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Logan's Run (Logan #1)

by William F. Nolan (Goodreads Author), George Clayton Johnson

3.63 of 5 stars 3.63 · rating details · 3,044 ratings · 152 reviews

It's the 23rd Century and at age 21... your life is over! Logan-6 has been trained to kill; born and bred from conception to be the best of the best. But his time is short and before his life ends he's got one final mission: Find and destroy Sanctuary, a fabled haven for those that chose to defy the system. But when Logan meets and falls in love with Jessica, he begins to...more

Paperback, 149 pages

Published June 1st 1976 by Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group (first published 1967)

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Nov 06, 2011 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts

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 Ni...more

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Jun 13, 2008 St-Michel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008, own

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 m...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Melissa Prange rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, scifi

In the 23nd century, every person is fitted with a flower crystal that turns black when its wearer turns twenty-one. Once the flower turns black, the wearer has only two choices: Allow themselves to be put to sleep or run for their lives.

Logan is a DS. He hunts down runners and makes certain they don’t survive their twenty-first year. It’s the job he’s worked for since childhood, but now that his own twenty-first is approaching, he’s beginning to question the rightness of all those killings and...more In the 23nd century, every person is fitted with a flower crystal that turns black when its wearer turns twenty-one. Once the flower turns black, the wearer has only two choices: Allow themselves to be put to sleep or run for their lives.

Logan is a DS. He hunts down runners and makes certain they don’t survive their twenty-first year. It’s the job he’s worked for since childhood, but now that his own twenty-first is approaching, he’s beginning to question the rightness of all those killings and the point of his existence.

Enter Doyle. Doyle’s a runner, and Logan’s on his case. Doyle’s a tricky hunt, but nothing that the DS man can’t handle. It isn’t until poor Doyle meets up with a bunch of drugged up cubs that his flight is ended. As he dies, Doyle gives Logan a key and whispers the word “Sanctuary.”

With this new-found information, Logan believes he has found a way to give his life meaning before his swiftly approaching end. He plans to find Sanctuary and put an end to the runners once and for all—thereby making all the deaths and hard work worth it.

Logan’s Run has a lot in common with Hunger Games, Wither, Divergent, and all those other YA Dystopian novels of recent years. The only difference is: It’s much more fun than any of them. Of course, I’m a bit leery about using the word “fun” because a lot of bad stuff goes down in this novel. It wasn’t written to teens and yet that’s probably who it would most appeal to. This really isn’t high art, but it is an enjoyable ride. The characters are kind of cut out, but the plot makes up for that. Everything moves at a breakneck speed—so fast that sometimes it’s a bit hard to keep up with where the heck these characters are and what is going on. Still, it doesn’t take itself too seriously and so it’s a bit difficult to hold those sort of faults against it. This was one of those books that I actually wish had been longer. (It was only 148 pages. I could have stood another two hundred.) I liked the weird world and would have liked to get a better picture of it. I also would have liked to see a bit more of Logan’s inner turmoil, but as the book was written in part by a screenwriter, I can see why that sort of thing might not have appealed to him as the author. Basically, this book was a breeze to read and just the sort of actiony scifi that I enjoy.

I would recommend this book to those who enjoy the previously mentioned YA Fiction. Also, it weirdly reminded me a lot of the Obernewtyn Chronicles. So if that’s your thing, you might want to try this.

Oh and before I finish, I just have to say that I might need to track down some of the Logan’s Run adaptations because there are some really awesome pictures from them online. It looks like the movie and the TV show might just be wonderfully entertaining (probably in an unintentional way).
(less)

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Nov 06, 2012 David Sarkies rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Lovers of the movie

Recommended to David by: My mum (through the movie)

Shelves: sci-fi

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, and 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 manage to do, otherwise I wouldn't be wri...more 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, and 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 manage to do, 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, but rather direct you to this page (the IMDB page relating to the movie which was made of this book, and while my review is amongst the 120 odd reviews here, at this stage I am unable to locate it to direct you to it). 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 actually 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 say no to Logan's advances). However, there is one thing they cannot say no to, and that is the fact that 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 destroy. 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 tryanny 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 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 they 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 gumble 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 choses 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 been to. 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 has 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 the 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 the questions 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 untennable. 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.(less)

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May 23, 2012 Lauren Barber rated it 4 of 5 stars

