In this bi-weekly series reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement.
Author Roger Zelazny loved to use unlikely characters as protagonists. In Nine Princes in Amber, Corwin, a prince from a land of magic, talked and acted like someone out of a Dashiell Hammett detective novel. In Lord of Light, the powerful Enlightened One preferred to be called Sam. And in Damnation Alley, Zelazny set out to put the “anti” into “antihero” by picking Hell’s Angel and hardened criminal Hell Tanner for a heroic quest that takes him across the blasted landscape of a ruined United States. The result is a compelling look at what it means to be a hero, and stands as a perfect example of Zelazny’s trademark blend of poetic imagery and gritty action.
Damnation Alley first appeared in novella form in Galaxy magazine in 1967, and was then expanded to novel length in 1969 (although still a short novel by today’s standards). My copy of the book was printed in May of 1976, and I suspect I picked it up sometime in the following year. It had a sticker on one of the blank pages in the front announcing the movie version being released by 20th Century Fox. I suspect I bought it because of Zelazny’s name, and not because of the cover, which was one of those impressionistic paintings, so popular in that era, having little to do with the contents of the book (the artist is not credited, but I found it attributed to Paul Lehr on the internet). I also recollect buying it because I had heard about the movie, and wanted to read the book before seeing it…which turned out to be a huge mistake, because the movie wasn’t that good, and it was even worse when compared to the original source material (I’ll talk about the movie a bit later).
About the Author
Roger Zelazny (1937-1995) was one of the most popular American writers of fantasy and science fiction in the latter half of the twentieth century. I reviewed Zelazny’s work before when I looked at the first book of his famous Amber series, and that review contains a fairly extensive biography of the author.
Armageddon: Lots of Practice Writing About the End of the World
As a child of the 1950s, I grew up inundated with tales of the wars that would destroy civilization, and speculation on what kind of world might exist after that destruction. I’ve reviewed a few of them in this column over the years, and in my most recent review of a post-apocalyptic adventure, Hiero’s Journey by Sterling E. Lanier, I included a list of those previous reviews, and a discussion of the theme of post-apocalyptic worlds. Damnation Alley falls firmly into the most common post-apocalyptic setting portrayed in fiction during my youth, after a nuclear exchange leaves the United States in ruins.
Antiheroes
When I was young, the books I read were full of heroes. The protagonists were not just doers of great deeds, but their achievements were due to their positive qualities, such as ingenuity, courage and perseverance. There might be an occasional curmudgeonly engineer in Analog who did not suffer fools gladly, but in general those protagonists were as positive as they were plucky.
As I entered my teens, however, I began to encounter a different kind of protagonist. The New Wave was beginning to impact science fiction, and protagonists were often darker or flawed. And some of them, while they still achieved great deeds, did not do so because of any positive qualities at all. What I was encountering were tales where the protagonist was an antihero. There is a useful article in the online Encyclopedia of Science Fiction on the theme of antiheroes, which demonstrates that antiheroes had long been part of science fiction. One of the characters they cite is Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo, a figure who fascinated me when I saw the Disney version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at a drive-in theater.
But the concept of the antihero can be slippery as well. A list of antiheroes on Wikipedia includes Donald Duck, a character who is a pain in the butt, but not especially anti- or heroic. It includes Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood, someone who I always considered purely heroic, a doer of great deeds, who did things that were illegal, but never immoral. And it includes Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid from the movie of the same name, who to me were just charming villains, and not heroic at all.
Hell Tanner, however, is a poster child for the modern antihero. He is a classical hero from the accomplishment standpoint, setting out to save a city full of people in a situation where no one else might succeeded. And other than his determination to do what he sets his mind on, he is a despicable person from the word go. If I met him in a gas station or convenience store, I would probably get back in the car, lock the doors, and go somewhere else to conduct my business. When I first read Damnation Alley, I hadn’t yet encountered a character quite like him, so the book hit me with the impact of a ton of bricks.
Damnation Alley
The book opens with Tanner on the run from the authorities in California. He is a swastika-wearing member of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle group (this was written back when gang members riding motorcycles were frequently portrayed as a menace, not like today when the average motorcycle rider appears to be a law-abiding citizen old enough to draw social security). Tanner has a long criminal record, but has gained notoriety as one of the only drivers who can successfully navigate the ruins that cover most of the country.
