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A review by oleksandr
Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre
4.0
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.