what we need to do is to realise that our desire for pleasure is what enslaves us, and this is a tyranny of the mind, a tyranny that convinces us that we do not need to think, that we do not need to open our minds, and that we only need to live for the now and for what makes us feel good.
The second tyranny is the tyranny of the generation, and that is where we are denied the wisdom of the older generation and only able listen to those of our peers. Let us consider the first chapter of the first book of kings. The son of king Solomon, is faced with a choice. The people approach him and ask him to release them from their burdens and the older generation tell him that it is wise to do that because if he does that the people will respect him as a king. However, the younger generation tell him that if he were to release them of their burdens then they will be uncontrollable, and the fact that they are free to grumble about their predicament indicates that they are a danger and therefore they need to be oppressed more. The choice the king has is whether to listen to the wisdom of his elders of the wisdom of his peers. He chooses to listen to the wisdom of his peers, which results in a disaster for him.
I see this problem in some churches that I have attended. The generations are separated, and are led by their peers rather than their elders. As such, the young Christians are deprived of a vital source of wisdom and their minds are clouded by the ignorance of their peers. I suspected that this was a problem and noted that none of my peers would listen to me, coming up with half-cocked excuses as to why it could not work. So, I decided to test the theory out myself, and found a church of elders rather than peers, and have since discovered that I have learned more in eleven weeks amongst my Christian elders than I did over eleven years amongst by Christian peers.
In a way, many religious people actually fear knowledge because knowledge causes us to think, and then to question. Thus to prevent us from thinking and from questioning, they starve us of a vital source of knowledge, and that is the wisdom of our elders. Consider this picture (which many of us have probably seen already, but I think that it illustrates my point quite clearly):
Granted, it deals with the Taliban and the education of women, but I believe that it extends quite further beyond that. In fact it extends even into Christianity, and not necessarily the Religious Right. A church that I have been too would regularly encourage us to read the Bible, but only prescribed texts relating to the Bible. Further, they would tell us before the sermon that we should look in the Bible so that 'we should see that what they were saying was true'. One thing they did not have at the end of the sermon, though, was a question time. This was something that I pushed for because I believe that being able to ask the pastor a question in front of the congregation is a means of holding him accountable. However, the catch was that when they did open the floor to questions they would be filtered through a mobile phone. Further, only the experienced pastors would field the questions because they could be assured to be able to follow the party line. When I asked why one of the junior pastors did not field questions I was simply told that it was because he would find answering questions a little too difficult.
I want to finish this off with the question of abortion. You may ask what this has to do with knowledge, and I will simply say it has more to do what what they don't say than what they do say. Now, before I continue, I will say that I do and always will support the voice of those who do not have a voice. That includes the unborn, however, the pro-life movement cares less for the rights of the unborn than they do for the oppression of the rights of women. Consider this, would a ban on abortion turn an unwanted pregnancy into a wanted pregnancy? Highly unlikely. Either it will force the woman to have an unsafe abortion, or force a child into a horrible existence. In fact, by banning abortion, it is more likely that poverty will increase, as a single mother looking after a child will be unable to work therefore leaving both of them in poverty.
Now, you notice how I said single mother? Guess what, a woman seeking an abortion is much more likely to be single than to be in a relationship. The reason I say this is because pregnancy punishes the woman more than it does the man. So, why should a woman be punished more for engaging in fornication than the man? Does that seem just? To me it is not, because the man can simply disappear leaving the woman carrying the burden of his lust. Sure, the man will no doubt face judgement come judgement day, but the woman is left in a situation that in reality is untenable. This is what I mean about the denial of knowledge and the denial of the ability to be able to think. Thus, while they scream and cry about the rights of the unborn, they distract us from the fact that what they are really doing is oppressing women. What needs to be done is to make birth control more readily available, and moreso, a change in thinking about the pleasures and the desires of sex. What we really need to do is to turn away from our hedonistic thinking and actually open our eyes up to the world around us. We need to stop living for the now, and actually start living for the future.
6 November 2012
I was wondering through a second hand book shop one day and found a book called 'Logan's Search'. I picked it up and discovered that it was the third book in the Logan trilogy, which made me realise that that really awesome movie that was made in 1975 was actually a book, and in fact the first in a trilogy. So began my quest to find a copy of the original book (as well as part two, which was easier than finding the first book, which I did eventually accomplish, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this commentary). Anyway, I found it, and I read it, and I must say, I so much preferred the movie, which is generally odd because it is that the book is supposed to be better.
Now, I could give you a run down of the plot to this book, but I won't waste my time. Rather direct you to the IMBD page relating to the movie which was made of this book, and if you what to read my review of the film, you can find it here. So, rather than go over old ground, I think I will simply jump straight to what this book is about and the themes which arise from it. In a way this book (I keep on wanting to write movie because, as I have said, the movie is substantially better than the book) is very much like 1984, though unlike that novel this book has a happy ending because the blinkers are taken off of the eyes of the people and they are freed from their dystopian world to be able to think for themselves.
This book (or movie) is about freedom and how, in many ways, what we think is freedom may actually enslave us. In this dystopian world people live a hedonistic life. While there are basic laws (I suspect murder is still illegal) there is no barrier to any hedonistic desire. There is no marriage, no commitment, and no property. Everybody has everything they want and they can take anything they want. However, there is still some barriers, because it appears that people have a right to say no (as Jessica does to Logan's advances). However, there is a catch: they must die at the age of 30 (21 on the book).