We find Tanner accepting a reward and a pardon, promising to drive across the country to Boston to deliver a vaccine that can cure a plague the Californians already faced. That cross-country trip will be through a stretch of land that is called Damnation Alley. Only one person has ever made the run, and that’s the man who brought news of the plague from Boston. But after agreeing to attempt the trip, Tanner tries to skip out on the job. We cut to Boston, where the city’s ruler is maddened by the constant tolling of bells that announce more deaths. And then Tanner is brought to a staging area where three armored vehicles have been prepared for the trip. He finds the authorities have convinced his brother to partner with him. He tells his brother where he can find some ill-gotten gains buried, and then breaks his ribs so he can’t make the trip. So, unlike the drivers of the other vehicles, Tanner will make the trip without a partner.
On the road, they face freakish weather where even rocks fall from the sky, as well as encountering giant Gila monsters and enormous bats. Zelazny explains that the weather prevents aircraft from flying, which deals with the old “why didn’t they just fly into Mordor?” issue, but doesn’t explain how giant bats are able to thrive. We get a description of the vehicles, eight-wheeled, windowless, armored, radiation shielded, with .50 caliber machine guns, grenade launchers, armor-piercing rockets, flamethrowers, and giant knife blades. If giant, tricked-out trucks are proof of manhood, Tanner is the manhood-iest guy on the road. One of the vehicles is destroyed, and Tanner takes its only surviving driver, Greg, as partner in his vehicle. They encounter multiple tornadoes and the second car disappears, never to be seen again. Tanner and Greg make it to Salt Lake City, where they can stop for repairs and resupply, but two out of three vehicles not surviving the ‘safest’ part of the run shows just how nasty the trip will be. At this point, having previously only showed us Tanner from outside his head, Zelazny brings us into the stream-of-consciousness flow of his thoughts that might be mistaken for one of those massive, run-on sentences from James Joyce’s Ulysses.
As Tanner and company make their way across the country, we get glimpses of the hopelessness in Boston, where people face almost certain death. The leader of Boston is despicable, but we also see heroic doctors, young lovers in despair, and we get a fuller sense of the importance of Tanner’s mission. On the road, Tanner faces radioactive ruins, more of those giant bats, and other threats. When Greg gets cold feet and wants to go back, Tanner beats him senseless and ties him up.
I’ll leave my recap there, as I don’t want to spoil the ending. Tanner is a fascinating character, although the deck is a bit stacked in his favor, as while we are told he has a reprehensible past, what we are shown is a tough but determined character whose entire focus is completing his mission. The ruined America, with its storms of gravel, giant mutant monsters, and radiation that stays in the vicinity of bombed cities (despite all those winds) is not scientifically accurate, but is a setting that feels plausible from a poetic or emotional standpoint. The book works very well as an adventure story, and also as a meditation on what heroism means. I particularly liked a scene where Zelazny shows a family of farmers saving Tanner from defeat, underscoring the fact that this horrible world still has some kindness and compassion left in it, and that cruel determination and individualism isn’t always enough to get the job done.
Damnation Alley (the Movie)
I’ve read that Zelazny expanded Damnation Alley to novel length at his agent’s recommendation in order to attract a movie deal. Zelazny reportedly was not happy with the novel version, and he might have saved everyone a lot of disappointment if he hadn’t written it, because the movie does not live up to the original tale in any way, shape, or form. While the first drafts of the movie script resembled the novel, the script as filmed was only loosely inspired by Zelazny’s work.
The movie is set after a nuclear war, and features horrible weather, fierce creatures, a ruined America and some cool armored vehicles—but other than that, it bears little resemblance to the book.
In the film, the plague in Boston does not exist, which immediately removes the heroic quest element that gave the book its power. And Tanner is an Air Force junior officer whose installation survives the war, which removes the “anti-” from the “hero.” Jan-Michael Vincent was a decent action star, but he was no Hell Tanner. The plot that replaced the original lacked its drive and intensity, the special effects were not compelling, and the movie concludes with an implausibly happy ending. The film went through all sorts of behind-the-scenes difficulties which drove up the cost, eventually underwent massive re-editing, and the special effects were problematic. The end result was a disappointing mishmash, the movie was panned by critics, and it went on to be a box-office bust.