It is intersting to consider what works inspired others throughout history. Consider "Logan's Run" - written during the Cold War when imaginations ran wild about heat the future held. Would we die from nuclear fall out? Would the world become overcrowded? Will we be living on other planets? "Logan's Run" mirrors other works of the time by the likes of Ray Bradburry, Phillip K Dick, and others. I think it resembles "Soylent Green" - the Charlton Heston flick. Bottom line, it forces the reader to...more

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Feb 18, 2012 William Cameron rated it 4 of 5 stars

I reread the trilogy every few years. All three books are pretty slim (which is the reason you usually find them together as The Logan Trilogy or whatever). They hold up pretty well. For people that only know the Movie (and the TV Series, which was corny but I remember it well from my childhood) the books are almost completely different, and well worth checking out. They expand a lot of the world and are ... well, more Adult
( more sex, more violence (Different shots in a Deep Sleep gun, each on...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Kernos rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Kernos by: Lovers of the movie and SF aficionados

Shelves: science-fiction

Logan's run is an action adventure Sci-Fi that never lets up. It is impossible to read this book without comparing it to the movie. The latter is a favorite I've probably seen 15 or 20 times since I 1st saw it at the movies. The movie works and contains the major themes of the book. In his preface to the omnibus Logan: A Trilogy, the edition I am reading, Nolan states there are many layers to the novels, like peeling the layers of an onion. I've read many novels that are many layered and this ju...more

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Aug 14, 2011 Trendhater73: S. Bledsoe rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 s...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Dave rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi, existential-fiction

***spoilers*** Essentially, it's unbelievable, in the improbable sense of the word. If we are to take it as seriously plausible, then the conclusions would be too self-devouring and, hence, self-defeating. Perhaps what is needed is a prequel to allow the premisses or concepts to development rather than seeing the ugliness of the society at the point of its downfall. Because evil begins in subtlety. "It rarely begins as any dramatic physical threat to people. It begins as something simple, often...more ***spoilers*** Essentially, it's unbelievable, in the improbable sense of the word. If we are to take it as seriously plausible, then the conclusions would be too self-devouring and, hence, self-defeating. Perhaps what is needed is a prequel to allow the premisses or concepts to development rather than seeing the ugliness of the society at the point of its downfall. Because evil begins in subtlety. "It rarely begins as any dramatic physical threat to people. It begins as something simple, often seductive and pleasing. Or a siren call to the ego to loosen its moorings, turning entitled fantasies into ambitions, actions, and eventually needing to hurt people to get to where it is going. Or twisted manipulations of people unwilling to know their own feelings and motives. But Nolan hardly spends any time on the introduction of how society lost its way."

I also have issues with the mechanics of the narrative; the brief glimpses of flashbacks and the peripheral stories used to flesh out the main character, Logan, are clumsy and confusing. The historical and futuristic references are also obscure. About half way through, the plot transitions become very rough and disjointed, like at the point of the Crazy Horse tribute, the Civil War and General Burnside exhibit, the Washington DC transformation, and the dead zone of Pittsburgh. All these things together just make it feel as though Nolan tried to accomplish too much too quickly. He should have developed the concepts and plot more, or better, or he should have narrowed it down and not attempted so much.

The concepts behind the book could be very interesting, and if you liked the recent Andrew Niccol movie, "In Time", and thought it covered the same ideas in an engaging way than you might like this story too.

Logan's Run depicts a dystopic ageist future society and Nolan tries to show that the outcome is in some important way undesirable and frightening. In order to maintain an environmental equilibrium between population and the consumption of resources, the death of everyone reaching a particular age (21 years of age) becomes required. In order to enforce this ideal of environmentalism and age discrimination, a tyrannical central authority is required to assassinate those who have attained the arbitrary age but refuse to participate in the euthanasia program and "run" for their lives.

First published in 1967, the intro to Logan's Run tries to connect the social discontent of the youth of that age to an enduring movement that extends to an absurd conclusion... that somehow childbearing adults continue to procreate such desirable children who grow up to "cannibalize" their elders and then repeat the cycle over and over. Nolan makes another mistake when presenting the speed by which the youth revolution takes place. Within one generation the consequences of the never-ending baby boom becomes unstoppable. Being ruled by adults, or even being in the same breathable space with older people, is eventually perpetually avoided within a century's time-span. But somehow the super condensed life becomes forgettable, and several times Nolan portrays people as losing any sense of their age, and in surprise they realize the pending doom of their 21st birthday has arrived.

