Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
Amereon Ltd (1985), 158 pages
Description
Fantasy. Fiction. Literature. Science Fiction. HTML: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.… (more)
Media reviews
[...] even though talking about Logan’s Run elicits mostly snickers and spoofs, the source material is actually worth a serious look because it presents one of the more colorful and interesting dystopias in SF literature.
User reviews
LibraryThing member jseger9000
I was really looking forward to reading Logan’s Run. I expected a social commentary on what was going on in the late sixties wrapped in the form of an action/adventure novel. Logan’s Run was sort of that, but it wasn’t a very good job of it. The ideas were just better than the book they were
The book felt like the novelization of a television series. The first two chapters were a strong pilot episode, and then a chapter would start with them exiting a mazecar (a small cart that travels through a vast maze of underground tunnels, running city-to-city and even continent-to-continent). They would have an adventure in their new location. Then board a mazecar again and it was on to a new adventure. Logan and Jess didn’t really seem to grow or change as characters through the course of the story.
The story seemed to be made up as it went along. For instance, Logan and Jess crossed the continent in mazecars for two thirds of the book, even traveling to the North Pole and a submerged city. Then suddenly when it served the story they couldn’t use them any longer because scanners at the mazecar entrance would pick them up. Where were those scanners the rest of the time?
I just never got the feeling that William F. Nolan had an overarching vision of where his story was going as he wrote the book. Plot twists and characters seemingly came from out of nowhere. The characters of Box and Whale were interesting characters for sure, but they didn’t really add anything to the story of Logan, Jess and their world. If they were removed the book would have come off as more focused.
In the end, I'd really have a tough time recommending this one. For once, the movie got it better.
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turned into.The book felt like the novelization of a television series. The first two chapters were a strong pilot episode, and then a chapter would start with them exiting a mazecar (a small cart that travels through a vast maze of underground tunnels, running city-to-city and even continent-to-continent). They would have an adventure in their new location. Then board a mazecar again and it was on to a new adventure. Logan and Jess didn’t really seem to grow or change as characters through the course of the story.
The story seemed to be made up as it went along. For instance, Logan and Jess crossed the continent in mazecars for two thirds of the book, even traveling to the North Pole and a submerged city. Then suddenly when it served the story they couldn’t use them any longer because scanners at the mazecar entrance would pick them up. Where were those scanners the rest of the time?
I just never got the feeling that William F. Nolan had an overarching vision of where his story was going as he wrote the book. Plot twists and characters seemingly came from out of nowhere. The characters of Box and Whale were interesting characters for sure, but they didn’t really add anything to the story of Logan, Jess and their world. If they were removed the book would have come off as more focused.
In the end, I'd really have a tough time recommending this one. For once, the movie got it better.
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LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
This short novel was the basis for the 1976 film, subsequent television show, and sequel novels: a dystopian action-adventure in the twenty-second century very much along lines laid down by Huxley's Brave New World. The principal addition to the scenario is the idea of dealing with population
A sense of impending climax is structured into the novel with chapter numbers that count down from ten. There are two plot twists at the end of the book, neither of which was ever translated into the screen adaptations. One concerns the location of Sanctuary, and the other is about the identity of Ballard. The first works fine, but the second I did not find compelling after the contrary setup.
The book is very fast-moving, with plenty of sex and violence -- though not quite so much that it seems like a mere pretext for them -- and seems to have been written with the intention of inspiring screen adaptations. The film and television show actually made from it were toned down by setting it another century further into the future, and raising the age of "Lastday" from twenty-one to thirty. They also added the spectacular euthanasia ceremony of Carousel, to replace the simpler "Sleepshops" of the novel. Another film version is apparently in the works with a projected release date of 2014, and rumor has it that they've brought several points of the scenario (most notably the maximum personal age) back in line with that of the book.
This is not a philosophical work by any stretch of the imagination, and yet it includes interesting material for meditation. The idea of engineered neoteny as a response to socio-economic and political stresses is not so very far-fetched. Certainly, in the 1970s wake of the youth counterculture it must have seemed very credible. It is doubtless one of several such programs available to the Crowned and Conquering Child.
