Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fast Reading original saga of LOGAN 5!, August 9, 2003
You're probably way too familiar with the 1976 epic Sci Fi movie LOGAN'S RUN. Here is the original novel that inspired the book, but it's hardly recognizable as anything other than a similar theme. Yes, there is Logan and Jessica running from the Sandman named Francis in a post-apocalyptic world where life is ended when youth disappears. But here life ends at 21! There are no domed cities, the entire planet is controlled by the megacomputer, and Logan and Jessica encounter far more than they ever did in the movie. They fight for their lives in the Arctic, get caught in a Civil War recreation with androids, and face the wild jungle of Washington DC where lions and snakes prowl the capital city. SANCTUARY is very real, and society is fraying apart from youth tyranny. The book was an obvious reaction to the youth movement and flower power of the 60s. "Don't trust anyone over 30!" taken to the extreme. It's an easy read, and lots of fun! There is talk in Hollywood of a remake of this, so better to read it now because there are rumblings that they want to stick closer to the novel. And why not? The novel spawned two sequels!
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
What it does, it does very well., March 13, 1999
By A Customer
Logan's Run is one of my favorite novels from a standpoint of plotting, back story and general premise.For those unfamiliar with it, Logan's Run is about a society in the future where no one is allowed to live past the age of 21. A person's age is determined by the color of the small crystal flower in the palm of his/her right hand. When the crystal starts to blink from red to black, it means you have 24 hours to report to a Sleepshop for mandatory euthanasia. At the end of this grace period, your flower turns black, and you become quarry for the DS men, an elite squad of police whose sole purpose is to eliminate the fugitives, or "Runners" as they are called.As I mentioned before, the book is a crackerjack example of plotting, and can be read in an afternoon. What makes it special is how each of its plot points is included for thematic or symbolic reasons. In other words, each episode in the novel is included because it reflects on the society in which its characters live, which in turn is a comment on its general premise.The premise in question is that a society cannot sustain a culture without wisdom, experience, and tradition. Those things, it argues, come with age. When the novel was published back in 1967, it was seen by some as a finger in the eye of the emerging youth culture.Like all good speculative fiction, it takes current issues and extrapolates them to their extremes. I'm pleased to say that this aspect of Logan's run hasn't lost any of its bite. We continue to live in a society where youth is equated with beauty, where the old are locked away and forgotten, and by a media-driven feeding frenzy over all things materialistic and fashionable. "Be young, have fun, drink Pepsi", indeed... Logan's Run picked these as important thematic concerns. Sadly, they are still with us.Important to the novel is the concept of a gigantic computer web that regulates every aspect of people's lives. In the novel, it is slowly dying. Since nobody lives long enough to learn anything complex, nobody knows how to repair it, or even knows that anything is wrong with it at all. The overall implication, is that runners or no runners, whether Logan fails or succeeds in his quest, the society depicted in the novel is eventually going to fall, and fall hard, due to its built-in inability to sustain itself. Where the novel falls short is in its characterizations and in its dialogue, which feels like it could have used a rewrite or two. In my opinion, a second or third draft for dialogue could have played the characters more subtly and believably. Instead, characters say things in very flat, unconvincing ways (especially Logan and Jessica, in their first real conversation together)that do help move the action forward, but don't make them very believable people.Still, all quibbles aside, a ripping read, full of action, suspense, and intriguing ideas.
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27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Doesn't get more bizarre than this, November 3, 2001
Ok...most people over 30 (ironically) have seen "Logan's Run", and basically know what it's about.Now picture this...there are no domes, and the life expectancy of the citizens is 21. There is no carrousel, people just have to show up to the local 7-11 on the last day of their lives to die. Logan (3, not 5) visits a drug clinic (the opposite of what you're thinking of), a brothel made of glass, and a "fire gallery". To get the book started, Logan meets his contact at sort of a party for peeping toms. Sound bizarre? You're right, it is kinda strange, and it reads like it was written over a weekend. But it's compelling enough to option a script, and you can imagine how many rewrites it suffered to get to the screen. Keep running, Logan.
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