Book-To-Movie; Information Wants to Be Free . . . & Frightening

Credit: Pixabay.com

Update: The Alt text for the illustration at the top of this post has had a slight phrase-change as of 7/3/2026. Whereas the phrase used to read as "a gorilla", it has now been changed to "an ape". 

During all of June, I’ve seemed to have been possessed by the Spirit of ’76. I had been staying up nights hunting on internet for and collecting US 250th anniversary  commemorative coins and even some American Bicentennial artifacts from a year that celebrated a revolution while social and cultural revolutions were currently going. This Fourth of July here in the US we’ll be celebrating 250 years of our nation’s freedom, or at least some level of freedom. And, like what the many of the computer hobbyists believed in the 1970s, and to quote a 1984 phrase by Stewart Brand, “information wants to be free.” And it’s because of them that information became free, at least to some extent. It’s way more easily accessible than it used to be. We can fit personal computers in our pockets now (smartphones) and, with them, can channel more information than computers could in the 1970s. 

Yet, like with any technological innovation, personal computer technology can go too far, and so information can also want to be too free. That’s the kind of thing that has caused concern over AI, especially generative AI. It’s also the kind of concern that’s reflected in the techno terror of “Bad Apps”, my soon-to-be-published book of short fiction. I have the latest on “Bad Apps”, particularly in regards to the book’s cover, and, speaking of countercultural computer hobbyists, I have more rebel action in the book and film that this post’s Book-To-Movie covers. So, keep on readin’!

‘Bad Apps’ Update

I selected an illustrator who I thought was going to work out really well to make the book cover for “Bad Apps”, but I think I was wrong. After I sent her the concept sketch, she quoted me a price for her service but it was way higher than had been advertised, and I cannot afford that boost. I explained to her in a chat message on the seller’s platform how it didn’t seem right that she did that. That was two days ago, and she hasn’t gotten back to me yet. So, it looks like she doesn’t want to do business with me because of what I said in the chat. So, I think So, I think I’m going to have to look for someone else.

I’ll be sharing the concept sketch soon in my social media venues--Facebook and Instagram. I’m just not sure when exactly. However, if you want get an idea of what the book cover illustration will look like now, subscribe to my free author’s newsletter, “Night Creatures’ Call”. The latest issue, which released last week, contains the sketch. If you subscribe now, you won’t only see a red, white and blue digital (or what will be a digital) devil, but you’ll also get a free Blue Devil firework! Okay, that last one was a joke. (There’s not even a brand of fireworks by that name, at least not that I know of, and I don’t even do personal fireworks to begin with.) But you will get a free book containing a story that’ll be a blast of a read! 

And now let’s look at the “Book-To-Movie” . . . 

Book-To-Movie: 'Damnation Alley'

Promotion poster for the 1977 movie, "Damnation Alley". Credit: 20th Century Fox/Wikipedia

Like a lot of authors when their books have been adapted to film, Roger Zelazny was not too impressed with the movie adaptation of his book, "Damnation Alley". This seems to be regarding both the novel, and the novella he based it on. Because the movie was so much different than the novel, let alone the novella, I can't blame him. I normally prefer movie adaptations that are faithful to the original prose fiction piece. However, there are some books that were not meant to be adapted to film faithfully and "Damnation Alley", whether the novella or full-length novel, is one of them. 

'Damnation Alley': the Novella

I haven't read the full-length novel of “Damnation Alley”, but I'm sure it's at least nearly as good as the novella, which I have read. I happened to had found the novella in a vintage copy of Zelazny’s 1980 short fiction collection (which I don't think is any longer in print), "The Last Defender of Camelot", by Pocket Books which is a division of Simon and Schuster. So, I'll be reviewing the novella here, and once I read the novel I'll do a separate review of that. The novella was originally published in 1967 in “Galaxy Magazine”.

The story for "Damnation Alley" is that Hell's Angel convict, Hell Tanner, is offered a pardon on the condition that he drives an armoured vehicle, called a Landmaster, from Los Angeles to Boston to deliver a vaccine to plague victims. The "catch" is that, in the book's post-apocalyptic setting, he must drive a route that goes through a wasteland infested with killer storms and giant mutant monsters, all the result of a past nuclear war. The section he must drive through is referred to as Damnation Alley. He is told that others had traveled the route but never returned alive. However, Tanner takes the offer over life in the pen.

In the beginning, Tanner is very hateful. He's cruel to animals. We learn he has a love for Nazi-ism when a swastika tattoo on him is revealed to the reader. He's also raped and murdered. But he changes to a likeable, much more humane, person throughout the wasteland journey. He befriends people along the way who make him see the humanity in the work that he's doing and so he actually becomes more heroic and less anti-heroic as the story develops. 

Besides the character development, another great quality in this novella is the vivid description that Zelazny gives it. This is especially so when he describes the wasteland that Tanner drives through. While the protagonist's character is developed well enough to hold the reader’s interest, there's also plenty of action in "Alley" that does the same. 

'Damnation Alley': The Movie

"Damnation Alley", the movie, was directed by Jack Smight and released in 1977, the same year that George Lucas's very first "Star Wars" film (now known as "Star Wars: A New Hope") released. In fact, if it wasn't for "Star Wars", "Damnation" may have been the blockbuster of that year if not all-time. Although the basic plot is the same as the novella, a lot of major details were changed. First of all, the main protagonist’s mission was changed from delivering a vaccine to a plague-stricken Boston, to a mission of helping a group of post-apocalyptic survivors like himself journey through Damnation Alley to find settlement in Albany, NY where the effects of nuclear war have not been as impacting. 

Most of the characters were changed as well. Besides Tanner’s first name being changed from Hell to Jake, he is not a Hell's Angel (although he does ride a motorcycle) nor is he a convict. In fact, he’s an ex-military officer. He, like many of the other protagonists, is a much more respectable character from the beginning of the movie to the end, and so is more exclusively heroic than anti-heroic. His, as with the other protagonists', character is likeable all the way through but not believable. While the believability of much of Tanner's character in the novella is lost in the movie, it’s still a likeable character.

In a similar way that the novella's description of the wasteland setting is enriched with details, the movie's cinematography captures vivid imagery of that same setting especially by including panoramic views in several shots. The heroes' perils in the drive through Damnation Alley are similar to the ones of the novella with its giant mutant monsters and deadly storms, even though the movie doesn't contain as many encounters with storms as does the book. Still, these dangers are plenty and keep the viewer wanting to continue watching.

The movie is much more simplified and ideal in that we don't get the brutality of the novella. However, this to me is a good thing. If the movie would have followed the novella too closely, it would have been a more bleak and traumatic film instead of the “all-ages”, fun popcorn one that it was. It would have been another "Dirty Harry" movie, which many of the action films of that time were of that type like many of today’s movies. After the darkness that events such as Watergate and the Vietnam War had caused in the '70s, a more optimistic film was needed. Sadly, "Damnation Alley" didn't get the popular credit for that return to cinematic optimism though; "Star Wars" got that. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing but just the way it worked out.

Zalazny's "Damnation Alley" novella is one of the most well-developed action-packed science fiction stories I've read. It both has a well-developed character and entertaining scenes as well. While the movie doesn’t follow the book faithfully, it's still good in its own right. That’s because it tends to play out for a different purpose than the novella: to make a movie fun and not to be taken too seriously.  

Be here Wednesday for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog hop! Have you read Roger Zelazny’s novella or novel, “Damnation Alley”? Have you seen the movie adaptation? 

Until next time . . .