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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction
Minor: Child abuse
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
In a post-apocalyptic world, healers have evolved techniques using a combination of nature and the little bit of off-world technology to treat and cure the people left outside the sealed City. Snake is a young healer who has been honored with a special name--her family believes she will make a strong healer and the name Snake has only been given three times before. She has begun her probationary year as a fully equipped healer and makes a trip into the desert with her three medicinal snakes. Two offer ways through their medically changed venom to treat cancers and other diseases. The third, a dreamsnake named Grass, has the ability to give soothing dreams and ease a dying patient's last moments.
A misunderstanding among the desert people results in the death of Grass and leaves Snake crippled in her abilities to fully function as a healer. She dreads returning to the Center and telling her people that she has allowed one of the precious dreamsnakes to be killed. For dreamsnakes are rare and it is difficult to get them to reproduce. She doesn't fear punishment, but she knows that there won't be a replacement for Grass and that she may have to give up her profession. And that would be punishment enough.
But then a chance comes to travel to the City where she might find a replacement. The journey will be hard and there are dangers she can't imagine--from the crazies (half-mad from the effects of radiation) to thieves and the storm season is coming bring dangers of its own. Its a risky quest, but one that Snake knows she must take up. She makes friends along the way--helping a mayor's son named Gabriel to start his own journey to find his own path and rescuing a young girl named Melissa from an abusive guardian. If she's successful, she will have proved herself worth of her name.
Dreamsnake was one of the first science fiction novels I read that was written by a woman and which had a strong female protagonist. Snake is a strong, well-rounded character. She is grounded morally and is at her best when relating to others--whether during healing sessions or through other means. Her care and concern for the others she encounters from Arevin and the desert people to Gabriel and Melissa are her strongest characteristics. She is a healer--not just by profession, but in her very nature. And seeing a woman on a quest was a great thing as well. So many quest stories are about men and boys. It was empowering for this preteen to read such a story about such a forceful personality.
I knew this book had made a strong impression on me when I first read it over 30 years ago. When I sat down read it again, it was like I had never left it. I knew what was going to happen next because it came back so clearly. But that didn't spoil this reading at all. It was more like it amplified it. It will sound very mystical (kind of like the "magic" medicinal changing of venom to cures), but it seemed as though I was both reading it as I had before as well as reading it now. I remembered the excitement of discovering a strong female character--strong and yet with flaws; strong enough to learn from her mistakes; strong enough to take responsibility for those mistakes and find a way to make things right. But I also read it with a sense of nostalgia, knowing that I had already read it and felt that way. It was an extraordinary reading experience.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of the review. Thanks.
A misunderstanding among the desert people results in the death of Grass and leaves Snake crippled in her abilities to fully function as a healer. She dreads returning to the Center and telling her people that she has allowed one of the precious dreamsnakes to be killed. For dreamsnakes are rare and it is difficult to get them to reproduce. She doesn't fear punishment, but she knows that there won't be a replacement for Grass and that she may have to give up her profession. And that would be punishment enough.
But then a chance comes to travel to the City where she might find a replacement. The journey will be hard and there are dangers she can't imagine--from the crazies (half-mad from the effects of radiation) to thieves and the storm season is coming bring dangers of its own. Its a risky quest, but one that Snake knows she must take up. She makes friends along the way--helping a mayor's son named Gabriel to start his own journey to find his own path and rescuing a young girl named Melissa from an abusive guardian. If she's successful, she will have proved herself worth of her name.
Dreamsnake was one of the first science fiction novels I read that was written by a woman and which had a strong female protagonist. Snake is a strong, well-rounded character. She is grounded morally and is at her best when relating to others--whether during healing sessions or through other means. Her care and concern for the others she encounters from Arevin and the desert people to Gabriel and Melissa are her strongest characteristics. She is a healer--not just by profession, but in her very nature. And seeing a woman on a quest was a great thing as well. So many quest stories are about men and boys. It was empowering for this preteen to read such a story about such a forceful personality.
I knew this book had made a strong impression on me when I first read it over 30 years ago. When I sat down read it again, it was like I had never left it. I knew what was going to happen next because it came back so clearly. But that didn't spoil this reading at all. It was more like it amplified it. It will sound very mystical (kind of like the "magic" medicinal changing of venom to cures), but it seemed as though I was both reading it as I had before as well as reading it now. I remembered the excitement of discovering a strong female character--strong and yet with flaws; strong enough to learn from her mistakes; strong enough to take responsibility for those mistakes and find a way to make things right. But I also read it with a sense of nostalgia, knowing that I had already read it and felt that way. It was an extraordinary reading experience.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of the review. Thanks.
