Damnation Alley (LIB)

By Roger Zelazny

Book Overview

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. He's also expendable - at least in the eyes of the Secretary of Traffic for the Nation of California. Tanner doesn't care much for those eyes. You'd also never mistake Hell Tanner for a humanitarian. 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...if anyone is still alive there to receive it, that is. 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 carniverous 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... Roger Zelazny's post-apocalypse novel predates the George Peppard-Jan-Michael Vincent movie vehicle by about a decade and represents the fine storytelling talents of one of science fiction and fantasy's most daring writers (likely best remembered for his imaginative Amber series). Speaking of vehicles: the coolest part of the movie--and likely, thankfully, the only part most people remember--turns out to be even cooler in the book: the flame-spewing, .50-caliber-bullet-belching, grenade-throwing, gigantic all-terrain vehicle that's responsible for getting a crucial antiserum shipment from Los Angeles to Boston to stop a deadly plague. The driver, a despicable lowlife named Hell Tanner, has been given a not-so-difficult choice. He can either get the drugs to the East Coast intact, save humanity, and receive a full pardon for his crimes, or he can refuse and spend the rest of his life in a "zebra suit." So what's the catch? Thanks to World War III, Middle America is now an electrical-storm-torn, heavily irradiated playground for dino-sized Gila monsters, "freak spiders," humongous bats "that eat off the mutie fruit trees down Mexico way," and 120-foot-long snakes as big around as garbage cans. And the native humans still scrambling around the wasteland aren't much less dangerous.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1899694498
• ISBN13: 9781899694495
• Release Date: December 2014
• Publisher: iBooks
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Hell Tanner...inspiration for Snake Plissken?

When I read this I was struck by the similarities between the deal offered to Hell Tanner to run the serum thru Damnation Alley to a plague stricken Boston in order to recieve a full pardon for every criminal act he's committed in the Nation of California...hmmm. That sounds alot like the deal offered to Snake Plissken, who seems to share alot of other similarities with Hell Tanner, who admittedly came first in 1969. I have no way of knowing whether or not John Carpenter or Nick Castle read the Zelazny book by the time they wrote Escape from New York but it wouldn't surprise me at all. Being a big fan of Plissken's exploits I can't help but like this pulpy sci fi novel. With a few very slight changes someone could easily adapt this into the 3rd Snake Plissken movie!!!! (Why am I not a Hollywood hot shot with clout, power, influence? Oh yeah, my ambition is handicapped by laziness.) There is nothing on earth that could make the awful 1977 film adaptation worthwile. It has about zero to do with the book, which is filled with great twisted post-apocalyptic imagery: giant bats and scorpions and other fantastic beasties and tornado winds whipping great hunks of concrete and other unhealthy materials thru the malestrom that is "the Alley." And the Land-Master that Tanner drives is super-cool in a James Bond/Speed Racer way; it has flame throwers and grenade launchers and all sorts of buzz saw hub cap weapons.Very cool.

A great story

This novel is an absolute classic portrayal of near future but post apocalypse Earth. It is set in a US in which what remains of the population is confined largely to the coasts and separated by a wild and dangerous interior. When the population on the East coast is threatened by a deadly disease, the only hope is for a medical supplies to be transported overland. The book follows one man, unreformed biker Hell Tanner who sets out to cross the badlands.As a setting for a novel this is not very promising. However, the author brings a huge amount of invention and narrative skill to bear and the result is a page turner. Of course, you know from the start that Hell Tanner will reluctantly accept the assignment and that he will face almost certain defeat on the way.Despite that knowledge, you want to keep reading this book because the story is just so well put together. For me, one of the marks of a really good book is the vividness of the images that it creates in my head. By that test, this book was very good indeed.If you like SF adventure stories, then track down a copy of this book and you will not be disappointed.

Best verson of the story

This is expanded from a longish short story, and of course was made into that AWFUL movie, but it is a very fun read and really has that early Zelazny sense of a very strange world.

A must read for any sci-fi fan.

Damnation Alley is a book of epic proportions, set in the future. Travel between settlements have become nearly impossible and that is where the true story lies. You are taken on a trip through a typical voyage accross america in a post World War III land. From strange plants, to odd weather shifts makes for a great adventure. This definitly is a must read.

Great one

An apocaliptic book by one of ameriacas best SF and Fantasy writers. The scenery placed in the future after a world war is breath taking and causes the reader not put down the book untill finishing reading