Final Thoughts
For a young reader who had not encountered many true antiheroes before, Damnation Alley was an eye-opening experience. Hell Tanner was as repellent as he was compelling. The book had a raw energy, and at times, an almost poetical, allegorical feel. And almost 45 years later, I found it difficult to put down, and read it in large gulps over the course of only two evenings.
And now, I’m interested in your thoughts on either the book or the movie. Also, if anyone’s read both the original shorter version and the novel, I’d enjoy hearing your perspective on the differences between the two. And, as always, if there are other books you’d recommend with post-apocalyptic settings, we can chat about them as well.
Alan Brown has been a science fiction fan for over five decades, especially fiction that deals with science, military matters, exploration and adventure.
Author Roger Zelazny loved to use unlikely characters as protagonists.
Another example: Jack of Shadows, where our lovable rogue is steadily revealed to be less lovable as the book progresses.
Not a bad book if my memory serves me but the movie was awful.
“back when gang members riding motorcycles were frequently portrayed as a menace, not like today when the average motorcycle rider appears to be a law-abiding citizen old enough to draw social security”
Often the same people. In AA there is (or was) a motorcycle group called “The Fifth Chapter”. Back in the early 90’s when I first encountered them out west many of them were ex-Angels, ex-Pagans, ex-Horsemen, and other ex-lowlifes. All with the potential to be thoroughly dangerous and most with prison records. As they’ve grown older they’ve mellowed out. A lot.
I saw the movie in the theater and, despite being a very undiscriminating 12 year old boy, I found it laughable. The effects were bad. Especially to someone who had seen Star Wars multiple times. A couple years later I read the book (the book cover was drawn from the movie) and liked it enough to reread it a couple of times. Haven’t read it in decades though.
@1 Jack of Shadows is another good example of the unlikely hero.
@3 Thanks for those observations on motorcyclists; my knowledge of the community is limited to watching them drive past me on the highway. Regarding the movie, I have read that it was supposed to be released before Star Wars, and the studio execs expected it to be the big sci fi blockbuster of the year, not the film by that young upstart Lucas. Shows what they knew…
This book has been on my radar for a long time. I saw the movie when I was 12 or so, but remember little about it. Mostly I remember Jackie Earle Haley plunking people with rocks and one line in the script when George Preppard tells his passengers that they have enough water for everyone to take one shower a week, “Whether you need it or not.” Oh, and the giant scorpions. I think at the time it reminded me of DC Comics’ Hercules Unbound series (minus the Greek Mythology, of course), which I loved. I also remember being too embarrassed to actually say the word damnation when asking my dad to take me to see it.
Alan, in your description, Tanner sounds like he could be a first cousin to Snake Plisskin.
I smiled to find this entry, some days I feel I’m the only person to remember this story…
I read the short story in The last Defender of Camelot in the mid-late 80s, and the novel at about the same time. Saw the the movie years later. Of course the film was a huge disappointment, the “clean” hero just had no character growth (nor was the whole thing at all interesting). The source stories actually had Hell slowly filling the mold of hero, and even his “saving” of his brother was a misguided attempt a goodness. His attempts to connect with the farm family and final drive shpw this too.
Compare to the graphic novels “Incorruptible” by Mark Waid where a bad bad man decides to to the right thing in a bad bad way. He’s Hell’s spiritual grandson for sure.
Zelazny acknowledged Hunter Thompson’s Hell’s Angel’s as an influence on this one. I agree with him that the original story is better; I believe expanding it was less an artistic than an economic decision. I think Zelazny was a short story writer at heart, but short stories don’t pay the mortgage.
I read the book – and loved it as a young adult back there in the early 1970s despite the scientific inaccuracies – and saw the film, and thought “WTAF??” It was a GREAT book: OK, it taxed the “willing suspension of disbelief” to the limits, but that was what Zelazny did, SO well. I recall it from “The Doors of His Face….” that I read before this, with the hauling up of a beast from Hell on a very plausible mega-fishing rig: he was good at it, and this book (and all his books, save Lord of Light, were too damned short) did it well.
