Logan's Run

By: William F. Nolan, George Clayton Johnson

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

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 question the very system he swore to protect and soon they're both running for their lives. When Last Day comes, will you lie down and die... or run!

©1967 William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"[T]he story of a reluctant rebel fighting back in a computer-run world in which people voluntarily submit to death at the age of 21 is a fascinating adventure. Narrator Oliver Wyman's excellent vocal performance guides listeners into this harsh world where children rule. He does a credible job imitating children's and women's voices. When he speaks as Jenny, Logan's running mate, one can clearly see the character in one’s mind. The book differs from the popular film of the same name—and has a far superior ending." ( AudioFile)

Short 'n sweet 'n crazy.

In the end, I was quite pleasantly surprised by this book! I didn't come into it with any preconceptions as I've not seen the movie and I only know that the book is "a classic" so I didn't have anything to be disappointed or surprised about. The only thing I really knew was that it was rather short.

This is one of those stories that just throws you in the deep end and doesn't waste time explaining what's going on or why. I didn't expect it to bother with explanations at all and I was quite pleasantly surprised when the author delved into some of the history that shaped the world that Logan lives in. I have a sneaking suspicion that the real reason for this is because Mr Nolan was trying to justify, or at least vaguely explain, the crazy shennanigans near the end of the book but hey, it was nice to get the backstory!

Given the length of the book, the character development (for the major characters at least) was quite good. In the end I really wasn't sure what Logan was actually going to do (in fact, to be honest, I'm still not really sure what happened at the end there).

Gripes? The book almost reads like a screenplay (I wonder if that's more the effect of George Clayton Johnson than William Nolan?). It's action-heavy and moves very fast (I was put in mind of Mathew Reilly's Contest in fact.) This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the authors seem to get soooo excited about one-upping themselves for the dire straits that they can navigate Logan into that, about three-fifths of the way through, they just give up on explaining how he gets out of them again and we start the next chapter with everyone safely ready to face the next round of crazy.

Overall, a quick, fun, sneakily-thought-provoking story. I might even check out the sequels!

Logan's Run

I've been a long time fan of Logan's Run the movie. I saw it as a kid in the movies but I hate to say it but this is one of those instances where the movie is better then the book. I admit my view could be slanted because of the movie but the world from the movie was a lot better then the one presented in the book. Also usually books delve more about the charters and their stories but that was not the case here. The author spent more time going from point-to-point-to-point but with little description of how or the surroundings. My perception may have been different had I read this first...

Not the movie.

It was fun correlating references from the movie versus the book. Box is extra scary.

Not the movie but didn’t expect that

It’s not the movie with Michael York, but I wasn’t expecting that. Movies and books are two completely different animals even if they do eat the same grass. I still enjoyed this story & look forward to delving further into Logan’s World!

Great Story

The narrator was a bit dull at times bit the story carried the day. Worth the credit.

Classic Dystopian Sci Fi

When the world believed we would run out of resources by 2020. Fun story and better than the film, with many sixties ideological ideas (never trust anyone old) of overpopulation and famine. I loved the lysergic foam reference.

Interesting differences between this and the film.

It's good to go back and finally experience this original novel and see the differences between this and the film that I know so well. As one would expect the adventure and world of the book are far larger than the film had time to go into. Although I wish some of the sequences depicted in the book that were cut in the film script were still in the film as they would have made for great cinema. Still the film is iconic in and of itself. This is a must read for fans of the movie.

great read.

book is about the apocalypse. overpopulation and cult leaders eventually throws the world into a ditch. about half way in it gets a bit wordy but picks up again in last hour

Love this story!

It's one of my favorite movies, and I'm really glad I got a fuller understanding of the story. Looking forward to the next book in the series!

For the Love of God, Talk Faster

I’ve read the book in physical form and really enjoyed it and got the audible version while it was on sale. I don’t think I will ever seek out any books by this narrator. I normally listen to books on regular speed. I had to listen to this book on 1.4 times speed, just to not go insane. I swear to God, he was talking slow on purpose just to irritate the listener