Only thing keeping it from a full five is the sometimes strange writing style. Old fashioned almost.
adventurous
challenging
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Neat tale of a woman traveling across a far-future post-apocalyptic earth, healing others with the help of her snakes while searching for an alien snake to assist her, and finding more people to help along the way. Adventuresome, but quiet, with some interesting hints at the wider world that go unanswered as the story unfolds. Really enjoyed the (somewhat groundbreaking at the time, apparently) feminist reworking of the hero's journey, where conflict is solved by caring and healing rather than combat.
This is a SF post-apoc (?) novel, which reads at times like fantasy. It won Nebula, Locus and Hugo Award in 1979. I read as a Buddy read November 2019 in SciFi and Fantasy Book Club group.
This is a classic SF adventure/quest across the world, unknown to the reader with hints misunderstood by the narrator, which ought to end-up with finding the Grail. The protagonist is a woman-healer called Snake. She wonders across the world helping people with her three serpents: an albino cobra Mist, a rattlesnake Sand and extraterrestrial Dreamsnake that works as opiate/ether. This is maybe the early example of biopunk, but without prominent punkish elements: the serpents a bio-engineered to produce a broad range of serums and antibodies.
The first chapter of the book is actually a Nebula-winning novelette by the author, entitled "Of Mist, And Grass, And Sand," and is considerably denser than the rest of the story. Some elements of the story are ‘pure’ 70s with free sex (even with minors), feminism (a lot of persons in power are women), drugs… the quest maybe a bit simplistic by today’s standards but there is a beauty in this, esp. if the reader knows a lot of 60-70s SF.
This is a classic SF adventure/quest across the world, unknown to the reader with hints misunderstood by the narrator, which ought to end-up with finding the Grail. The protagonist is a woman-healer called Snake. She wonders across the world helping people with her three serpents: an albino cobra Mist, a rattlesnake Sand and extraterrestrial Dreamsnake that works as opiate/ether. This is maybe the early example of biopunk, but without prominent punkish elements: the serpents a bio-engineered to produce a broad range of serums and antibodies.
The first chapter of the book is actually a Nebula-winning novelette by the author, entitled "Of Mist, And Grass, And Sand," and is considerably denser than the rest of the story. Some elements of the story are ‘pure’ 70s with free sex (even with minors), feminism (a lot of persons in power are women), drugs… the quest maybe a bit simplistic by today’s standards but there is a beauty in this, esp. if the reader knows a lot of 60-70s SF.
This is a SF post-apoc (?) novel, which reads at times like fantasy. It won Nebula, Locus and Hugo Award in 1979. I read as a Buddy read November 2019 in SciFi and Fantasy Book Club group.
This is a classic SF adventure/quest across the world, unknown to the reader with hints misunderstood by the narrator, which ought to end-up with finding the Grail. The protagonist is a woman-healer called Snake. She wonders across the world helping people with her three serpents: an albino cobra Mist, a rattlesnake Sand and extraterrestrial Dreamsnake that works as opiate/ether. This is maybe the early example of biopunk, but without prominent punkish elements: the serpents a bio-engineered to produce a broad range of serums and antibodies.
The first chapter of the book is actually a Nebula-winning novelette by the author, entitled "Of Mist, And Grass, And Sand," and is considerably denser than the rest of the story. Some elements of the story are ‘pure’ 70s with free sex (even with minors), feminism (a lot of persons in power are women), drugs… the quest maybe a bit simplistic by today’s standards but there is a beauty in this, esp. if the reader knows a lot of 60-70s SF.
This is a classic SF adventure/quest across the world, unknown to the reader with hints misunderstood by the narrator, which ought to end-up with finding the Grail. The protagonist is a woman-healer called Snake. She wonders across the world helping people with her three serpents: an albino cobra Mist, a rattlesnake Sand and extraterrestrial Dreamsnake that works as opiate/ether. This is maybe the early example of biopunk, but without prominent punkish elements: the serpents a bio-engineered to produce a broad range of serums and antibodies.
The first chapter of the book is actually a Nebula-winning novelette by the author, entitled "Of Mist, And Grass, And Sand," and is considerably denser than the rest of the story. Some elements of the story are ‘pure’ 70s with free sex (even with minors), feminism (a lot of persons in power are women), drugs… the quest maybe a bit simplistic by today’s standards but there is a beauty in this, esp. if the reader knows a lot of 60-70s SF.
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix