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kbhenrickson's review
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This was better than I expected. The setting is very interesting - I’d love to have learned more about the world - and I really liked the characters of Snake and Melissa (and Snake’s relationship with her actual snakes). While I didn’t love the ending, I was really glad that Snake was able to save herself and Melissa, and the male “love interest” character didn’t show up at the last minute to save the day, even though he was there to help them after.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, and Child abuse
Minor: Rape
hank's review against another edition
3.0
As others have said, 70's through and through although don't ask me to explain what that means, mostly dialog and what I think of as flatness of world building.
An interesting start trying to figure out who and what Snake is and then it morphs into a sort of traveling adventure story like Gulliver's Travels or The Wizard of Oz. In fact there is a fairly blatant homage to The Wizard of Oz in the middle of the book which I will let others find for themselves.
Snake is the kind of person I have tried to grow up to be (still working on it), easy going, easy to forgive slights against herself yet inflexible when she sees a wrong that needs to be corrected.
Nothing was very extraordinary about this book which is why it got an ordinary rating. The plot was very straight forward, the life lessons very unambiguous and simple, the characters un-nuanced. I also don't like fantasies masquerading as sci-fi. Sure this was a post apocalyptic setup with lost science and technology but mostly this was pure fantasy.
Definitely better than most 70's "sci-fi" but I have enjoyed recent novels more.
An interesting start trying to figure out who and what Snake is and then it morphs into a sort of traveling adventure story like Gulliver's Travels or The Wizard of Oz. In fact there is a fairly blatant homage to The Wizard of Oz in the middle of the book which I will let others find for themselves.
Snake is the kind of person I have tried to grow up to be (still working on it), easy going, easy to forgive slights against herself yet inflexible when she sees a wrong that needs to be corrected.
Nothing was very extraordinary about this book which is why it got an ordinary rating. The plot was very straight forward, the life lessons very unambiguous and simple, the characters un-nuanced. I also don't like fantasies masquerading as sci-fi. Sure this was a post apocalyptic setup with lost science and technology but mostly this was pure fantasy.
Definitely better than most 70's "sci-fi" but I have enjoyed recent novels more.
suzemo's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars, but if I had read it when I was younger (and I wish I had), it would be a 5 star book to me.
Snake is a healer on a post-apocalyptic Earth, off on her proving tour through the desert-lands, where healers typically do not travel. Along the way she has a mishap and she must then travel (first to her home, but then to a big City) do her best to right what has happened. Along the way she has a greater journey to a discovery that will (probably) forever benefit the healers in the future, and also makes personal gains.
The book is a bit dated, with flavors of the time period when it was written. Free sexuality (and total internal birth control)and less patriarchal norms is something that was probably more interesting at the time. However, it's still a good novel with a good story; McIntyre shows that a sci-fi fantasy novel doesn't need to be 700 pages and describe everything in painful detail to be good.
I like that in this post-apocalyptic world, there's a mix of primitive tribalism and hard-living survival right along with genetic manipulation and biotechnology that's commonplace. You get a glimpse of a city that is technologically advanced, but forbidden to "outsiders" and you hear of off-worlders (whether they are pre-apocalypse terrans that made it to the stars or aliens is unclear), so the world is varied and interesting.
I guess some people would want to have a lot of their questions answered (what happened to Earth to cause the nuclear war that has so scarred the land, how have these different people formed, what's with the domes and the "alien" life forms in them, what's with the City, what's with the offworlders, how did the technology become dispersed, what was the pre-war/nuclear world like, etc.), but I quite enjoyed the glimpse into this world as an observer with Snake on her journey.
Snake is a healer on a post-apocalyptic Earth, off on her proving tour through the desert-lands, where healers typically do not travel. Along the way she has a mishap and she must then travel (first to her home, but then to a big City) do her best to right what has happened. Along the way she has a greater journey to a discovery that will (probably) forever benefit the healers in the future, and also makes personal gains.
The book is a bit dated, with flavors of the time period when it was written. Free sexuality (and total internal birth control)and less patriarchal norms is something that was probably more interesting at the time. However, it's still a good novel with a good story; McIntyre shows that a sci-fi fantasy novel doesn't need to be 700 pages and describe everything in painful detail to be good.
I like that in this post-apocalyptic world, there's a mix of primitive tribalism and hard-living survival right along with genetic manipulation and biotechnology that's commonplace. You get a glimpse of a city that is technologically advanced, but forbidden to "outsiders" and you hear of off-worlders (whether they are pre-apocalypse terrans that made it to the stars or aliens is unclear), so the world is varied and interesting.
