⋙ Read Gratis Logan Run William F Nolan George Clayton Johnson 9780553025170 Books

Logan Run William F Nolan George Clayton Johnson 9780553025170 Books

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Logan Run William F Nolan George Clayton Johnson 9780553025170 Books

It's not so strange now to admit a love for science fiction movies but it was not really the same when I was growing up. Even after the success of Star Wars, those of us who spent Sunday afternoons watching old SF classics on TV like Forbidden Planet, Planet of the Apes, and Soylent Green were considered a bit off. Still, that didn't stop us.

One of my favorites from that era has always been Logan's Run. I've seen it too many times to count. Something about the premise--a world where people are allowed all kinds of free pleasures but had to die at age 30--is compelling. The film has weaknesses but makes up for it with energy, fun, and commitment to its world.

Despite the fact that I probably read much more SF than I watch, I've always avoided reading the Logan's Run novel. I usually avoid novels on which movies are based if I've seen the movie first and liked it. Since the novels are always better, it can take away from the movie experience. However, my experience of this movie is so long and ingrained that I felt I could take a look at the book. In the end, I really needn't have worried. Yes, the book is tremendous, but it is also so different from the movie as to be almost completely separate.

Certainly, one can see how this story inspired the movie. Most of the big pieces are here--Cathedral, Arcade, Sanctuary, flashing crystals embedded in the hand ("flowers"), Sandmen, runners (yet no carousel)--but so much is different as to be completely unrecognizable. Some of the differences are somewhat superficial but create big shifts in tone. For example, in the movie the age of death is 30 and most of the characters seem near that age, but in the book the age of death is 21 and many of the characters are very young. It gives a very different feel to the novel.

More importantly, in the novel Logan's character is completely different. In the movie, he's kind of a dupe who loses years and is basically forced to run, commanded to find Sanctuary. In the novel he's much darker. He is actually coming to the end of his life and chooses to search for Sanctuary, not to save himself but to destroy it and end his life as the best Sandman who's ever lived. Granted, his attitude changes as he runs but, as a reader, you're not sure what he's going to do as the novel draws to a close. In fact, all the characters are significantly different in important ways, including Francis, Jessica, and the "old man" they find as they search for Sanctuary.

Ultimately, the advantage the novel has over the movie is that it all makes sense in a cohesive way. Two scenes in the movie have never really sat well with me. First, there is the scene with Box the robot who tries to kill Logan and Jessica in the frozen caves. Why is the robot there? Why does he make carvings? Why does he try to kill and freeze them? It's easy to come to some logical speculations about these things but it's not very satisfying. Then, there's the ending, which really isn't an ending. The dome is destroyed and people stream out to surround the old man. Then what? What is it supposed to mean?

In the novel, things are different and everything is explained. We understand the history of how this world came to be. We get inside of a nursery instead of just seeing a glance of one as happens in the movie. In the book, there is no dome. The young people have control of the world and they travel all around it. Logan and Jessica travel to cities and sites all across North America on their run. Box's place in this world makes some sort of sense. And the ending is completely satisfying, but since it has no connection to anything that happens in the movie I won't spoil things by giving it away here.

As always, the novel is better than the movie. In fact, even someone who doesn't like the movie of Logan's Run might find this novel very satisfying. It is more cohesive and thematically deep than anything you might expect from the film. It deserves an honored place among the dystopian novels of the 20th century.


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Logan Run William F Nolan George Clayton Johnson 9780553025170 Books Reviews

You get a hint of what's ahead when the authors deliver a two-page dedication that reads like a who's who of pop fantasy up to the 60's. -- "To all the wild friends we grew up with - and who were with us when we wrote this book". What follows is a fast-paced pulp adventure that never takes itself too seriously, yet subversively repudiates the 1960's counter culture.

The story is set in a future where civilization is controlled by a computer that provides all comfort and security, leaving mankind free to pursue a life of uninhibited hedonism. The catch is all citizens must be euthanized on their 21st birthday. This has been the culture for so long that most submit without question. There are always a few who decide to "run" when their time comes though. To deal with this problem the computer maintains a special class of citizen, called DS (Deep Sleep) men, whose job is to hunt down and kill runners. Logan is a DS man, but when his 21st birthday arrives he decides to run himself... and the adventure begins.

A lot happens for such a short book (148 pgs), and sparse wording and descriptions will keep you reading at a fast clip. Characters are little more than cardboard, but that's not a big gripe here. LR is not great literature. It is a fast-paced adventure with a message and it largely succeeds.

