Ocean's Eleven

by George Clayton Johnson

235 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

George Clayton Johnson was an American science fiction writer most famous for co-writing the novel ''Logan's Run'' with William F. Nolan (basis for the 1976 film "Logan's Run'). He was also known for his work in television, writing screenplays for such noted series as ''The Twilight Zone'', and ''Star Trek''. He also wrote the story on which the 1960 and 2001 films ''Ocean's Eleven'' were based. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Katie has it backwards. Johnson's novel, "Ocean's Eleven", came first. It was bought by Hollywood and made into a Rat Pack feature. Johnson's novel "Logan's Run" was also bought by Hollywood and made into a very mediocre sci-fi feature starring Michael York and Jenny Agutter. Johnson also wrote some excellent scripts for the original "Twilight Zone" series and the first episode (aired) of "Star Trek". Prior to the "Star Wars" franchise, novelizations of feature films were rare.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars because an excellent example of a 1960's period piece. Otherwise would be 2 stars. Keep in mind the book is a novelization (is that the term?) of the screenplay of the movie (1960 version). Character of Spyros Acebos is a rather a shallow stereotype, but others are good, in fact, the book emphasizes character and relationships more so than action ... surprise kicker of an ending.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story with that unexpected twist never grows old with me. The original is always the best!

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5.0 Full of enjoyable quips, Johnson’s work is quite the time capsule. Two thumbs up for the surprise ending.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book surprised me in a lot of ways. It's a novelization of the original movie starring Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. I have not seen the original movie, so I can't say how it compares. But having seen the Clooney/Pitt version of the movie, I can say that there are very few similarities.

The book is about the robbing of multiple casinos, carried out by a group of eleven men led by a man named Danny Ocean. That's the same. But the rest is very different! The book does not even start talking about the details of the robbery until at least three-quarters of the way through. The whole first part is about gathering the group of men, and all the relationships among them. And the relationships are complicated, not easy or funny. The ending is definitely different, too.

So, this book was not at all what I expected. It was much heavier. But, that also made it more real for me. I really like books that focus more on character than plot, so this was actually right up my alley. I would recommend it with the warning that it's not a retelling of the Clooney/Pitt movie.

[Chris Gager · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read long ago. I don't recall that it was a novelization of the screenplay but I guess it was. Very entertaining as I recall. Probably read in the Navy. I was on board ship for virtually all of 1967 and we did have a sort of library on board. Maybe that's where I got this one. Goodreads also has a listing for "Ocean's 11" with a different writer - Ted Griffin. He must have worked on the newer one. Johnson gets story credit for the original movie. Date read is a guess.