I guess some people would want to have a lot of their questions answered (what happened to Earth to cause the nuclear war that has so scarred the land, how have these different people formed, what's with the domes and the "alien" life forms in them, what's with the City, what's with the offworlders, how did the technology become dispersed, what was the pre-war/nuclear world like, etc.), but I quite enjoyed the glimpse into this world as an observer with Snake on her journey.
kathrinpassig's review against another edition
3.0
Ich habe erst nach dem Lesen gemerkt, dass es ein Buch aus den 1970er Jahren ist. Manches hat mich gestört, die postapokalyptische Welt überzeugt mich nicht (alle üben irgendwelche mittelalterlichen Berufe aus, aber es gibt Solarzellen und Genmanipulation), die Dialoge sind wie von Zehnjährigen geschrieben, der Endgegner und der Kampf mit ihm wirken im Vergleich zum Rest lustlos und eilig hingeschrieben. Aber es war schön, zur Abwechslung mal ein Buch zu lesen, in dem die Protagonistin hauptsächlich ihrem Beruf nachgeht und dabei erwachsen handelt, durchdachte Entscheidungen trifft und sich extrem um Höflichkeit und Rücksichtnahme bemüht.
Ich muss ein paar Wochen später noch ergänzen, dass eine Stelle drin war, an die ich oft und bewundernd denke. Etwa in der Mitte des Buchs passieren zwei Dinge: Snake kommt an das Tor einer wichtigen Stadt und wird abgewiesen. Sie sucht in einer nahen Höhle Schutz vor dem Sturm und beobachtet ein großes Tier, das in einem Felsspalt am Ende der Höhle verschwindet. Und danach passiert das, was jetzt passieren muss, einfach überhaupt nicht.
Ich muss ein paar Wochen später noch ergänzen, dass eine Stelle drin war, an die ich oft und bewundernd denke. Etwa in der Mitte des Buchs passieren zwei Dinge: Snake kommt an das Tor einer wichtigen Stadt und wird abgewiesen. Sie sucht in einer nahen Höhle Schutz vor dem Sturm und beobachtet ein großes Tier, das in einem Felsspalt am Ende der Höhle verschwindet. Und danach passiert das, was jetzt passieren muss, einfach überhaupt nicht.
matthewbrand's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this story! Such a unique story and a surreal feel to it. Describing the plot, it sounds kind of stupid. But the story is more just about a great character that is Snake. I love that they don't fully explain everything. Just get some glimpses into the world.
blairconrad's review against another edition
3.0
Started strong, I thought, but ultimately introduced a few concepts and plot threads that didn't go anywhere, weakening the story. I wanted either more time to develop them, or for them to not have been teased.
lauralauralaura's review against another edition
4.0
I resisted the hell out of reading this book, because the cover art for every edition is corny as hell. And then I really enjoyed this heroes journey; the world building hangs together, the character development (mostly) makes sense, with people making choices that are, on the surface, irrational, and that deeply connect to the values they have. I will read more by this author.
hagbard_celine's review against another edition
4.0
This book has everything. Snake healing! Giant albino villains! Radioactive wastelands!
kynan's review against another edition
3.0
I picked up Dreamsnake when news of the death of its author, Vonda Neel McIntyre, reached me. I had not heard of her but the fact that this novel won a Hugo, Locus AND Nebula award back in the late 70's made me keen to check it out.
Dreamsnake tells the story of the healer "Snake" (there's a reason, albeit not a great one, that she's named that) as she roams post-nuclear-apocalypse Earth somewhen in the far future. The future of Dreamsnake is a similar one to the Star Wars future, wherein lies super-duper advanced technology that can turn snakes into gene-scanning bio-replicators and people do manual genesplicing with microscopes but, at the same time, everyone gets around on horses and spends a bunch of time herding animals in the desert and not being entirely sure how to rise beyond the basic blacksmithing level. It's not the most terrible thing in the world, but I found it a little distracting at times.
Anyway, Snake's been trained up as a healer, equipped with a set of the aforementioned scanner-snakes and is out on-duty, healing all those who require healing. She's out in the desert and attempts to help out a sick child but, whilst dealing with the child, someone with a bit of a snake phobia (that's called ophiophobia it turns out) feels the need to kill the anaesthetic snake, Grass, who was left looking after the child and thus Snake the human becomes a crippled healer, Grass the snake becomes dead and our story kicks off.
Snake goes on a massive guilt-trip about being Grass being killed whilst in her custody because, apart from being a requisite third of the traditional healer triptych of snakes, Grass was also a very rare type of snake the loss of which could lead to the expulsion of Snake from her order. Thus, Snake goes into self-imposed exile whilst trying to work out some way to make amends for the loss of Grass.
What follows is a somewhat whacky set of wanderings through what I felt were somewhat Tolkeinesque landscapes where Snake (the very much good person in this story) proceeds to right all wrongs that she encounters, whilst being a little moody about being 2/3 of a healer.
There's not a whole lot of nuance to the characters: there's Snake, angsty healer and doer of right, doing right to a bunch of naive (or, I feel more likely, realistically-portrayed) villagers turning a blind eye to wrongs that don't directly affect their lives. The right-doing just kinda happens by default as Snake thrashes around attempting to work out how to replace Grass because she's exceptionally even-minded and fair.