The 1976 movie adaptation traded the swashbuckling adventure to strike a more serious tone. Many themes remained, but several plot elements were significantly altered, making the book and movie quite different.

3.5 stars. Recommended.
Classic science fiction doesn't always match the expectations built into the moniker. While the 1967 dystopic offered themes easily configurable for the big screen, including its own cinematic adaptation in 1976, the narrative itself is little more than a jump-cut blitz through an increasingly exotic series of sets. Some of these sets are truly memorable (the ice prison in particular), but most serve as mere waystations until the next plot twist whisks the duo away to an ever more harrowing encounter.

Typically you have three elements associated with sci-fi permanence and the makings of a classic, only the first of which is specific to the genre 1) imaginative spins on science and technology, 2) unique, memorably developed characters and 3) great writing. Logan's Run is all but devoid of #2 and is spotty in #s 1 and 3. Though vividly presented, there isn't much on the futuristic side I would consider prescient, the writing is uneven, often paced in a stream-of-consciousness kind of way, and Logan and Jessica are reduced to vehicles for the authors' action-heavy head trips. But so long as you don't expect too much, it is quite fun.

While it hasn't aged as well as one might have hoped, Logan's Run is still worth reading for the quick thrills and its thought-provoking solution to overpopulation. Oh, and there are kick-ass guns, which is always a crowd-pleaser.
It's not so strange now to admit a love for science fiction movies but it was not really the same when I was growing up. Even after the success of Star Wars, those of us who spent Sunday afternoons watching old SF classics on TV like Forbidden Planet, Planet of the Apes, and Soylent Green were considered a bit off. Still, that didn't stop us.

One of my favorites from that era has always been Logan's Run. I've seen it too many times to count. Something about the premise--a world where people are allowed all kinds of free pleasures but had to die at age 30--is compelling. The film has weaknesses but makes up for it with energy, fun, and commitment to its world.

Despite the fact that I probably read much more SF than I watch, I've always avoided reading the Logan's Run novel. I usually avoid novels on which movies are based if I've seen the movie first and liked it. Since the novels are always better, it can take away from the movie experience. However, my experience of this movie is so long and ingrained that I felt I could take a look at the book. In the end, I really needn't have worried. Yes, the book is tremendous, but it is also so different from the movie as to be almost completely separate.

Certainly, one can see how this story inspired the movie. Most of the big pieces are here--Cathedral, Arcade, Sanctuary, flashing crystals embedded in the hand ("flowers"), Sandmen, runners (yet no carousel)--but so much is different as to be completely unrecognizable. Some of the differences are somewhat superficial but create big shifts in tone. For example, in the movie the age of death is 30 and most of the characters seem near that age, but in the book the age of death is 21 and many of the characters are very young. It gives a very different feel to the novel.

More importantly, in the novel Logan's character is completely different. In the movie, he's kind of a dupe who loses years and is basically forced to run, commanded to find Sanctuary. In the novel he's much darker. He is actually coming to the end of his life and chooses to search for Sanctuary, not to save himself but to destroy it and end his life as the best Sandman who's ever lived. Granted, his attitude changes as he runs but, as a reader, you're not sure what he's going to do as the novel draws to a close. In fact, all the characters are significantly different in important ways, including Francis, Jessica, and the "old man" they find as they search for Sanctuary.

Ultimately, the advantage the novel has over the movie is that it all makes sense in a cohesive way. Two scenes in the movie have never really sat well with me. First, there is the scene with Box the robot who tries to kill Logan and Jessica in the frozen caves. Why is the robot there? Why does he make carvings? Why does he try to kill and freeze them? It's easy to come to some logical speculations about these things but it's not very satisfying. Then, there's the ending, which really isn't an ending. The dome is destroyed and people stream out to surround the old man. Then what? What is it supposed to mean?

In the novel, things are different and everything is explained. We understand the history of how this world came to be. We get inside of a nursery instead of just seeing a glance of one as happens in the movie. In the book, there is no dome. The young people have control of the world and they travel all around it. Logan and Jessica travel to cities and sites all across North America on their run. Box's place in this world makes some sort of sense. And the ending is completely satisfying, but since it has no connection to anything that happens in the movie I won't spoil things by giving it away here.

As always, the novel is better than the movie. In fact, even someone who doesn't like the movie of Logan's Run might find this novel very satisfying. It is more cohesive and thematically deep than anything you might expect from the film. It deserves an honored place among the dystopian novels of the 20th century.