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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
This book doesn't have an epic end-of-the-world stakes, a chosen one, or a dark lord, but has up its sleeve some adventure and the found-family trope set in a world that feels lived-in. The protagonist Snake is one of the best written females I've read. She's caring, compassionate, makes genuine mistakes that have consequences, and has agency. Though the romance felt a bit rushed, the book has a fairly small but empathetic cast of supporting characters. I especially liked Melissa, Grum, and Gabriel who act as foils for different themes. If you enjoy a low-stakes character-driven story, this one shouldn't be missed.
adventurous
medium-paced
Mostly excellent, although the final third of the book is fairly unsatisfying.
One of those SF books I've been long aware of but have never got around to, Dreamsnake is the tale of a woman called Snake, a healer who travels a blasted, post-apocalyptic landscape offering her services where they are needed, partly via means of genetically engineered serpents which can synthesise cures to ailments and then inject them by biting the patients. When the rarest of her three snakes is killed she sets out to redeem herself for what she sees as an irreplaceable loss that she has caused.
The world is well rendered, the apocalypse there as a fact, some indefinable time in the (distant?) past, complete with areas of deadly radiation and strange (alien?) plants and humanity scattered into tribes with their own traditions and cultures that warily trade with each other via wandering caravans. It feels small, this world, with travel only possible on foot or horseback and, while there is a definite sense of danger, most of the world seems to have settled into a relatively safe equilibrium. One where the young woman snake feels that she can travel alone in safety, protected only by the regard people have for her profession. While we do realise that Snake is somewhat naive, this is certainly not [b:The Road|6288|The Road|Cormac McCarthy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320606344s/6288.jpg|3355573], or even [b:A Canticle for Leibowitz|164154|A Canticle for Leibowitz (St. Leibowitz, #1)|Walter M. Miller Jr.|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329408540s/164154.jpg|250975]. The people we see generally cope well, in small communities, with their agrarian or small-town lives. I'm sure this could be criticised as overly optimistic, although we have no idea how long humanity has had to settle into this after the devastation, and we do see an example later on of those who have coped less well.
What McIntyre does very well is her characters, which are drawn vividly with economy and grace (a good description of her writing overall, in fact, which is sometimes quite beautiful) and the lack of explication - she mentions several times 'forever trees', only stating toward the end when the characters are looking for firewood that there were marks where someone had foolishly tried to hack into their iron-hard trunks; the way that people are trained to control their fertility; the apocalypse itself - all mentioned in the manner of things that people know and take for granted.
Just as I was starting this book I happened to hear an interview with [a:William Gibson|9226|William Gibson|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1373826214p2/9226.jpg] (on the Inquiring Minds podcast) where he mentioned that when he tried to get back into reading SF he found much of it disappointing, with the exception of the branch of feminist SF in the 1970s - [a:Octavia Butler|8302480|Octavia Butler|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1407500795p2/8302480.jpg], [a:Ursula K. Le Guin|874602|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1244291425p2/874602.jpg], [a:Joanna Russ|52310|Joanna Russ|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1218217927p2/52310.jpg] - and I think that I would place Dreamsnake in there, although perhaps it stands out as less obviously so than some other works.
The world is well rendered, the apocalypse there as a fact, some indefinable time in the (distant?) past, complete with areas of deadly radiation and strange (alien?) plants and humanity scattered into tribes with their own traditions and cultures that warily trade with each other via wandering caravans. It feels small, this world, with travel only possible on foot or horseback and, while there is a definite sense of danger, most of the world seems to have settled into a relatively safe equilibrium. One where the young woman snake feels that she can travel alone in safety, protected only by the regard people have for her profession. While we do realise that Snake is somewhat naive, this is certainly not [b:The Road|6288|The Road|Cormac McCarthy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320606344s/6288.jpg|3355573], or even [b:A Canticle for Leibowitz|164154|A Canticle for Leibowitz (St. Leibowitz, #1)|Walter M. Miller Jr.|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329408540s/164154.jpg|250975]. The people we see generally cope well, in small communities, with their agrarian or small-town lives. I'm sure this could be criticised as overly optimistic, although we have no idea how long humanity has had to settle into this after the devastation, and we do see an example later on of those who have coped less well.
