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)

A Different Logan's Run

Throughout the years since its release in 1976, I???ve watched the movie more times than I can remember and is a favorite of mine but have never read the book, so the audio book intrigued me. What I found is this is a very different Logan???s Run; but still entertaining. The basic premise is the same; people must die at a certain age and Logan has reached that age and decides to run.
Written in 1967 Logan???s Run is set in a future world of 2116. The population has reached ???critical mass??? and a law has been passed dictating all people must report to ???Sleep Centers??? at the age of 21, If anyone refuses to report, a Deep Sleep Operative, (also called a Sandman) is assigned to hunt the runner down and terminate their existence. Logan is a Sandman who has reached his twenty first birthday and while on an assignment discovers there might be another alternative to the Sleep Centers called ???Sanctuary.???
It took me a little time getting used to the narrator, Oliver Wyman, because I was used to Michael York???s English accent as Logan in the movie, but after adjusting I thought he did a good job. I would recommend this audio book for those, like me, who have known the story from the movie and everyone else as well.

Logan 3 <3 Jessica 6

Most science fiction stories have some action components and some more cerebral components. Logan's Run definitely has both, but excels in the action components. That's nice for a change. I really enjoyed being able to turn off my brain at times in the story and just go along for the exciting ride. Wun Logan, WUN!

And even though it was written in the late 1960s, the story has a next sci-fi generation (post-Asimov, etc.) feel, with lots of freaky drug and sex references. Another really neat thing about the story is that it takes a refreshingly brave poke at the youth culture, which was very strong when the book was published. Take that, you self-absorbed hippies (and future yuppies)!

I wish I had read the book before I saw the movie. I couldn't get Michael York and Jenny Agutter out of my head even though I saw it back in the 1970s. I guess the movie made a big impression because it was one of the first sci fi films I saw. I've read that someone is now making another movie adaptation that is supposed to be truer to the book. If so, that's good news. I look forward to it. I hope they can capture the story's great dystopian feel and unique messages.

The book is very well narrated and I highly recommend it to fans of sci-fi.

PS: Coincidentally, I just saw the Family Guy tribute to Logan's Run, in which Brian imagines himself as a runner. Great timing. Very funny.

Vintage SciFi Experience!

If you could sum up Logan's Run in three words, what would they be?

Retro Distopian Classic! Somehow the subtle 70's infleuence seeps into the weave of the fabric of this accessable SciFi Classic. With its own unique mix of futurism and societal decay it is Not an experience to miss!

What other book might you compare Logan's Run to and why?

Easily at home among others of its day, I would compare it to Issac Asimov, or similar...

What about Oliver Wyman’s performance did you like?

Somehow accomplishes the impression of sound effects in the background in retrospect... With such an adventurous tale in such futuristic locations, one not only finds each character represented well and seemlessly, but afterward you find yourself questioning just which of the various environments were actually presented as expressly as you remember them...

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

In the right environment, I could see myself listening to this completely in a single day, however, I think it more reasonable to break it up into two or three bits...
not Too long to stop you, but quite possible to take in smaller doses...

Any additional comments?

Having been familiar with the movie, I went into this read with an interest in discovering the hidden depths of the original novel... As is almost cliche in its occurrence, I was pleasantly rewarded in uncovering a deeper understanding to the more complete reality presented by the author and was additionally surprised to find the novel a Series of books to go on with...
Beyond the simple reality and poorly explained spectacle of the film, there is a deeper commentary on society which is the rare mindstretch I seek out most actively in all my reading. While I've had other series prove less enthralling in future installments, I am nevertheless left with higher hopes and greater interest in persuing the rest of the story having read this book.
A Classic in its tone, texture, and underlying principles... everything I most look for in my delvings into the older science fiction genre... Worth a Look.

If you liked the movie, you'll like this series

This is book 1 of 3, which I'm reviewing as a set. I enjoyed the movie (and somewhat, the TV series), so I was drawn to the audiobook. I wouldn't consider Logan's run good writing, at all, but I found it entertaining, none-the-less. The characters are extremely shallow, the plot contrived, and there are serious flaws in the whole concept. Still, if you have good feelings about the movie, you'll find this series tolerable.

