I don't know if I realized I'd never read Logan's Run before many years ago, but I certainly knew I had not done so when I began reading the very first page. The book is striking in so many ways, that I will never forget reading it, even at this late stage. For one thing the chapters are in reverse order, beginning with "10" and counting down throughout the saga. Much like the movie (with which I'm familiar and will discuss in more detail tomorrow) the run Logan ends up making takes him across much of the futuristic landscape of what is now North America. Using ultra-fast "Maze Cars" Logan 3 and his companion Jessica 6 whip across the country finding every increasing bizarre threats to their safety.
William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson drop the reader right into the soup with all sorts of unusual terms being used with little explanation. The reader is moving along at a hectic pace just as Logan and Jessica, and the breakneck speed required me to back up and double check sections just to keep up with what was happening. For those who might not know, Logan's Run tells of future society which deals with overpopulation by insisting that everyone dies at twenty-one. This youth culture employs blokes called "Sandmen" to make sure that everyone complies. Logan 3 is one such Sandman. When he learns of a place called "Sanctuary" he begins a quest to find it along with a rebellious young woman named Jessica 6. There secrets inside secrets and the novel is much more complex than the movie, and it is told with real panache.
Speaking of the movie, it was made in 1976 nearly a decade after the first publication of the novel. It was at its time, a high watermark for science fiction. But that world would soon change, and Logan's Run looks a bit rusty now, despite all its gleaming polish.
Marvel Comics adapted the movie story to a short comic run which was notable for the artwork of an up-and-coming George Perez. Having read the novel, they comic series, if it had lasted would have had a great deal of territory to develop.
There was also a short-run TV series which used the movie as its jumping off point. This too will get a closer look later this week. Logan's Run yielded some impressive and memorable offshoots across several media, but having at long last read the novel itself, none of them improve on the original. I highly recommend getting a copy and checking it out.
Rip Off
"Logan's Run looks a bit rusty now"
ReplyDeleteIt looked rusty the second that Star Destroyer glided across the screen in "Star Wars"...
(Mind you, there are those who consider *that* to be rusty nowadays...you had to be there, folks!)
I totally get it. Watching that spaceship hove into view was transformative. I see it now it seems to last not nearly as long as I remember it happening in the movie theater at the time.
DeleteI don't know what it is but I have a lot of affection for the movie. I think I may have ran across the comic first in a big box of comics given to me and I have some affection for it as well. I first watched the tv show a couple years ago and while it isn't a classic there is some charm to it. Strangely, I'm not a fan of the original book. I think it and Planet of the Apes are two instances where the movies are better than the book.
ReplyDeleteCheck out my review of the movie. I like it too, more and more as the years roll by.
DeleteI've never read the original novel either but I did know that 21 is the age at which everyone dies not 30 as in the film. Actually in the film nobody dies - everyone is "renewed" in the Carousel ceremony so is that in the novel too?
ReplyDeleteCarousel is not in the novel, and not so much is made of "renewal" as I recollect now.
Delete