Dreamsnake
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Cover of first edition (hardcover)
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| Author | Vonda McIntyre |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin |
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Publication date
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1978 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 277 pp |
| Awards | Locus Award for Best Novel (1979) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 3558965 |
| 813/.5/4 | |
| LC Class | PZ4.M1526 Dr PS3563.A3125 |
Dreamsnake is a 1978 science fiction novel written by Vonda N. McIntyre. Dreamsnake won the 1979 Hugo Award, the 1979 Nebula Award, and the 1979 Locus Award. The novel follows a healer on her quest to replace her "dreamsnake", a small snake whose venom is capable of inducing torpor and hallucinations in humans, akin to those produced by drugs such as LSD or heroin. According to the author, the world is Earth, but it is in our post apocalyptic future, scientifically and socially much different from modern Earth. A nuclear war has left vast swathes of the planet too radioactive to support human life, biotechnology is far more advanced than in today's Earth—genetic manipulation of plants and animals is routine, and alternate sex patterns and other-worldly tribalism put in appearances. It is originally based upon a novelette, Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand, for which McIntyre won her first Nebula Award in 1973.
The story opens with Snake, a healer, having been brought into a desert tribe to assist in the healing of a very sick little boy named Stavin. She is dependent upon her snakes for healing purposes and has three: Grass, a small and rare dreamsnake that is used for calming the patient and taking away their pain, Sand, a rattlesnake whose venom is used in making vaccines and healing potions, and Mist, a cobra with the same purpose as Sand but whose venom makes stronger potions.
The desert people are afraid of the snakes and of Snake herself, and when Snake leaves Grass to keep Stavin's dreams sweet through the night while she works on an antidote, they remove Grass, crippling it. Snake guards Mist through the night as the snake creates the antidote, assisted by Arevin. When Snake returns to the boy, the villagers show her the snake and she crushes its head to put it out of its misery. Snake blames herself for the loss of her dreamsnake and loathes having to return and tell her fellow healers of her mistake. It is doubtful she will be able to get another dreamsnake, as they are from another world and the healers have been unable to breed them, and can only occasionally clone them.
Stavin takes the potion and survives, and Snake travels until the next request for her aid comes. Jesse, a horsewoman, was injured in a fall off a horse and has broken her spine. Snake fears Jesse's request for assistance in a painless death, because Grass is gone. Jesse is eventually convinced by her two companions to try going back to the Central city, where she is from, to get help from the ruling family that she was a part of before she shunned them and left. They have more contact with the otherworlders and perhaps more technology that can help her recover.
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