The first book in the series is the movie (with some differences). The second two books in the series continue the story. Book two is essentially a "return of Logan" that quickly breaks down into a haphazard search for his lost wife ending in a somewhat disappointing battle royal. Book three is an alternative reality 'cheat' to put a different twist on the first book.

The performance is not good. The reader talks very slow which tends to sap the energy out of the story. However, I found that my iPod allows me to increase the speed (x2) which made it very comfortable with minimal distortion in only a few spots. I would totally recommend you do the same. I find it hard to beleive that the producers couldn't do this for us!

All-in-all, if you are listening to the series for the sake of nostalgia, then you'll probably have a good time.

Completely Different from the Movie

Any additional comments?

Wow. I can't believe how different the novel is from the 70s movie. It's incredible and deserves to be remade today to follow the original plot. The greatest aspect of this production is the narration -- Oliver Wyman -- who delivers a spectacular and captivating performance. Looking forward to getting the remainder of the series.

Cub Scouts

SHADOWS SLID ON SHADOWS
Kind of a mixture of A Brave New World and Animal Farm and Lord of The Flies. The first five chapters make the book worth buying. Very different from the movie, more better. The underwater city and Hell were cool. This has two authors and I kind of wonder if one of them wrote the first five chapters and the other wrote the next five. I am going to have to look at the reviews to see if I want to continue this series. The first five are five star chapters and the last five are three star chapters, totally it is a 3.5 star book.

Disappointing

If you are deciding whether or not to read the book, likely you saw the movie and either liked it or were curious to learn more about the setting. Unfortunately, as either a classic of science fiction or as a better option than just the movie, this book fails completely. The writing is shallow, the story brief, and this feels very much like a pulpy dimestore novel but without the charm. More notably, the movie told the story better and made very smart changes.

Story: In a world where youth have taken over and society is run by a machine, everyone who reaches the age of 21 is required to go to a sleep center to end their life. Logan is a Sandman - a policeman of the governmental group responsible for hunting down and killing those who try to live beyond 21: runners. When Logan reaches his last day, he becomes curious about the place called 'Sanctuary' that all runners seek. With the aid of the sister of the last runner Logan killed, they will follow a series of clues left by the mythical 'old man' Ballard - clues that will take them to icebound jail wards of desperate men, gypsy camps with nubile women, abandoned city centers, ground zero of a nuclear bomb, and deep inside Cheyenne Mountain to the heart of the computer core running the world. Unfortunately for Logan and Jessica, they will face great dangers along the way and are being chased by Logan's friend: the Sandman Francis.

Perhaps the biggest distinction between the movie and the book is that the book is a morality piece masquerading as science fiction while the movie is a dystopian. Written in 1967, at the height of the hippy and counter culture movement, Nolan makes his stance clear with the opening lines of the book: "The seeds of the Little War were planted in a restless summer during the mid-1960s, with sit-ins and student demonstrations as youth tested its strength. By the early 1970s over 75 percent of the people living on Earth were under 21 years of age. The population continued to climb—and with it the youth percentage.
In the 1980s the figure was 79.7 percent.
In the 1990s, 82.4 percent.
In the year 2000—critical mass." As a result of that critical mass, a "little war" was created that overthrew the government and then the youth instituted the mandatory age limit rule to control population overcrowding. I didn't quite believe the logic in that change, especially since it was supposedly in response to breeding restrictions similar to the Chinese limit of 1 child per couple. But then again, very little about the world that Nolan created truly made sense. The logic holes are big enough to drive a truck through and characters act inappropriate to their age, aren't believable, and are even unreliable narrators. The world is shallow, poorly defined, and only loosely held together.

The movie took the mess that is Logan's Run and coalesced it into one focused story. Gone are the cross country trips to random places around the world (from cities in Washington and Los Angeles, under the ocean, to the arctic), doing random things, and the 'big surprise' at the end of the book was completely jettisoned. Instead, we are given a small insular city inside a dome and Logan forced through the master computer to become a runner and infiltrate the 'sanctuary' movement. Through that he meets Jessica and they travel through the bowels of the City to find a way out. The action is contained, the story much more focused, and by completely changing Francis' character, we get much more pathos in the story. Indeed, who didn't cry at the end when Logan was forced to battle his best friend with the US flagpole? As with a similar situation in Last of the Mohicans, the movie is far superior to the source novel.

