''Logan's World'' (1977) is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

by William F. Nolan. It is a sequel to ''

Logan's Run ''Logan's Run'' is a science fiction novel by American writers William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. Published in 1967, the novel depicts a dystopic Malthusianism future society in which both population and the consumption of resource ...

'' (1967), written by Nolan and

George Clayton Johnson George Clayton Johnson (July 10, 1929 – December 25, 2015) was an American science fiction writer, best known for co-writing with William F. Nolan the novel ''Logan's Run'', the basis for the MGM 1976 film. He was also known for his televis ...

Plot

Logan and Jessica have lived on Argos (the fabled ''Sanctuary''), a

space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...

in orbit around

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

, for four years, along with 3,000 other ''Runners''. They have a two-year-old son named Jaq. On

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

, Ballard's escape line for Runners at Cape Steinbeck is discovered and destroyed by Deep Sleep operatives. Ballard escapes to Crazy Horse Mountain, and sabotages the Thinker complex buried in the catacombs below the statue. While he is killed in the explosion, he succeeds in destroying the computer network and making the world free. With Ballard's death, supply ships to Argos cease. For six more years the Runners there hang on, until there are less than a few dozen of them. They have no more food, and plague is running rampant. They draw straws — a handful will return to Earth. Logan, Jessica and Jaq are among those chosen. Logan and family settle with a group called the Wilderness People along the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

Life is tough — learning to farm is not easy — but good until Jaq falls deathly ill. Logan sneaks back into the Angeles Complex to get medicine for his son. While he is gone, an insane pack of devilstick-riding Borgia

gypsies The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

murders Jaq and kidnaps Jessica. Logan finds himself on the run again, this time to save his wife and avenge his murdered son. As the story unfolds, he meets blind mystics who live on the rusted shell of the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...

, he travels to the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Complex and finally back to Crazy Horse Mountain, where he discovers the Thinker is being reactivated by Gant, a former Deep Sleep operative who despises Logan for his part in destroying his world. Gant has purchased Jessica from the gypsies to lure Logan into a trap. Mary Mary, a young woman who as a "Cub" met Logan and Jessica on their earlier run, helps them defeat Gant's plan to re-enslave humankind.

Continuity

Logan still has his Sandman gun in this novel, which is a

retcon Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in which established diegetic facts in the plot of a fictional work (those established through the narrative itself) are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subse ...

by Nolan as he lost it at the end of the previous novel when it went "wild" (sounded an alarm when Logan's palm flower went black). In this book, Logan has the gun in a box. In the third novel in the series, ''Logan's Search'', Nolan addresses this apparent continuity error as Logan muses about how he obtained and altered another Sandman's gun after joining the Wilderness People, to deactivate its identity sensing technology, which is described as an exacting and delicate process, meaning that the gun he uses in ''Logan's World'' is not his original gun.

History

Following the success of the 1976 film version of ''

'', Nolan had pitched a sequel. MGM expressed interest in adapting ''Logan's World'' as a film, but the original film's producer

Saul David Professor Julian Saul David (born 1966) is a British academic military historian and broadcaster. He is best known for his work on the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Anglo-Zulu War, as well as for presenting and appearing in documentaries on ...

had opted to focus on a ''

'' TV series instead.Jason V. Brock, Disorders of Magnitude: A Survey of Dark Fantasy, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, p. 106. ''Logan's World'' was published by Bantam in 1977.

Comic Adaptation

Beginning in May 1991,

Adventure Comics ''Adventure Comics'' is an American comic book series published by DC Comics from 1938 to 1983 and revived from 2009 to 2011. In its first era, the series ran for 503 issues (472 of those after the title changed from ''New Adventure Comics''), ...

published a 6 issue bimonthly adaptation of ''Logan's World'' by Tom Mason, Chris Ulm and

Barry Blair Barry Blair (1954 – January 3, 2010)Muir, AdrianThe Art of Barry Blair and Colin Walbridge (Blair tribute web site).Accessed March 3, 2011. was a Canadian comics publisher, artist and writer, known for launching Aircel Comics (publisher of titl ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Plot Synopsis
1977 American novels 1977 science fiction novels American science fiction novels Sequel novels