What McIntyre does very well is her characters, which are drawn vividly with economy and grace (a good description of her writing overall, in fact, which is sometimes quite beautiful) and the lack of explication - she mentions several times 'forever trees', only stating toward the end when the characters are looking for firewood that there were marks where someone had foolishly tried to hack into their iron-hard trunks; the way that people are trained to control their fertility; the apocalypse itself - all mentioned in the manner of things that people know and take for granted.
Just as I was starting this book I happened to hear an interview with [a:William Gibson|9226|William Gibson|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1373826214p2/9226.jpg] (on the Inquiring Minds podcast) where he mentioned that when he tried to get back into reading SF he found much of it disappointing, with the exception of the branch of feminist SF in the 1970s - [a:Octavia Butler|8302480|Octavia Butler|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1407500795p2/8302480.jpg], [a:Ursula K. Le Guin|874602|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1244291425p2/874602.jpg], [a:Joanna Russ|52310|Joanna Russ|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1218217927p2/52310.jpg] - and I think that I would place Dreamsnake in there, although perhaps it stands out as less obviously so than some other works.
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
mysterious
http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/sf/dream.htm[return][return]The first chapter, originally published as "Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand" won a 1973 Nebula in its own right for Best Novelette. That must make it the only text to have won either Hugo or Nebula twice, once on first publication and again on inclusion in the longer work.[return][return]Dreamsnake is the story of a healer called Snake, who heals people with the serum of genetically modified snakes. In the first chapter she loses her dreamsnake, a rare and almost irreplaceable creature. The rest of the book has her wandering through desert settings and towns to try and find a replacement, adopting Melissa, a girl who has suffered mutilation and sexual abuse, being ejected by the hi-tech city called Centre, and finally discovering the secret of the dreamsnakes while evading enslavement by a bad guy. She is rescued at the end by a bloke called Arevin who she met in the first chapter.[return][return]The setting of Dreamsnake is quite remarkable. Most readers pick up on the fact that it is a depopulated Earth many years after an almost forgotten nuclear holocaust. However, much more important is that the big issues of human sexuality have been almost completely sorted out (see Janice Dawley's comments on the feministsf mailing list). Both men and women can control their own fertility by "biocontrol"; polyamorous relationships are accepted as everyday; women are leaders of desert tribes (though men seem to be in control in the few towns). The gender of one character is left completely unspecified, leading some readers to conclude that he/she must be a hermaphrodite. I don't think this is the case, since such individuals are not mentioned elsewhere in the novel (compare the direct way in which Ursula Le Guin and Lois McMaster Bujold present this issue); instead I agree with Le Guin that the author is challenging the reader to ask why we need to know Merideth's gender in the first place.[return][return]This could have been a utopian setting, in which the author preached the superiority of a world where women are not oppressed. However it is not. Snake has to deal with superstition, radiation poisoning, crime, child abuse, drug abuse, abuse of power and above all disease as she travels across the blasted heaths of her world. The bad guys do tend to be men but so are some of the good guys. The most utopian aspect is the low-tech environment, compensated for by the advanced biological techniques of the healers who are in harmony with nature.[return][return]This novel has one great character and many great ideas - Ethan Merritt, in response to an uncharacteristically negative review by Steve Parker, called Dreamsnake "one of the best works of biological SF ever written", and he may well be right. My biggest disappointment (shared by James Schellenberg) is that the plot is rather disjointed; you can see the seams. The expedition of Snake and Melissa to the walled city of Centre which appears to be the main thrust of the middle of the book turns out to be a fools' errand. The actual venue for the book's climax has not been signalled at all in advance, so it feels rather as if the author was making it up as she went along. The only bit of the end that has been prefigured is the reappearance of Arevin, who literally rides in to save the day in the last few pages, fatally undermining the feminist themes of the book as he does so. Compare Guy Gavriel Kay's The Lions of Al-Rassan, also about a female healer in a less primitive, more violent environment, which is a much more tightly plotted novel. (Actually I think the two make a good paired reading.)
This is dated in a way that most books around forty years old are dated but the setting and ideas are presented competently enough that it doesn’t really matter. It’s about a healer, Snake, who travels with three gengineered snakes that help her practice medicine. One of them is killed and she must find a replacement for it. It sounds like a standard quest story and in a lot of ways it is, but what makes it stand out is the easy prose that lulls the reader into thinking they are getting something conventional until they realise that they aren’t. It’s unusual in that it presents a post-apocalyptic society that has achieved a measure of gender parity that was unheard of even in the time it was written. Snake travels through a landscape that threatens her, not as a woman, but as a human being. She is respected and listened to for her achievements and earned status rather than for an accident of birth. But none of this is presented as a major point in the novel: it is an incidental detail in a world in which sexuality is treated as matter-of-factly as any other aspect of life. And in a novel that has so much else going for it - great writing, interesting characters, a world that feels real, a plot that builds up a steady head of steam - some plain old progressiveness feels like the icing on a delicious cake.
I really get a kick out of reading women's sci-fi from earlier eras, in terms of both the genre and feminism. Sometimes it's jarring, because our discourses are so different today, but it's also rewarding, to understand how well our "ancestors" already understood so much of what we often think we invent or newly discover.
This one is not the most illuminating in this regard, but it has its pleasures, such as the casual and implicitly obvious caring about sex education, sexuality, and consent. I was jarred by the inclusion of 12 year olds in that, but I think there is a valid discussion to be had about emerging sexualities and how they exist outside of patriarchy (in other words -- not old men molesting children, but adolescents making informed decisions. Like I said -- jarring. But important.)
It also made me curious why this book swept the SFF awards: It's good, but I don't know if it's that outstanding. I want to know what else was happening in SFF in the late seventies.
The main character, Snake, is awesome. I like the world building. I'm not sure about the pacing.
This one is not the most illuminating in this regard, but it has its pleasures, such as the casual and implicitly obvious caring about sex education, sexuality, and consent. I was jarred by the inclusion of 12 year olds in that, but I think there is a valid discussion to be had about emerging sexualities and how they exist outside of patriarchy (in other words -- not old men molesting children, but adolescents making informed decisions. Like I said -- jarring. But important.)
It also made me curious why this book swept the SFF awards: It's good, but I don't know if it's that outstanding. I want to know what else was happening in SFF in the late seventies.
The main character, Snake, is awesome. I like the world building. I'm not sure about the pacing.
So. The book opened up interestingly enough. I was pretty entertained for the first two thirds or so of the book. Then it kinda plateaued and I set the book down for a bit, but when I picked it back up I wasn't disappointed.
I really liked Snake. I would have actually liked her a little more if she had a little more feistiness. There were so many instances in which I was so annoyed with someone--mainly the crazy--but also Jesse's partners, especially the one who tried to set Snake's serpant loose without her permission and against her advice! and her refusal to lash out in anger or to really reprimand someone bothered me! I wanted these annoying people punished somehow and Snake never satisfies that desire for me. I guess she is just disciplined and self controlled but I think she could've had a little more self preservation and self interest. Selflessness all the time is boring!
I also really liked Melissa. I kept forgetting she was scarred, and I thought she was just so adorable. I loved her fiery temper and fierce loyalty.
Tho I didn't think the story was very action packed and I found the plot to be kind of... Lacking... I still enjoyed the book. It was alright with me just to go along with snake and read about her strange and random encounters. The world that McIntyre created is interesting enough on its own that just being in it was enough to outweigh the poor storyline.
I thought the ending to be...okay. And this is the strange thing about it is that even tho I didn't particularly like certain aspects of the book or think they were done well by McIntyre I still liked the book. I was kind of left wondering a little about the ending, North and his followers and the discovery that the dreamsnakes are being abused and used as a drug. All that happens in the last tiny little section of the book--it's like that is the entire outcome of the book. At least she discovers how to breed dreamsnakes and is able to bring some back home. That WAS after all the real reason for her entire journey--she just acquired them thru different means than she intended.