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pressure by using the global technocratic state to impose a maximum lifespan of twenty-one years. The protagonist Logan is a "Sandman": a policeman/executioner assigned to eliminate "Runners" who fail to report for their scheduled euthanasia. Contrary to the jacket copy and many synopses, Logan is not a desperate Runner himself, but is in fact a thoroughly ambivalent character, attracted to a Runner whom he accompanies in order to infiltrate the Runner network and reach the rumored Runner destination of Sanctuary and its architect Ballard. A sense of impending climax is structured into the novel with chapter numbers that count down from ten. There are two plot twists at the end of the book, neither of which was ever translated into the screen adaptations. One concerns the location of Sanctuary, and the other is about the identity of Ballard. The first works fine, but the second I did not find compelling after the contrary setup.
The book is very fast-moving, with plenty of sex and violence -- though not quite so much that it seems like a mere pretext for them -- and seems to have been written with the intention of inspiring screen adaptations. The film and television show actually made from it were toned down by setting it another century further into the future, and raising the age of "Lastday" from twenty-one to thirty. They also added the spectacular euthanasia ceremony of Carousel, to replace the simpler "Sleepshops" of the novel. Another film version is apparently in the works with a projected release date of 2014, and rumor has it that they've brought several points of the scenario (most notably the maximum personal age) back in line with that of the book.
This is not a philosophical work by any stretch of the imagination, and yet it includes interesting material for meditation. The idea of engineered neoteny as a response to socio-economic and political stresses is not so very far-fetched. Certainly, in the 1970s wake of the youth counterculture it must have seemed very credible. It is doubtless one of several such programs available to the Crowned and Conquering Child.
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LibraryThing member Hamburgerclan
I first read this book when I was thirteen--back when my life clock, if I had one, would have been blue. Now I'm old enough to have a few years on Ballard, the senior character of the book. Logan's Run, if you're not familiar with the book, comics, television show or movie, is a tale set in a world
--J.
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under population control. Human beings are alloted 21 years of life, then must submit to euthanasia. (Pleasantly called "sleep" in the book.) Now and then you get someone who doesn't want to go quietly into that dark night and tries to escape. When someone becomes a "runner" like than, then the law is enforced by a Deep Sleep agent, a "Sandman". Logan is a Sandman, and when his Lastday comes up, he wants to spend it hunting down and eliminating Sanctuary, the rumored place where runners can live free of the law and of Sandmen. Posing as a runner, he hooks up with a lady named Jessica and together they make their way to the promised haven. But as their quest continues, one starts to wonder--is Logan that good an actor? Or is he starting to question the status quo? I've loved this book for years, though it's been a while since I last pulled it off my shelf. This time around it wasn't as enjoyable. I found myself questioning all sorts of things--from the timeframe required for all of Logan's adventures to the overuse of one word sentences. Truly! Maybe I'm just too old, but I have to wonder what a society essentially created by teenagers would look like. The teenagers in Logan's reality sound way too old. However, if you don't think too deeply, it's a fun read.--J.
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LibraryThing member dragonasbreath
In a world of over-population and to little food, they found a way to survive - When you turned 14, you had a stone implanted in your hand that glowed red.
When you turned 21 it started flashing red and black. It was your death year!
When you turned 22, the stone stayed black - and you reported to a
The children lived fast and hard, play was the name of the day... because they knew they had so little time to have their children and enjoy their life.
Logan was a Sandman, one who brought the sleep of death to the Last-Years. But when his own crystal started flickering, he was CERTAIN there was something wrong - that it had changed to soon.
And he decided he wasn't gong to tamely die, but would try to learn what had happened.
DO NOT confuse this book with the very hokey, confused, plotless movie of the same name. The Main character in that movie is the same - and that's about the extent of it.
When you turned 21 it started flashing red and black. It was your death year!
When you turned 22, the stone stayed black - and you reported to a
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sleephouse to die.The children lived fast and hard, play was the name of the day... because they knew they had so little time to have their children and enjoy their life.
Logan was a Sandman, one who brought the sleep of death to the Last-Years. But when his own crystal started flickering, he was CERTAIN there was something wrong - that it had changed to soon.
And he decided he wasn't gong to tamely die, but would try to learn what had happened.
DO NOT confuse this book with the very hokey, confused, plotless movie of the same name. The Main character in that movie is the same - and that's about the extent of it.
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LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50
Originally published in 1967, Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan is a classic science fiction story that has very little in common with the 1976 film of the same name. The setting is a 23rd century dystopian ageist society where, due to over-population, everyone is put to death at age 21. A
Logan, who is the main character, is a Sandman, an enforcer who hunts and kills anyone who tries to ‘run’ from the society ordered execution. When his hand starts to blink black, he decides to spend his last day trying to infiltrate an underground railroad that helps runners who are seeking Sanctuary. Travelling with a female runner, Jessica 6, the reader can sense that Logan is undergoing a change and that this ‘run’ is becoming very real.
Logan’s Run is not a very long book and with it’s non-stop action sequences, it was a very quick read. It’s very much a product of it’s time (1960’s) and there wasn’t a lot of plot or world building just various chase scenes through a decaying world but it was a fun action/adventure read. I am actually surprised that this book hasn’t been adapted into a graphic novel as I think it would work well in that format.
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person’s age is measured by his embedded palm crystal that changes color every seven years. When it turns black that person is required to turn himself in to be eliminated. Logan, who is the main character, is a Sandman, an enforcer who hunts and kills anyone who tries to ‘run’ from the society ordered execution. When his hand starts to blink black, he decides to spend his last day trying to infiltrate an underground railroad that helps runners who are seeking Sanctuary. Travelling with a female runner, Jessica 6, the reader can sense that Logan is undergoing a change and that this ‘run’ is becoming very real.
Logan’s Run is not a very long book and with it’s non-stop action sequences, it was a very quick read. It’s very much a product of it’s time (1960’s) and there wasn’t a lot of plot or world building just various chase scenes through a decaying world but it was a fun action/adventure read. I am actually surprised that this book hasn’t been adapted into a graphic novel as I think it would work well in that format.
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LibraryThing member GwenH
This was one of the rare times that I liked the movie better than the book. The book wasn't terrible but it read like an action movie story board and lacked any character insights or deeper philosophical thought that I was hoping the book would have. To the books credit, even though it read like
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storyboards, they were colorful and creative storyboards indeed. It was an interesting exercise to watch the movie and read the book and discuss both. The basic starting premise was the same, but the movie was very loosely based on the book. Show Less
LibraryThing member Snukes
Interesting and enjoyable story. I picked it up because I live in the Black Hills and heard that the area came up in the story, which is fairly unusual for us out here. I'm intrigued by fiction based on theories of eugenics, and found this premise interesting and entertaining, but no easier to
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believe than some of the other stories I've read on the subject (Vonnegut comes to mind). I also thought there were a few gaps where clarity was sacrificed to the speed of the tale. I'm not at all sure what Hell was doing in there, and Logan's ultimate change of heart was a little confusing. Jessica's character served as little more than a damsel in distress, whom Logan had to protect and learn to love, but who, for her own part, did and accomplished almost nothing to earn his love. I want to have liked this book more, but... well, there are few books in the world I think need more pages than they already have, but maybe this was one of them. Show Less
LibraryThing member PhoebeReading
A fairly interesting concept is bogged down with science fiction cliches. This one would have been better without the robots. And the term "nightdreams" (what does that even mean?). There is one interesting passage that seems to predict the advent of the internet. Which was nifty. But otherwise
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this mostly just felt old and overwritten. Show Less
LibraryThing member technodiabla
Well I started [Logan's Run] last night. Even though I finished 1/3 of the book in a sitting I don't think it's worth my time to read any further. I was looking for a book for the 1960s theme for a reading group. I selected it because the 60s is known for its vivid, campy, and (nowadays) laughable
And yes, the unexplained presence of an infinite number of scantily clad and oversexed women was not that amusing to me. This book is probably only appealing to those interested in the genre. 1 star.
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science fiction. I thought it would be amusing to read about the 1960s vision if future technology. Unfortunately it was too lame to be amusing. So much techno-stuff (much of it related to man-fantasy-sex) is crammed in that little of it is even explained. It's like reading a abridged version of a novel. And yes, the unexplained presence of an infinite number of scantily clad and oversexed women was not that amusing to me. This book is probably only appealing to those interested in the genre. 1 star.
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LibraryThing member Veeralpadhiar
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
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
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‘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.
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LibraryThing member john257hopper
A bit disappointing. On the plus side, the book was good at creating an atmosphere of doom, making good use of the fact that the age of compulsory euthanasia was 21 as opposed to 30 in the film. However, the explanation for the rise of this perverted society is unconvincing and the ending I thought
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rather lame. I didn't care for the author's writing style either. This is one case where the film is definitely better in my view. Show Less
LibraryThing member DavidLDay
Loved the movie, but the book was better!
LibraryThing member fuzzi
I decided to read this based upon my enjoyment of the campy/cheesy movie by the same name. This book is totally unlike the movie. Much of it is not only poorly written, but terribly dated. Although I finished reading the story, I did not enjoy it.
LibraryThing member Chris.Graham
This story came to life for me when the movie came out and Jenny Agutter showed the world (and a teenage me) what she was made of (forget the innocence of The Railway Children)
LibraryThing member richardderus
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
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
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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.
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LibraryThing member gecizzle
Very good book. An interesting and creative take on the future of mankind. Better than I expected it to be, considering that it was published in 1967. Often times, I find older works dated. Not this one. If anything, it feels still ahead of its time.
The reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is just
The reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is just
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because there is more exposition and description that I usually like. Although, I guess a story like this requires quite a bit of exposition. Even so... Fuck exposition in its dirty asshole. If I want something explained, I'll use my fucking imagination. Show Less
LibraryThing member Stbalbach
Run! The action starts and never ends in this short but breathless 1967 sci-fi fantasy. Published the same year I was born, it says more about the zeitgeist of America at the time than any prophecy of the future. Youth culture, hedonistic living, rebellion and revolution - it turns the tables
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instead of the old people in charge it is the youth, instead of the youth rebelling it is the old people. One can find 1960s "hippies" in the "pleasure gypsies", and the giant thinker computer which connected and rang the world is a proto-internet. Like H.G Wells, this is great classic fiction that reveals the fears and visions of another era. Show Less
LibraryThing member TobinElliott
Though it definitely shows its age, Logan's Run is still a fun read. The last time I read this was 38 years ago, at the tender age of 14 and I can still remember being blown away by all the cool futuristic concepts and thinking I'd be on the cusp of changing from blue to red. And my life would be
There's the interesting staccato narrative, the countdown chapters, the sometimes stream-of-consciousness writing...there's a lot of stuff that wouldn't be caught dead in a book published forty years later.
There's also plot holes. I mean, you have a computer that implants a crystal in your hand that blinks 21 years later to warn you to go to Sleep. Why couldn't the computer--the Thinker--simply implant a kill-switch as well?
Still, for all of that, coming at the story now from a guy who's old enough to be well into his third lifespan by the book's standards, I still enjoyed it, and look forward to the next couple in the series.
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two-thirds over.There's the interesting staccato narrative, the countdown chapters, the sometimes stream-of-consciousness writing...there's a lot of stuff that wouldn't be caught dead in a book published forty years later.
There's also plot holes. I mean, you have a computer that implants a crystal in your hand that blinks 21 years later to warn you to go to Sleep. Why couldn't the computer--the Thinker--simply implant a kill-switch as well?
Still, for all of that, coming at the story now from a guy who's old enough to be well into his third lifespan by the book's standards, I still enjoyed it, and look forward to the next couple in the series.
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Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1967
Physical description
158 p.; 9 inches
ISBN
0848801032 / 9780848801038
Local notes
Signed