Take a photo of a barcode or cover
christytidwell 's review for:
Dreamsnake
by Vonda N. McIntyre
In Dreamsnake, Vonda McIntyre tells a captivating and moving story about a healer, Snake, and her quest to find a new dreamsnake after the death of her first, Grass. Along the way, she meets a man, adopts a young girl, travels great distances, and overcomes many hardships, physical and emotional. She proves herself to be honorable, strong, wise, and the kind of character a reader can really care about.
The relationship that develops between Snake and Melissa, the young girl she adopts, is deep and believable enough to have moved me to tears. What's more, so is her relationship with her snakes. I intensely dislike snakes; I am terrified of them, in fact. I am so afraid of snakes that not only will a picture of a snake in a book startle me but that I cannot bring myself to touch even a picture of a snake. However, because of the value the Snake places on her snakes (Mist, Sand, and Grass), I begin to care about the snakes, too. When Grass is killed early in the book, I feel only sadness and loss at the death of this small creature. Creating sympathy for snakes is quite a feat and McIntyre accomplishes it beautifully.
Beyond good storytelling and compelling characters and relationships, McIntyre's novel is interesting because of its focus on biology as well. Snake is immune to her snakes' venom and is able to manipulate their venom to heal others; she also comes from a community of healers that is able to practice cloning and genetic manipulation. Furthermore, the post-nuclear apocalypse setting of Dreamsnakev is only hinted at, for the focus is not on the old technologies or on the "shiny metal machines" that many (e.g., Orson Scott Card) associate with science fiction; the scientific emphasis is instead on biological manipulation. This use of biotechnology will become more important in science fiction in later years, but in 1978 this was fairly groundbreaking.
The relationship that develops between Snake and Melissa, the young girl she adopts, is deep and believable enough to have moved me to tears. What's more, so is her relationship with her snakes. I intensely dislike snakes; I am terrified of them, in fact. I am so afraid of snakes that not only will a picture of a snake in a book startle me but that I cannot bring myself to touch even a picture of a snake. However, because of the value the Snake places on her snakes (Mist, Sand, and Grass), I begin to care about the snakes, too. When Grass is killed early in the book, I feel only sadness and loss at the death of this small creature. Creating sympathy for snakes is quite a feat and McIntyre accomplishes it beautifully.
Beyond good storytelling and compelling characters and relationships, McIntyre's novel is interesting because of its focus on biology as well. Snake is immune to her snakes' venom and is able to manipulate their venom to heal others; she also comes from a community of healers that is able to practice cloning and genetic manipulation. Furthermore, the post-nuclear apocalypse setting of Dreamsnakev is only hinted at, for the focus is not on the old technologies or on the "shiny metal machines" that many (e.g., Orson Scott Card) associate with science fiction; the scientific emphasis is instead on biological manipulation. This use of biotechnology will become more important in science fiction in later years, but in 1978 this was fairly groundbreaking.