I suspect the age of 21 is more relevant, and by raising it to 30 in the movie undermines this somewhat. Basically what is happening is knowledge is being destroyed. The only knowledge that is stored and allowed to be stored, is by the computer (while there appears to be no government, there is a government and it is a dictatorship of the machine). Simply put, by preventing people from growing old, and in fact by preventing multiple generations from being alive concurrently, the machine is able to control knowledge. Nobody is able to pass knowledge down from one generation to another, and thus people live in blissful ignorance.
Society, in Logan's Run, is stagnant. It simply does not move. There is no incentive to learn, and in fact it is quite clear that one of the major crimes is to think. Further, by destroying marital relationships the machine is further able to control society. There is no bonding, no friendship, and thus no ability to rebel. Further, there is no family unit, which is another means of control and another means of destroying knowledge. Without a family unit, there is no respect, and no older person from which one can learn, and as such the computer once again controls the people.
I have seen that this is the case in this world. In one way the sexual revolution in the sixties freed us from the tyranny of the religious right only to enslave us in the tyranny of the hedonistic world. Fifty years on we can see that the tyranny of hedonism has become almost complete. We are bombarded with advertisements telling us that what is important is to feel good. While we have legalised abortion and prostitution, which in one sense frees us from one form of tyranny, it also enslaves us in another form. I am not one to seek to overturn those laws, I believe those laws are necessary, but what we need to do is to realise that our desire for pleasure is what enslaves us, and this is a tyranny of the mind, a tyranny that convinces us that we do not need to think, that we do not need to open our minds, and that we only need to live for the now and for what makes us feel good.
The second tyranny is the tyranny of the generation, and that is where we are denied the wisdom of the older generation and only able listen to those of our peers. Let us consider the first chapter of the first book of kings. The son of king Solomon, is faced with a choice. The people approach him and ask him to release them from their burdens and the older generation tell him that it is wise to do that because if he does that the people will respect him as a king. However, the younger generation tell him that if he were to release them of their burdens then they will be uncontrollable, and the fact that they are free to grumble about their predicament indicates that they are a danger and therefore they need to be oppressed more. The choice the king has is whether to listen to the wisdom of his elders of the wisdom of his peers. He chooses to listen to the wisdom of his peers, which results in a disaster for him.
I see this problem in some churches that I have attended. The generations are separated, and are led by their peers rather than their elders. As such, the young Christians are deprived of a vital source of wisdom and their minds are clouded by the ignorance of their peers. I suspected that this was a problem and noted that none of my peers would listen to me, coming up with half-cocked excuses as to why it could not work. So, I decided to test the theory out myself, and found a church of elders rather than peers, and have since discovered that I have learned more in eleven weeks amongst my Christian elders than I did over eleven years amongst by Christian peers.
In a way, many religious people actually fear knowledge because knowledge causes us to think, and then to question. Thus to prevent us from thinking and from questioning, they starve us of a vital source of knowledge, and that is the wisdom of our elders. Consider this picture (which many of us have probably seen already, but I think that it illustrates my point quite clearly):
Granted, it deals with the Taliban and the education of women, but I believe that it extends quite further beyond that. In fact it extends even into Christianity, and not necessarily the Religious Right. A church that I have been too would regularly encourage us to read the Bible, but only prescribed texts relating to the Bible. Further, they would tell us before the sermon that we should look in the Bible so that 'we should see that what they were saying was true'. One thing they did not have at the end of the sermon, though, was a question time. This was something that I pushed for because I believe that being able to ask the pastor a question in front of the congregation is a means of holding him accountable. However, the catch was that when they did open the floor to questions they would be filtered through a mobile phone. Further, only the experienced pastors would field the questions because they could be assured to be able to follow the party line. When I asked why one of the junior pastors did not field questions I was simply told that it was because he would find answering questions a little too difficult.
I want to finish this off with the question of abortion. You may ask what this has to do with knowledge, and I will simply say it has more to do what what they don't say than what they do say. Now, before I continue, I will say that I do and always will support the voice of those who do not have a voice. That includes the unborn, however, the pro-life movement cares less for the rights of the unborn than they do for the oppression of the rights of women. Consider this, would a ban on abortion turn an unwanted pregnancy into a wanted pregnancy? Highly unlikely. Either it will force the woman to have an unsafe abortion, or force a child into a horrible existence. In fact, by banning abortion, it is more likely that poverty will increase, as a single mother looking after a child will be unable to work therefore leaving both of them in poverty.
Now, you notice how I said single mother? Guess what, a woman seeking an abortion is much more likely to be single than to be in a relationship. The reason I say this is because pregnancy punishes the woman more than it does the man. So, why should a woman be punished more for engaging in fornication than the man? Does that seem just? To me it is not, because the man can simply disappear leaving the woman carrying the burden of his lust. Sure, the man will no doubt face judgement come judgement day, but the woman is left in a situation that in reality is untenable. This is what I mean about the denial of knowledge and the denial of the ability to be able to think. Thus, while they scream and cry about the rights of the unborn, they distract us from the fact that what they are really doing is oppressing women. What needs to be done is to make birth control more readily available, and moreso, a change in thinking about the pleasures and the desires of sex. What we really need to do is to turn away from our hedonistic thinking and actually open our eyes up to the world around us. We need to stop living for the now, and actually start living for the future.
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