Still have my copy (blue cover) on the shelf!
OMG was that movie terrible. Giant cockroaches! Paul Stanfield! Giant cockroaches eating Paul Stanfield! And that French actress Dominique Something, because 70s scifi love interest, I guess?
But what about the song? By Hawkwind!
‘Driving through the burning hoop of doom
In an eight wheeled anti-radiation tomb’.
Poetry, I tell you.
I have vague memories of watching this movie on cable some Sunday afternoon. It was terrible. The fx were really bad and the story made no sense. I think I watched it for that kid from the Bad News Bears and Hannibal from the A-Team or that guy from Airwolf. I never knew it was based on a book. I’ll have to see witch version I can find.
I re-read it a few years ago (about the time I picked up The Dead Man’s Brother), and enjoyed it, although it looks like I never posted a review. Obviously I originally read it decades ago but like pretty well all of Zelazny’s work it stood the passing of time very well.
Agree that the world-building now comes across as dated, but if you take it in the spirit of the time, it works. Thinking about it, I seem to recall that 2000AD pinched the storyline but did it in reverse (East Coast to West Coast). Yes, The Cursed Earth storyline.
In a manner of speaking, I’ve been inside Damnation Alley, at least that’s how Roger put it to me. I and two college colleagues had the great pleasure of interviewing him for our Science Fiction Radio Show back in 1982. We visited him at his home in Santa Fe and for the interview, he took us back to his very cool writing room, a large house extension that he said had been financed by the book and movie proceeds. He was writing the last volumes of the Amber series at the time and we saw the paper manuscripts for it. I got the distinct impression that he considered Damnation Alley, and especially the funds from the movie adaptation which he also considered pretty dreadful, to simply be a practical way to make some income and not so much his focus in terms of his art.
Fascinating stuff. I loved the book when I read it “back in the day”, don’t recall ever seeing the movie, and enjoy all the reminiscences about the book and movie. Thanks to all.
I don’t think Captain Nemo qualifies as an antihero either. He’s pretty much a straight-up villain in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I think of him as a precursor to a James Bond villain, really – a sociopathic megalomaniac with some cool toys. And he’s more of a Deus Ex Machina in The Mysterious Island (which, I guess is a spoiler, to the extent one can spoil 150 year old novels).
Anyhoo, I never read Damnation Alley but perhaps I was unfairly prejudiced by the movie which, as you note, was not very good. The cockroaches made an impression, but that’s about all I remember of it.
I spoke to Robert Asprin in the late 70s. Hollywood was interested in a few of his books. He said he asked Roger about it & he told him to “take the money & run.”
The movie SHOULD work – on paper. As it stands, it’s just an expanded version of PANIC IN YEAR ZERO and the serous apocalyptic precursor to NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION.
Like @5, my reaction was that Hell Tanner was an obvious spiritual ancestor to Snake Plissken, and I wondered whether he was a direct influence.
According to TV Tropes, Snake is an example of the trope they call Boxed Crook, the bad dude forced to do Something for Someone. They have an extensive list of examples (which includes both Plissken and Tanner). It does seem to me, though, that Plissken and Tanner and their situations are even more similar to each other than any of the other boxed crooks listed. (I don’t know whether to count Marion Snow from “Lockout” as the third of the trio, given that he’s structurally a Snake Plissken retread, given that “Lockout” is “Escape from New York in Spaaaaaaace” … except that he’s a goody-two-shoes with an attitude problem, whereas Plissken and Tanner are authentic anti-heroes).
I’m amused to see that the earliest Boxed Crook on record is apparently Sun Wukong (Monkey) from “The Journey to the West”.
Saw the movie at the drive in. I was about 11 and had a good time.
t is a Hollywood legend now that 20th Century Fox had intended “Damnation Alley” to be its big summer SF blockbuster, with that thing called “Star Wars” being just something for kids at matinee. However, the film had originally been scheduled for release much earlier in 1977, but delays in getting the effects right pushed it into the summer slot. One wonders if the film would have done better and been remembered more fondly if it had in fact come out first.