Story here is pretty straight-forward. Our protagonist needs to transport life saving drug from US West Coast to East Coast. He needs to be hard as nails and capable in order to cross the distance in shortest possible time using a heavily armored and armed vehicle. Reason for such a vehicle, you ask? Well time is (maybe unfortunately not so far) future, world after the thermonuclear war where almost everything is destroyed and glowing in the dark due to the weapons unleashed.

So, when you look at the premise, it does not sound much different than say Snake Plissken or Mad Max stories - it is story of a lone cowboy moving around and helping people in need. And you would be right if it weren't for the fact that our protagonist, Hell Tanner, is everything but a nice guy. Last gang banger, apparently from Hells Angels, lone survivor of the great Raid during which Angels were eliminated he is given an option - help East Coast by transporting the ever needed drug to them or end up and die in jail.

Of course, Hell accepts the mission, tries to evade the actual engagement (start of the novel is something that was copied in the Escape from New York) but eventually accepts the mission and starts the voyage.

Hell is very nasty piece of business, involved with biker gangs from early age and doing some very disturbing things - from murder to smuggling to human trafficking and exploitation. You name it he definitely did it. Clad in leather clothes and missing his biker equipment (much of it neo-Nazi WW2 SS equipment) he is something that would terrify today's PCs. He smokes, he drinks, he is ready to get into fight more on the instinctive level - to make sure everyone around him recognizes him as a killer.

His instinct and knowledge of the road and dangers ahead will greatly help him. But what will change him is the voyage itself.

And this is the thing - this is not just story of the voyage but how voyage changes the man, even someone as dangerous and criminally oriented as Hell. And for me this was unexpected and interesting part of the story. Hell, initially treating everyone else as tool, people he owns nothing to as he likes to say, starts to change as he comes across various people that try to save their humanity and what remains of their society. People ready to help, especially those they see as people able to link these now remote societies with each other and thus enable them to trade, cooperate and try to find the way out of the disaster they found themselves in. This voyage across the Damnation Alley (route through the central US) will change Hell to a degree he did not expect himself. And Hell's internal change follows the actual changes in the environment as he approaches the destination, where he will encounter the greatest challenge on the road, huge nomad biker gangs.

While ending is what one might expect from rough rider, although he attempts to downplay his role, Hell is definitely not the same person from the beginning of the story.

Very interesting, fast paced story. Release I read has no chapters story is split across paragraphs following Hell and those showing devastation caused by plague on the US East Coast. Even without chapter structure story was pretty well paced and kept my attention to the end (I have to admit I thought it would be more disconcerting considering that there are no logical divisions of the story - I was wrong, it worked like a charm here).

Highly recommended to fans of action and adventure, especially fans of SF dystopia like Mad Max and adventures of Snake Plissken, with bigger than life armored vehicles and bikes that pack quite a few surprises. ( )

This short SF novel from 1969 is set in a world ravaged by nuclear war, in which most of the United States has become a hellish wasteland ravaged by giant monsters and winds so high they can rip the tops off of mountains and drop them on your head. Boston, or what remains of it, is now also afflicted by a plague, so they sent a messenger to California, since it survived a a similar plague and is in possession of a treatment. He died on arrival, though. Now California is sending Hell Tanner, the lone survivor of the exterminated California biker gangs and an unrepentantly awful person, on the drive through Damnation Alley to deliver to cure.

All of which sounds incredibly pulpy, but it's elevated by Zelazny's writing, which, indeed, actually gets a little too overwroughly poetic in places. It's an engaging enough read, in any case. Definitely of its time, though: the dialog is very 1969, and the only significant female character is pretty terrible. Even so, it maybe still holds up better than some of its contemporaries. ( )

Read this also back in highschool. There's a movie based on this book. The book was entertaining.
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Hyvin imussaan pitävä huikea ajomatka läpi ydinsodan jälkeisen helvetin... ( )

This book was sitting in the free bin outside of 2nd and Charles and I thought - why not? It looks short. And I really liked Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October. Plus there's just something about a vintage 1969 paperback. These old books used to be everywhere, at every sale and every used book shop. Now they are a bit of rarity.

This is basically non-stop action. We get a little taste of Hell Tanner's character, but it's mostly non-stop action. There's been a nuclear war and the only remaining viable cities are L.A. and Boston. A few others are habitable, but those are the big ones. There's no radio anymore (if it wasn't 1969, I'd say no internet) and planes can no longer fly as the winds are fierce and full of rubbish. The interior of the US is radioactive. There are gila monsters the size of houses (at this point in my description of the setting, my husband Mike laughed out loud), giant spiders the size of people, and all manner of ferocious creatures and equally ferocious human beings. (I think they're wandering around St. Louis with spears.)

The last Hell's Angel on earth, Hell Tanner, must make a run from Los Angeles to Boston to deliver an antivirus for the plague. He's the best there is at driving. If anyone can make it, Tanner will.

There you have it! That's the story! I liked it well enough. You can't say it's boring. It's 1969 so everyone is smoking. (At this point in my narrative, Mike, said - the earth is filled with radiation, it's raining dead fish and garbage, there are giant man-eating gila monsters, and you're worried about smoking? Point taken.)

I found out they made this into a movie in 1977. I'm assuming a B movie? I have no idea, but I have found a copy so I plan on watching it.

This isn't as good as Lonesome October by any means, but I'm interested in reading more of Zelazny.

One last item - this is the author bio by Harlan Ellison on my back cover:

"Roger Zelazny is the reincarnation of Geoffrey Chaucer. Mr. Zelazny was born in London in 1340, and served King Edward on secret missions in Flanders in 1376-7; he also lived under the name of Cyril Tourner for 20 years. He is married and now lives in Baltimore." (Now Mike is like, what???)

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