Unless I'm totally missing Nolan's point, he wanted the reader to see a broader view of radicalism and tyranny; any society attempting to enforce evil upon people, in this case age discrimination and population control for environmentalism, leads to something frighteningly undesirable, i.e. genocide and the death of civilization instead of utopia. A society wouldn't set itself up to kill off it's adults, right, so why would one kill off it's children? Because if not, then ironically just the opposite of this story's plot was happening in the 60's and since then. The radical cultural movement of environmentalism and population control wasn't towards a perpetual youth movement by limiting the life of adults; rather, it was against children and life-creation through contraception and abortion.

Within five years of the publishing of Logan's Run, Roe Vs Wade in the USA revealed that the tide had turn against youth, not against adults. Infanticide was the mindset or at the heart of those young environmental and feminist radicals of the 60's, not euthanasia of the adults; although, euthanasia of the old and sick is an eventual conclusion for the contraception mentality. Since then some 50 million babies have been killed, and now there aren't enough workers to support the government and society that created and enforced such policies.

In addition, at the publishing of this book just 20 years after Fascism's attempt at population control, throughout the world infanticide was becoming the norm in Communist ruled areas. China officially introduced a "One-Child Policy" in 1978 and implemented forced abortion or selective infanticide if the child born was/is female, and sterilizations. Since 1971, the Chinese government doctors have performed 336 million abortions and 196 million sterilizations. They have also inserted 403 million intrauterine devices, a normalized birth control procedure in the west but one that local officials often force on women in China. The self-defeating reality of these idiotic population control measures can be seen in China's 4-2-1 crisis. Today some 40 million young men have no wives or children of their own, "bare branch syndrome", but all of these only sons now get to support their parents and grandparents. China is already feeling the effects of so many bare branches. For every one percent increase in the sex ratio results in a six percent increase in the rates of violent and property crime. The parts of China with the most male-biased sex ratios are experiencing a variety of other maladies, all tied to the presence of too many young men. Gambling, alcohol and drug abuse, kidnapping and trafficking of women are rising steeply in China. (I think Nolan should have tried to show the consequences of euthanasia more in his book, like the loss of knowledge and wisdom, but instead it focuses more on the characters running and their pursuers.)

If all of that is in fact what Nolan intended to portray, i.e. a broader view of evil and tyranny, than maybe I should give this two more stars... but the story still should have been told better, especially the ending. There really is no moral to the story. In the end, Logan makes a plea for his life and the reader is supposed to care simply because of the ordeal that he's been through. Logan essentially says, "please don't kill me because I'm tired of running, tired of killing, and I've seen the dead areas of the country that reveal that children aren't building and the system is failing." If the message that avoiding radical environmentalism and population control is so important, that the outcome would be so frighteningly undesirable, then you need to come up with a better moral than that it's not effective and efficient. (less)

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Mar 24, 2011 Stuart rated it 1 of 5 stars

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...more

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Mar 21, 2011 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, read-in-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, fina...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Spoilers are listed below. Tread carefully.

I purchased the Logan book series well over a year ago. I knew I like the story from the movie version based off the first book. I just didn't read as much as I had hoped.

For only being 148 pages this book contained almost as much action and clarity of detail as a 300+ page novel. Like I said before I liked the storyline from the movie. One of the rate occasions where I've seen the movie first. Let me just say, the book is hands down not the movie. Ma...more Spoilers are listed below. Tread carefully.

I purchased the Logan book series well over a year ago. I knew I like the story from the movie version based off the first book. I just didn't read as much as I had hoped.

For only being 148 pages this book contained almost as much action and clarity of detail as a 300+ page novel. Like I said before I liked the storyline from the movie. One of the rate occasions where I've seen the movie first. Let me just say, the book is hands down not the movie. Maybe a tiny fraction of detail was taken from the book and fit into the movie.

Being a futuristic book it was exciting to see how Nolan brought on his futuristic world. His version of collapse started around year 2000. The youth out weighed the old and population was exceeding what the world could hold. With the population act amended as part of the constitution the youth rebelled and over three the old and with that a new society was born and then reshaped.

After centuries of the new world order in place the new generations forgot how the old timely existed. Now it is coming full circle as they once again rebel against not being able to age past 21. After your 21st birthday you report to Sleep and are killed. If not you became a runner and were hunted by a Sandman. Logan is a Sandman and his time is almost up. Runners seek paradise or Sanctuary. Logan wants his name to mean something and decides to go rogue and become a runner to hunt down Sanctuary and destroy it.

From birth they are taught running is bad. You had to do your duty and sacrifice yourself for the greater good. This underlying plot can be assessed on pages 101-102 where the battle of Fredericksburg is used as a teaching tool. It is your civic duty to give your life for others.

I really enjoyed how Nolan interlaced the regular story with back history for each of the destinations Logan and Jess traveled. Pages 109-116 held the brief segments of Logan's life and this is where readers really understand who this main character you've been following for over 100+ pages comes from.

The best reveals came at the end. I was wondering where Francis had been all this time they spent at the capital. When Logan finally revealed his intentions and the other half that grew in him fought his taught nature it was a true inner struggle. When the good side, the side that wanted Sanctuary because he was past due, won and he confessed to Francis was standing in the shadows it was revealed. He was not who he that he was all along. Where Sanctuary was truly located was a big surprise. I was thinking of all the possibilities but that was not one of them.

If you like a good science fiction book I would recommend this for you. It is a light read. I finished in about 4-5 hours. (less)

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May 30, 2011 Joseph Mitchell rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm not a reviewer, and this isn't a proper review, just my thought upon finishing this book I've been meaning to read for decades. I saw the film version of this story at a drive-in movie theater when I was a kid and absolutely loved it. I expected that the book, like most film adaptions, would be significantly better than the movie, but not in this case.

Nolan takes the idea of 'show, don't tell' to the extreme. There is very little description of things that really ought to the described. This...more

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Aug 29, 2011 blake rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi-fantasy-horror

An interesting premise but the clumsy storytelling and gaping plot holes ruin it. If you want a not-fully-fleshed-out fun science fiction book based on great ideas, I strongly recommend something by ASIMOV ISAAC instead. I, Robot or Foundation are both decent places to start for light reading, as is Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. If you want heavier fare you might as well just (re)read Brave New World.

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Dec 12, 2011 J.w. Schnarr rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not really much like the movie, though you can certainly see all the elements of the story in the film. The book creates a much larger controlled system, in this case the controlled area is worldwide, with everyone buying into a sick philosophy of death by 21 for the sake of keeping the world's population down. Funny, they were "teetering" at 6 billion people and suffering from too many mouths to feed. Oh, if only they knew!

It was interesting to discover the early days of the revolution that bro...more

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Oct 23, 2011 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars

A little backstory--or "sauce for the goose". I loved this movie as a kid. The love of my life and I have shared references and jokes from this film for many years. I recently brought an extra DVD of this film to my oldest and dearest elementary school friend, who had tears in his eyes when I told him it was his to keep. I wikipediad the novel the film was based on and learned so many interesting things. (I won't ruin it for you). Imagine my surprise when I found this book on my doorstep (i thin...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Phil rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Being honest, this is a 3.5 star book, but I was feeling generous, thanks to a combination of adrenalin and nostalgia. Adrenalin because the story races along like a hack-literature Usain Bolt and nostalgia because I read this avidly several times in the late-70s and remembered it as the best thing ever.

Well, it isn't the best thing ever, but it's definitely at the high end of "good bad books". One thing I *was* surprised by was exactly how short it was. It can only be about 60,000 words, if tha...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

Having seen the movie a dozen times, I was curious about the book. I enjoyed the book, but wasn't very impressed with the writing. The book is one big adrenaline rush, which makes it hard to put down. The basic idea of the book was interesting, too. But I was hoping for a little more depth. Its like the author tried to write something like "Brave New World" but could never quite get to that level. It was fun, though to compare the book to the movie. The book has more details and ends very differ...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars

Logan's Run isn't so much of a science-fiction novel as it is a detailed summary of event a novel might contain. Passages literally fly by with nothing more than "Logan saw a trap/robot/animal/person in his way. Logan killed it and went on.". Exposition is at a minimum and characters are one dimensional with no growth or development (not that there's any time for it in under 150 pages). In many ways this should be the perfect movie, as it is only a collection of set pieces.

That said, the idea of...more

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Jan 31, 2010 Andrew rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: one-book-per-week-09-10

It is easy to see why “Logan's Run” is a popular dystopian novel. It is by no means a great book, but for the most part it does things right and tells a standard story with a bit of a twist. The background of the story is that the world is inhabited entirely by the young, with anyone over the age of 21 immediately executed. Although it is impossible to suspend disbelief enough to buy this silly premise (and especially the way that it is described as coming about), the author wisely places the ex...more

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May 06, 2013 Craig rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopian

Could be classified as Fantasy as well as Dystopian. Written in 1967, the book is a "new-age" thriller which tells of a dystopian society created during the 21st Century due to overcrowding and an aversion by the young (under twentyish) to be governed by the older generation. Consequently, when the government is overthrown, death for everyone become automatic at age 21 (albeit painlessly). Those who try to escape this fate (runners) are sought out and killed by an elite group of enforcers (sandm...more

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May 10, 2009 Bridget rated it 4 of 5 stars

Again, I like reading novels that the sometimes hokey sci-fi movies I ADORE are based on. (see: < a href= "http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..., Planet of the Apes .)
Logan's Run followed and yet subverted my expectations. I expect books to be better than movies and this was no exception- more nuanced, more description. At the same time, the essential plot is insanely different- there is a whole other level of activity and character interaction that I was not expecting.
It's difficult to p...more

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Dec 17, 2011 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've seen the movie, of course, but it's been years. I remembered the basic concept, but because of my memory of the movie, I was more surprised by the book. By the flowing, prosaic language that we don't see so much in science fiction--or any fiction--these days. (And if we did, we'd be critical of it, I think, because it's not as natural as the language we're now used to seeing in our literature.)

I've been told--that which I didn't remember--that in the movie, the people have lifespans of 30 y...more

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Mar 27, 2011 Bob rated it 5 of 5 stars

wow- just wow. I opened this book and fell in, headfirst. I admit, I'm a sucker for strange societies, utopian and dystopian- but this book is simply a magic carpet.
Even the two-page dedication is amazing and amusing.

I read this book first when I was just a kid, before the movie ever came out- and I was _extremely_ disappointed with the film they actually made. If, by some miracle, you haven't seen the movie, _don't._ It's a total waste of time and film.

I enjoyed watching Logan grow through t...more

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May 19, 2013 Rae rated it 2 of 5 stars

After watching the movie, I wanted to read the book to fill in some of the gaps. Unfortunately, the book has just as many gaps. Dangerous situations end suddenly, crisis is averted without satisfactory explanation, and deadly threats are easily avoided time after time. The plot of the book is almost entirely different from the movie (I have the movie version and the stills from the movie have next to no relation to the book!) and does have some interesting imagery. However, the varied lifestyles...more

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Jun 03, 2011 Robyn Blaber rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-literature, science-fiction

I wanted to give this more stars, because of it's combination of seriousness and camp which plays will to my sensibilities in that I read a lot of very serious novels about very serious things. Unlike Orwell, there is no compelling reason for the dystopia nor is there any reason as to why it should end. In Orwell's "1984", and Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" you get a sense that once the truth behind the dystopia is discovered that there is really nothing the protagonist can do about it... which, I...more

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Jul 31, 2009 Kathleen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Had to ask my library to find this via interlibrary loan, since ours no longer has a copy. After reading, and dissing, The Giver, I felt it was time to see if Logan's Run has stood the test of time.

I found the writing more sparse and disjointed than I remember. At times there is a lack of logic in how the characters move through the world. Distances travelled are glossed over and escapes from certain scenes read almost like a video game. It actually feels as if it was written for television, or...more

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Apr 19, 2011 Deb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: also-a-movie, sci-fi, futuristic-dystopia

So you saw the movie in the 1970's... well censors then made them cut out parts of the book... OH MY! This book might have a middle school reading level, but I wouldn't give it to them to read.
For the younger generation, if you liked reading The Giver when you were younger & you are OLDER now ... give the book a chance. When I first read The Giver, I didn't like it because is seemed like Lowry had rolled Logan's Run (the edited movie version) 1984, & Brave New World altogether to create...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Clayton rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

This is a pretty intriguing little story. It's much different from the movie of the same name (which was also quite interesting), but it's easy to see why they had to change the plot for filming. My biggest complaint with the book is how hectic it seems to be. Logan and Jess, the main characters for most of the book, travel to so many places and encounter so many perils, it's hard to keep track of after a while. Still, the writing style helps you feel the panic of the chase that is going on in t...more

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May 24, 2012 Matt rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: dystopian, fiction, crime-mystery, science-fiction

It's okay, as far as dystopian books go. It was a bit too short to be as epic as it tried to be: they're fighting the Lost Boys! They're running through Antarctica! They're killing tigers! It seemed like it was trying a bit too hard. Also, the worry is one that matters a little bit less now that we're in the future as it did back then, in the age of Soylent Green... overpopulation, for example, is listed as 6 billion in the novel, and it just hit 7. So that and it's kinda half-assed political me...more

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About William F. Nolan

William 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 Myste...more

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