Some people might not like this book. It does tackle some serious issues, I see some feminism, drug addiction and psychotic behavior, nuclear devastation. But aside from all that--I try not to read novels for the underlying reasons such as those. I read it for the story, and the quality of writing& story telling. I really just liked it. Like I said--I enjoyed just being in that world. I was interested in reading about it, seeing the customs that developed after the implied apocalypse, reading about the way Snake handled her serpents, reading about the different kinds of people in the different parts of the world. I liked the desert setting--since Dune I have had a real fondness for sci fi in a desert setting!!
Anyway, this book won the Hugo and Nebula awards so obviously I am not the only person who likes the book. It's a fairly quick read and while it lags at times, there are sufficient points of interest to get you thru. I often wonder if reading from a women's perspective ever causes a man to like a book less--with this I wondered that often because of the fact that there was very little told from a male perspective and the two main characters (Snake and Melissa) were both female. There was not much...male energy if you get what I mean.
Anyway. In all actuality I view this as worth 3.5 stars but because I liked it enough and REALLY liked Melissa and mostly because there are no halves with this rating system...4 stars it is.
I really liked Snake. I would have actually liked her a little more if she had a little more feistiness. There were so many instances in which I was so annoyed with someone--mainly the crazy--but also Jesse's partners, especially the one who tried to set Snake's serpant loose without her permission and against her advice! and her refusal to lash out in anger or to really reprimand someone bothered me! I wanted these annoying people punished somehow and Snake never satisfies that desire for me. I guess she is just disciplined and self controlled but I think she could've had a little more self preservation and self interest. Selflessness all the time is boring!
I also really liked Melissa. I kept forgetting she was scarred, and I thought she was just so adorable. I loved her fiery temper and fierce loyalty.
Tho I didn't think the story was very action packed and I found the plot to be kind of... Lacking... I still enjoyed the book. It was alright with me just to go along with snake and read about her strange and random encounters. The world that McIntyre created is interesting enough on its own that just being in it was enough to outweigh the poor storyline.
I thought the ending to be...okay. And this is the strange thing about it is that even tho I didn't particularly like certain aspects of the book or think they were done well by McIntyre I still liked the book. I was kind of left wondering a little about the ending, North and his followers and the discovery that the dreamsnakes are being abused and used as a drug. All that happens in the last tiny little section of the book--it's like that is the entire outcome of the book. At least she discovers how to breed dreamsnakes and is able to bring some back home. That WAS after all the real reason for her entire journey--she just acquired them thru different means than she intended.
Some people might not like this book. It does tackle some serious issues, I see some feminism, drug addiction and psychotic behavior, nuclear devastation. But aside from all that--I try not to read novels for the underlying reasons such as those. I read it for the story, and the quality of writing& story telling. I really just liked it. Like I said--I enjoyed just being in that world. I was interested in reading about it, seeing the customs that developed after the implied apocalypse, reading about the way Snake handled her serpents, reading about the different kinds of people in the different parts of the world. I liked the desert setting--since Dune I have had a real fondness for sci fi in a desert setting!!
Anyway, this book won the Hugo and Nebula awards so obviously I am not the only person who likes the book. It's a fairly quick read and while it lags at times, there are sufficient points of interest to get you thru. I often wonder if reading from a women's perspective ever causes a man to like a book less--with this I wondered that often because of the fact that there was very little told from a male perspective and the two main characters (Snake and Melissa) were both female. There was not much...male energy if you get what I mean.
Anyway. In all actuality I view this as worth 3.5 stars but because I liked it enough and REALLY liked Melissa and mostly because there are no halves with this rating system...4 stars it is.
Notes:
Currently on Audible Plus
There's a distinct 80's vibe to the story. For the time, the story was well done but it's a bit simplistic now in plot & characterizations. Another story I would have loved as a kid.
Currently on Audible Plus
There's a distinct 80's vibe to the story. For the time, the story was well done but it's a bit simplistic now in plot & characterizations. Another story I would have loved as a kid.