A review by mjfmjfmjf
Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre

4.0

I remembered liking this and thinking it was one of typically very good Nebula award winners that I had been reading all in a row. But I didn't remember anything else so everything about this felt completely new. And later on reading pretty much everything Vonda McIntyre had written and wishing there was more.

I re-read this now because there will be a panel discussion on Dreamsnake at Sasquan. But after reading a bunch of lousy books it was a nice change to read a really good one. So what's good about this one? The pacing is great - almost no exposition, no intro - and yet you learn about Snake's world on every page. And it is not the same as our world. The technology is different as are the social practices. And each place we go to is different. And the characters are real and different from each other. And the idea of the snakes as med-kit is crazy but rings true. Even the length is a good one - very little padding. And we never do learn if it is an after-the-day or failed colonization or whatever, and it doesn't matter that we don't. Worth reading. 4.5 of 5.