Damnation Alley

By: Roger Zelazny

Narrated by: Paul Bellantoni

Hell Tanner isn't the sort of guy you'd mistake for a hero: he's a fast-driving car thief, a smuggler, and a stone-cold killer. Facing life in prison for his various crimes, he's given a choice: Rot away his remaining years in a tiny jail cell or drive cross-country and deliver a case of antiserum to the plague-ridden people of Boston, Massachusetts. The chance of a full pardon does wonders for getting his attention. And don't mistake this mission of mercy for any kind of normal road trip—not when there are radioactive storms, hordes of carnivorous beasts, and giant, mutated scorpions to be found along every deadly mile between Los Angeles and the East Coast. But then, this is no normal part of America, you see. This is Damnation Alley . . .

©1968, 2001 The Estate of Roger Zelazny (P)2024 Tantor

Dumb, Pulp Fun

If you want a simple, quick listen that exerts little to no brain matter, this might be a good listen for you. Sometimes those types of listens are great, especially after long, heavy books which is exactly the scenario I happened to be in before listening to this. Perfect for that. Dumb and fun. Simple one-note protagonist that's almost more of wish fulfillment than character.

Early Apocalyptic Road Race

Before there was Mad Max, before Duel, before Smoky and the Bandit, even before Easy Rider, there was this 1968 paean to tough, bandit bikers with hearts of gold. Anti-hero Hell Tanner is drafted ('Nam era readers could appreciate) to get the serum cure from California to plague-ridden Boston, traversing through the postwar hellscape known as Damnation Alley. Highly recommended.

Sci Fi Hell’s Angels

Not Zelazny’s best. Hell Tanner has to choose between life in prison or a suicidal trip cross-country through post-atomic war badlands, to deliver desperately-needed medicine.

The story was heavily influenced by a 1960’s book about the Hells Angels, elevating motorcycle thugs to cool rebel status. On the plus side, it has a very imaginative post-apocalyptic world with scary monsters and horrific storms. On the minus side, its protagonist is a mean, violent, macho criminal, whose only redeeming quality is to endure pain and keep going, against all odds. There is a lot of casual violence, explosions, and a high body count. What little humor is present is cruel. The sole female character is only there briefly to profess her devotion and sleep with him, though any romance is impossible. It all feels very forced, and frankly icky much of the time. Still worth checking out for Zelazny's lyrical, often poetic prose, and his vivid, disturbingly believable, portrayal of a destroyed world where even the weather can kill you.

If you haven't tried Zelazny's best stories yet, treat yourself to his magnificent "Nine Princes in Amber" series, or his hilarious aliens and spies romp, "Doorways in the Sand," or his rather sweet and very entertaining final novel, "A Night in the Lonesome October."

Lots of Fun

This is one of Roger Zelazny's most famous works probably because of the movie it inspired. I don't actually think it rates as one of his best stories, although it is a fast moving, fun tale, featuring an early version of what I think of as the classic Roger Zelazny hero. Hell Tanner is independent, brash, clever, strong, obstinate, and discovers during the story that there are things that he cares about more than himself.

Damnation Alley is the chunk of land that separates the nations of California and Boston. Apparently, a nuclear war resulted in the middle part of the United States being burned up. That means that there are hot radiation zones, violent storms, lots of mutated creatures, and trouble in between the two coasts. But Hell Tanner, a Hell's Angel-like biker, gets the job of driving a plague-countering vaccine from California to Boston in a frankly cool car that comes complete with grenade launchers, automatic weapons, and flamethrowers.

If this story was written today, all of the true danger would result from the people surviving out there--and there are enough biker gangs roaming around to let Zelazny claim he foreshadowed this trope of the post-apocalyptic landscape. But the true test, it seems to me, is of Tanner against himself--deciding that it actually is important to save the lives of everyone living in and near Boston.

This is a fun story, and as it is not a full novel, it makes a very quick read.