
/
RSS Feed
Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny
Show Notes
Intro 00:07
Synopsis 00:56
Themes and Games 12:00 (Ribbon Drive, Witch: Road to Lindisfarne, Ultraviolet Grasslands, Deluge, Station Eleven, American Gods)
Further reading 24:33 (the movie, Annihilation, Roadside Picnic, Into the Badlands, Kiteworld)
Other links
Fear of a Black Dragon’s episode on the Ultraviolet Grasslands
Andy Bartlett’s blog post on America and D&D
Music Credits
Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive
Samples: “Is that you or are you you?” from Reappear // “Another version of you” from Thoughtless
One step further than the transformed world is the Dying Earth, like the Dying Earth. Stepping back from that a bit is Dogs in the Vineyard.
In fact, Damnation Alley is not unlike Star Trek. It’s concept was Wagon Train to the Stars. Every week there’s a new encounter and our main iconic characters never change, instead they bring order to the world. They never remember all the new discoveries they made, except occasionally from a previous series.
Vancian episodic adventure like Eyes of the Overworld or Big Planet was definitely in my mind during this episode. Dogs is a good call as well.
Proximity to the apocalyptic event has to be a factor. They covered this well in the Grognard Files Aftermath episode, with the difference between being the generation at the apocalypse vs. 1 generation removed
In that vein, you’ll have to do A Canticle for Lebowitz at some point, Late the Sweet Birds Sang, Oryx and Crake (even if it pretends not to be SF) and Borne which I prefer to it, and at the far end of the scale, Hothouse.
A day after I uploaded I remembered A Canticle For Lebowitz and kicked myself for not mentioning it