DAMNATION ALLEY, A NOVEL BY ROGER ZELAZNY (BOOK REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATION)

 Today I shall review Damnation Alley, a science fiction novel by Roger Zelazny. Originally envisioned and published as a novella in 1967, Damnation Alley was republished as a novel in 1969. Now, I haven't read the original novella so I cannot compare the two, but I did a bit of research before I started writing this review. What I found is that Zelazny decided to turn his novella into the novel Damnation Alley only on insistence from his publisher. It seemed Zelazny wasn't completely satisfied with it and preferred the novella.  As I said, I haven't read the original novella so I really cannot compare. Having read Damnation Alley in its novel form, however, I can say that it seemed to lack something. What exactly that would be, I cannot put my finger on with certainly. I can list my subjective opinion upon different aspects of this novel and that is exactly what I shall do in this review.

What were my thoughts intentionally?

I was a bit surprised going into the novel because the writing seemed a bit different. It wasn't just the protagonist (I'll get into that later), but the tone of the novel as well. It's a bit more 'raw' and 'energetic' as opposed to 'elegant' and 'melancholy'. The setting of the novel in an apocalypse future isn't what sets its apart from other Zelanzy's novel, it's more the energy of this particular book. I'm even temped to describe it as a  peculiar mix between The Clockwork Orange and On The Road. I thought of The White Plague as a well, albeit that novel doesn't have that much in common with this one, apart from the plague.  Damnation Alley was written long before Mad Max was filmed, but if you have seen that film, you might get the idea of the kind of energy this novel has. Speaking of films, it might interest you to know there is an adaptation of this novel. I haven't seen it, though. 

“Something big and batlike swooped through the tunnel of his lights and was gone. He ignored its passage. Five minutes later it made a second pass, this time much closer, and he fired a magnesium flare. A black shape, perhaps forty feet across, was illuminated, and he gave it two five-second bursts from the fifty-calibers. It fell to the ground and did not return again. To the squares, this was Damnation Alley. To Hell Tanner, this was still the parking lot.”
 Roger Zelazny, Damnation Alley

Quoted from Wikipedia: The story opens in a post-apocalyptic Southern California, in a hellish world shattered by nuclear war thirty years before. Several police states have emerged in remaining areas of the former United States that can still support human life. As a result of the war, hurricane-force winds above 500 ft (150 m) prevent any sort of air travel from one state to the next. Sudden, violent, and unpredictable "garbage storms," and giant, mutated animals make day-to-day life treacherous.

Hell Tanner, an imprisoned Hells Angels member, is offered a full pardon for his crimes in exchange for taking on a suicide mission: a precarious drive through Damnation Alley, a narrow passage relatively free of lethal radiation, across a ruined America from Los Angeles to Boston, as part of a convoy of three Landmaster vehicles attempting to deliver an urgently needed plague vaccine to survivors.

I was intrigued to learn that the novel had a protagonist that was not just a tough guy but a (sort of) bad guy. Hell Tanner (what a name) is a criminal and a murderer. He is not exactly a villain but he is not that far off. I mean there are layers to him, but he is definitely not a hero. Most Zelazny's protagonists are Byronic heroes, they as most people, have good and bad in them, meaning there are layers to them. However, Hell Tanner is the first Zelazny's protagonist that I can think of that is a murderer and a criminal. 

From the text it is also possible to conclude that Hell Tanner is a member of Hell Angels. 

I found the novel quite interesting. The apocalyptic scenery Tanner drives wasn't hard to believe. The giant mutated beasts weren't especially interesting themselves nor his encounters with them. What was interesting was Tanner's interaction with other characters, the choices he and they make.

As the novel progresses, one warms to Tanner. Nevertheless, the novel doesn't really round up Tanner's character development. It is more hinted on, than anything. The plot was alright, but it wasn't that grabbing. The ending made sense.  

“No airplane could make it. Not since the war. None could venture above a couple hundred feet, the place where the winds began. The winds: the mighty winds that circled the globe, tearing off the tops of mountains and sequoia trees, wrecked buildings, gathered up birds, bats, insects, and anything else that moved, up into the dead belt; the winds that swirled about the world, lacing the skies with dark lines of debris, occasionally meeting, merging, clashing, dropping tons of rubbish wherever they came together and formed too great a mass. Air transportation was definitely out, to anywhere in the world, for these winds circled, and they never ceased. Not in all the twenty-five years of Tanner’s memory had they let up. ”
 Roger Zelazny, Damnation Alley

Generally speaking, I can say that this novel feels different from his other works but it is not necessarily different in a bad way. In some ways, it was refreshing to read something not so much in accordance with Zelanzy writing style. However, there are some  Damnation Alley might not be Zelanzy's best work, but it is still worth a recommendation. I'm certainly happy I had the chance to read this one. It was something different!