G'day , I checked at
I went to the Museum of British Road Transport in Coventry the day after I bought a BMW to tour Europe on.Staff were great, I have photos of me sitting on Ted Simon's bike, in same condition as the day he brought it in after he returned from his world trip.
A local radio station heard about my planned journey across Eastern Europe and interviewed me on air, live. I still have the tape recording.( Few riders did Eastern Europe in those days.)That was one of the great days in my life, never forgotten.
I have attached the pic of me on Ted's bike (I was younger then, weren't we all).Another pic is a current one of me at home and the other one is me with two of my toys.
More reviews to follow as weeks go by, unless you get bored with them.
–Jaqhama
Ted leaves Britain in 1973 and rides around the world for the next 5 years. On a 500cc Triumph he rides to places most of us only ever dream about. This book has been in print ever since the day it was first published and is generally acknowledged by most world motorcycle travelers to be the inspiration for their journeys. It certainly was for me when I rode around half the world in 1994.
The world was a different place back then and Ted has adventures and misadventures in some of the most inhospitable places. As any traveler will tell you, it’s not the destination it’s the journey that matters, and also the people you meet along the way.
This book shines with Ted’s enthusiasm for riding. It’s hard to finish this novel and not start planning your own world trip. (Luckily I just came back from the USA so I am sated for a few months.)
I could go on and on about “Jupiter’s Travels” but the best thing I can say is–go and buy it. After several readings of it I still enjoy it immensely! You will too.
I believe it’s still printed by Penguin Publications. Any good bookshop will be able to order it for you.
A well written sci-fi novel of a not totally unlikely future.
Sometime in the future?
Hell Tanner is the last of the Hells Angels left alive in California.
As a dubious alternative to life imprisonment he is offered a pardon to drive a radiation proof armoured car from Cali to Boston. Boston has a plague and only Cali still has any anti serum left.
The small problem is that the bit of America that lies between the two states is now a radioactive wasteland full of mutant monsters and savage humans.
What’s so great about this novel is Tanner himself. He’s been locked up for murder, extortion, rape, trading in human slaves, you name it and he’s done it. He’s mean, dirty and has a general dislike of just about everyone he meets. That attitude lasts until the final page. No changing into Mr Nice guy as the story progresses.
The action is fast and furious. More than enough to keep the reader interested.
Whether in the armed to the teeth tank he’s driving, at rest stops along the way or later, on a bike, Tanner is the tough biker outlaw till the very end.
I loved this book when I was a teenager and I still love it today. Dated by modern ideas of sci-fi it nevertheless is one of the few ever written that features a biker outlaw as the main anti hero.
Roger Zelany MUST have ridden bikes when he wrote this.
I have spoken to real Angels who grudgingly admit that Damnation Alley was a great book. Can’t have better praise than that.
I suspect it may be long out of print, but keep an eye out in used bookstores or sites for books online and you may get lucky. There are worst ways to spend a rainy weekend than reading this novel.
Note: The book was made into an absolutely fuckin‚ awful movie in the late 70’s.Starring George Peppard and a young Jan Michael Vincent it had NOTHING to do with the novel in any way shape or form, except the names of the characters and the fact they were driving a weird looking vehicle. Why they even made the movie is a mystery to me. Don’t bother looking it up folks, there are no bikers in it at all, unless you count Vincent on a small trail bike for one short scene.
