Damnation Alley

[Connavar]

What do you think of this book?

Like it?


Its my first of RZ and i enjoy it. The world,Hell Tanner and everything is very interesting.

 

[Harpo]

It was my first too, I like it a lot. Haven't read it for about twenty years though, shame on me.

 

[Connavar]

You remember what you liked or was it too long to remember?


I wonder how its possible for me to like Hell. He isnt the most likeable guy if you look to his actions and history of bad/horrible deeds. I havent finished the story yet so who knows if it changes how i feel about him.

 

[clovis-man]

Although I've read a lot of Zelazny (not much lately), I didn't read this one until after I'd seen the movie. And that too was a long time ago. the movie was so-so and I felt the book was marginally better. At one time, one of the vehicles from the film was parked beside one of the Los Angeles freeways. Can't remember exactly where. Haven't spotted it in years.

 

[Connavar]

I found it to be a very solid post OP story. I liked Hell Tanner alot, his personal journey of going from fleeing f his task to risking everything for people he didnt know or cared about. Specially when the hollier than thou Greg chickened out after he called Hell horrible for not caring about the job at first.

It was written well, a nice touch seeing people dying slow in Boston and Hell fighting to survive The Alley at the same time. My fav part of the book was that when he met that farmer family that helped him and took care of Greg. It was nice seeing normal decent people after everything and everyone else wanting to kill him.

It reminded me of Mad Max alot specially the second movie where he helps that band of people surviving the gangs. Of course Mad Max wasnt as interesting as Tanner Max was hollywood type hero, i cant ever seeing a guy like Hell Tanner being a hero of a movie like that.



A very good first book and cant wait to read more of RZ.

Waiting for my ordered This Immortal

 

[Strife]

i liked the story, but i found it a little dated, what to say, very sixties-seventies in its themes, i don't know how to explain...

This "dated" feeling was not so apparent in his other novels.

perhaps a fan who has lived in the sixties can confirm my impression (or not)

 

[Connavar]

What did you find dated?

It didnt seem dated to me at all. People usually go back tech wise in post apocalyptic stories. Farming old west style to survive.

 

[Giovanna Clairval]

Dated? Perhaps the dated thing is the archetype of the lone hero (especially when he encounter a damsel, if I remember well; it's been a long time)

I mean, an archetype is an archetype, but I once read a SF novel in which there was this astronef wandering about, and the women weren't allowed to disembark on the newly found planets... too dangerous.

But I don't know what our friend Strife meant exactly.

 

[Connavar]

I didnt see Corny as a damsel atleast not the usual ones you see in stories like this.

I mean she was a member of a bike gang who tried to kill him and only came with him cause he provided good chances for survivle. It wasnt so romantic, that they fell in love or something at first sight and he took her with him cause of that.

Some Archetype never get dated which is why they are used. Tanner as the dangerous,criminal ,anti-hero i have seen in many modern stories in many genres.

 

[Giovanna Clairval]

You might be right, Connavar.

I just remember our hero's protective attitude.

But I had forgotten the heroine's name.

Corny? Did you say "corny"?

My friend the Merriam-Webster open dictionary says:

1archaic : tasting strongly of malt
2: of or relating to corn
3: mawkishly old-fashioned: tiresomely simple and sentimental <told corny jokes>

Well, if RZ didn't pick the name on purpose, this could demonstrate that the subconscious mind pops out things that the mind owner thinks somewhere, deep inside...

And what do you think--generally speaking-- of female characters in RZ's novels?

Let's take the Amber cycle, for instance, because it is his most famous work (which--as much as I love Amber--is a pity).

Apart from Dara and--less so--Fiona, there are no strong heroines in Amber.

I haven't read all Zelazny, though, and I could be mistaken.

 

[Snowdog]

The rebel on a motocycle was a very strong motif in America when this book was written - think Easy Rider, think Jack Kerouac, and his travels across America, who had such an influence on late 60s US counter-culture, and who died the year the book was published - I think perhaps the book may seem dated because we all have such a strong sense of time and place for this kind of character, bolstered by all those 60s road movies.

I've no idea if RZ was influenced by any of those things but the rebel, in numerous forms, is a recurring theme in much of his writing.

 

[Connavar]

You might be right, Connavar.

I just remember our hero's protective attitude.

But I had forgotten the heroine's name.

Corny? Did you say "corny"?

My friend the Merriam-Webster open dictionary says:

1archaic : tasting strongly of malt
2: of or relating to corn
3: mawkishly old-fashioned: tiresomely simple and sentimental <told corny jokes>

Well, if RZ didn't pick the name on purpose, this could demonstrate that the subconscious mind pops out things that the mind owner thinks somewhere, deep inside...

And what do you think--generally speaking-- of female characters in RZ's novels?

Let's take the Amber cycle, for instance, because it is his most famous work (which--as much as I love Amber--is a pity).

Apart from Dara and--less so--Fiona, there are no strong heroines in Amber.

I haven't read all Zelazny, though, and I could be mistaken.

Tanner called her Corny as short for Cornelia.


I dont think her character had much to do with her name might be mean. Specially the third option.

Sure she was simple in a way that she wanted to survive with any means.

But thats true of everyone in DA in that post apocalyptic world. Survivle was all they cared about.

I found her to be strong of mind and body. She could take her of herself, she didnt even think twice about tagging along with Tanner to survive. She didnt beg him for help or anything.

Shame she died so close to the goal.


So going only by Corny i liked the way he wrote her. Not she wasnt "ooh save me my shining knight" that is too common.

 

[Giovanna Clairval]

All, right, Connavar (I admitted that I had read the book a long time ago). It's better.

Well, I wa trying to think of what could have triggered the impression Strife has expressed.

And that must be it, Snowdog: long rides as Steppenwolf howls...

But I'm unconvinced about "Corny". A native can't fail to make the connection, can he?

 

[Connavar]

What connection? What the word means?

 

[Sephiroth]

I haven't read the books, but certainly the first thing I think of when I hear/read 'corny' is the first (and only) meaning in the OED, which is an informal term meaning 'trite or mawkishly sentimental'. In an earlier sense it meant 'rustic, appealing to country folk'.

Hence the archaic first meaning listed in the MW, I imagine. And the second. But that makes me laugh, to think of it. 'The sauce tasted corny.'

If it's a name, something someone calls another, then I suppose it's an open question as to whether the reference is intentional, if it's never stated explicitly or implied. Same goes for the author's intention, I suppose?

 

[Snowdog]

In the intro to the shorter version of Damnation Alley, contained in 'The Last Defender Of Camelot', RZ says: "I intended to write a nice, simple action-adventure story and I had just finished reading Hunter Thompson's 'Hells Angels'..."

Somewhere else I think I remember him saying that he wanted to write a straightforward story and achieved his aim. I don't get any sense that he intended any literary or in-jokes, in which case the use of 'Corny' as a name was just that and nothing else.

He did write some comedy of course (his collaborations with Robert Sheckley, parts of CoLaD, Here There Be Dragons etc.) but I can't think of an instance where he makes a joke as writer (i.e. outside of the story, if that makes sense). I'm not sure I explained that too well

 

[Strife]

hi my friends

i just said that something seemed dated but i didn't know what

reading snowdog explanation, now i see why

I've made a little research about the hell angels

and, wow!

but i liked the book (and i didn't read it in english, so the "corny" thing was lost on me)

 

[Jaqhama]

Here's a review of the novel I wrote for Bikernet dot com some time ago.​

I wouldn't read too much into the story. Like Corny being anything more than a shortened nickname. Nicknames are predominant in biker culture.
It's just a solid, well written action/adventure tale, unusual in that it features an outlaw biker and motorcycles.​

Damnation Alley by Roger Zelany

A well written sci-fi novel of a not totally unlikely future.
Sometime in the future?
Hell Tanner is the last of the Hells Angels left alive in California.
As a dubious alternative to life imprisonment he is offered a pardon to drive a radiation proof armoured car from Cali to Boston. Boston has a plague and only Cali still has any anti serum left.
The small problem is that the bit of America that lies between the two states is now a radioactive wasteland full of mutant monsters and savage humans.
What’s so great about this novel is Tanner himself. He’s been locked up for murder, extortion, rape, trading in human slaves, you name it and he’s done it. He’s mean, dirty and has a general dislike of just about everyone he meets. That attitude lasts until the final page. No changing into Mr Nice guy as the story progresses. The action is fast and furious. More than enough to keep the reader interested.

Whether in the armed to the teeth tank he’s driving, at rest stops along the way or later, on a bike, Tanner is the tough biker outlaw till the very end.
I loved this book when I was a teenager and I still love it today. Dated by modern ideas of sci-fi it nevertheless is one of the few ever written that features a biker outlaw as the main anti hero.
Roger Zelany MUST have ridden bikes when he wrote this.
I have spoken to real Angels who grudgingly admit that Damnation Alley was a great book. Can’t have better praise than that.

I suspect it may be long out of print, but keep an eye out in used bookstores or sites for books online and you may get lucky. There are worst ways to spend a rainy weekend than reading this novel.

Note: The book was made into an absolutely fking ‚ awful movie in the late 70’s. Starring George Peppard and a young Jan Michael Vincent it had NOTHING to do with the novel in any way shape or form, except the names of the characters and the fact they were driving a weird looking vehicle. Why they even made the movie is a mystery to me. Don’t bother looking it up folks, there are no bikers in it at all, unless you count Vincent on a small trail bike for one short scene.

Cheers: Jaqhama.

 

[Omphalos]

Anyone ever seen the movie version of Damnation Alley? Jan Michael Vincent at his finest! And George Peppard too, fresh from his run on the A-Team.

 

[MG1962]

I adored the book, not sure how it would go with a re-read today. But be warned, the film was absolutely appalling - I mean really really really really appalling