Then we have Arevin, the "POW!! You're a love interest character!" whom drops out of the sky at the appropriate time to setup a sub-plot. He's one of the desert dwellers (part of the clan that killed Grass) and who feels that Snake is being overly self-recriminating (correct!) and that his clan is far more to blame than she. He is also instantly besotted with Snake (and vice versa) but there's more angst to this love story and Snake bails on her Grass-replacement adventure while Arevin pines at home...or does he?
There's a pretty big supporting cast after that, but those two are the main plot-bearers, at least until midway through the book when we get a new sub-plot and a couple of characters out of it whom I shan't describe because spoilers.
I found the overall pacing a little bit slow but the last third of the book took a delightfully adventurous and swashbuckling turn as Snake (finally!) takes life by the scruff of the neck and gives it a damn good shake. I was reminded quite a bit of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom actually (which came after this book, just to be clear)!
One other thing to mention, this book was published in 1978 and features a lot of leading female characters, not the least of which is Snake. This doesn't really raise (much) of an eyebrow in these semi-enlightened times but (as confirmed in an interview with Ms McIntyre: https://io9.gizmodo.com/feminism-astronauts-and-riding-sidesaddle-talking-to-30859488) it was very much a thing back then. You can take it in your stride now as just a part of the plot, just another thinking (as opposed to "kill them all") style sci-fi story but if you read enough really old sci-fi then you can see the break from the pattern.
Overall, the story told here is pretty interesting (even if it is a bit circuitous and angsty) and there's a bunch of fun to be had!
Dreamsnake tells the story of the healer "Snake" (there's a reason, albeit not a great one, that she's named that) as she roams post-nuclear-apocalypse Earth somewhen in the far future. The future of Dreamsnake is a similar one to the Star Wars future, wherein lies super-duper advanced technology that can turn snakes into gene-scanning bio-replicators and people do manual genesplicing with microscopes but, at the same time, everyone gets around on horses and spends a bunch of time herding animals in the desert and not being entirely sure how to rise beyond the basic blacksmithing level. It's not the most terrible thing in the world, but I found it a little distracting at times.
Anyway, Snake's been trained up as a healer, equipped with a set of the aforementioned scanner-snakes and is out on-duty, healing all those who require healing. She's out in the desert and attempts to help out a sick child but, whilst dealing with the child, someone with a bit of a snake phobia (that's called ophiophobia it turns out) feels the need to kill the anaesthetic snake, Grass, who was left looking after the child and thus Snake the human becomes a crippled healer, Grass the snake becomes dead and our story kicks off.
Snake goes on a massive guilt-trip about being Grass being killed whilst in her custody because, apart from being a requisite third of the traditional healer triptych of snakes, Grass was also a very rare type of snake the loss of which could lead to the expulsion of Snake from her order. Thus, Snake goes into self-imposed exile whilst trying to work out some way to make amends for the loss of Grass.
What follows is a somewhat whacky set of wanderings through what I felt were somewhat Tolkeinesque landscapes where Snake (the very much good person in this story) proceeds to right all wrongs that she encounters, whilst being a little moody about being 2/3 of a healer.
There's not a whole lot of nuance to the characters: there's Snake, angsty healer and doer of right, doing right to a bunch of naive (or, I feel more likely, realistically-portrayed) villagers turning a blind eye to wrongs that don't directly affect their lives. The right-doing just kinda happens by default as Snake thrashes around attempting to work out how to replace Grass because she's exceptionally even-minded and fair.
Then we have Arevin, the "POW!! You're a love interest character!" whom drops out of the sky at the appropriate time to setup a sub-plot. He's one of the desert dwellers (part of the clan that killed Grass) and who feels that Snake is being overly self-recriminating (correct!) and that his clan is far more to blame than she. He is also instantly besotted with Snake (and vice versa) but there's more angst to this love story and Snake bails on her Grass-replacement adventure while Arevin pines at home...or does he?
There's a pretty big supporting cast after that, but those two are the main plot-bearers, at least until midway through the book when we get a new sub-plot and a couple of characters out of it whom I shan't describe because spoilers.
I found the overall pacing a little bit slow but the last third of the book took a delightfully adventurous and swashbuckling turn as Snake (finally!) takes life by the scruff of the neck and gives it a damn good shake. I was reminded quite a bit of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom actually (which came after this book, just to be clear)!
One other thing to mention, this book was published in 1978 and features a lot of leading female characters, not the least of which is Snake. This doesn't really raise (much) of an eyebrow in these semi-enlightened times but (as confirmed in an interview with Ms McIntyre: https://io9.gizmodo.com/feminism-astronauts-and-riding-sidesaddle-talking-to-30859488) it was very much a thing back then. You can take it in your stride now as just a part of the plot, just another thinking (as opposed to "kill them all") style sci-fi story but if you read enough really old sci-fi then you can see the break from the pattern.
Overall, the story told here is pretty interesting (even if it is a bit circuitous and angsty) and there's a bunch of fun to be had!