The book greatly lacks structure and the message is so heavy as to be stifling (and very, very, dated). Of note, I listened to the Audible version and really disliked the choice of voice actors. His rough and mature voice completely defeated the feel of Logan and Jessica being 21. They sounded even more improbably mature than they were forced to be in the book. I would love to hear a narration of this by a YA author who can make the characters actually sound young. Of course, there is no helping the very silly and static 1960s writing.

Goss rendition of an excellent book

What did you love best about Logan's Run?

The story and the faithful way that the narrator had in evoking the feel of the book.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Logan's Run?

There were many, but I particularly liked the way that the story opened.

What about Oliver Wyman’s performance did you like?

His feeling for the characters, and his characterisations.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yep

Any additional comments?

Nope

took long enough

Would you listen to Logan's Run again? Why?

Yes because it was awesome

What was one of the most memorable moments of Logan's Run?

where logan was running

Have you listened to any of Oliver Wyman’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

nope

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

i did and loved every minuit of it

Any additional comments?

it was really awesome worth the wait

Lot More Than The Movie.

Lot more to the story than what is depicted in the 1976 movie. I love the movie. But, it seems the final edit left A LOT out. Even changed the plot. The Novel is WAY better. 5 Stars for the story and performance.

Get ready for carrousel

What did you like most about Logan's Run?

I've been a fan of the film from an early age, so was interested to see how the original source material compared to the film. The story contains interesting social comment, and you can certainly tell it was penned in the late sixties.
I enjoyed the utopian feel and hedonistic life style portrayed in the book and the "idea" of a voluntary euthanasia system force upon people who reach 21, not the liberal 30 as indicated in the film.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Logan, he's an unusual anti-hero with a skill for violence.

What does Oliver Wyman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Great reading; you know who's speaking all the time and he fills the characters with depth and emotion.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Been there, done that!

Any additional comments?

Highly recommend even if you've seen the film.

A stunningly awful book

Having always enjoyed the Logan's Run film adaptation, I was keen to listen to the book, as I heard it was rather different. Different it is, at least after the first quarter or so. What follows is an insane, incoherent, fever dream of a book, which is far and away the worst written book I have ever read. Sentences are often a random collection of unmatched words, character names are usually omitted leading to confusion, and the plot bounces around from one utterly bizarre scenario to the next with nothing to connect it. It's like The Wizard of Oz as written by someone on extra strength hallucinogenic drugs.

The narrator is unfortunately no help at all, speaking as he does at a lugubrious pace, and so dragging out this dreadful story even further. I ended up using the 1.25x and 1.5x playback options in the Audible app to get him to speak at a more normal pace.

This book is a mess. It makes no sense, the story is the type of thing a small child would come up with, and it's technically so poorly written it should never have been published. The movie took the one good idea of the book (that everyone dies very young due to over population) and span it out into an entertaining film, although even it couldn't free itself entirely from the insanity of the book's ideas.

There are lots of great sci-fi books, but this certainly isn't one of them. Avoid at all costs.

worth a read

Definitely worth a read if you like science fiction or have watched the movie. It's a bit 60s but still very good.

Vastly different to the classic movie

As a child i watched Logans Run and loved it, for me it became an instant classic Si-fi movie. So when I spotted the book and it's 2 companions I had to have them. At this point I've only read book 1 and it's vastly different to the movie, not necessarily better just more fleshed out and with a different feel to it. Gone is the 70s interpreted glimpse of the future, instead is a darker post apocalyptic twisted fall from grace. Interesting and enjoyable in its own way, but showing it's age in places.

Different to the Movie, but Vary Enjoyable

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, I would recommend this book to a friend who was interested in that genre. I thought the book was great.

What other book might you compare Logan's Run to, and why?

The only book that immediately springs to mind is Stephen King's "The Running Man", but only because it has somebody running from death by the authorities.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

The end, as it was so different from the movie, and it had an interesting twist at the end.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, though at about 4 hours long it wouldn't be difficult to achieve.

Any additional comments?

Starts off along a similar vein to the movie but quickly goes off at a slightly different route. It was interesting to read the brief flashbacks of Logan's training at Sandman Academy. In the movie it is suggested that sandmen are determined from birth, whereas in the book it is a vocation that many boys aspire to.

Confused this with Blakes7

I thought this would have the talking computer but its the one about dying when you're 21
Will not bother reading the others in the series