Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre

Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Vonda N. McIntyre's Dreamsnake.

The Short of It

Plot: Long after the end of the world as we know it, Snake wanders the world, healing those she meets to the best of her abilities. 

Page Count: 288

Award: 1978 Nebula, 1979 Hugo, and 1979 Locus 

Worth a read: Yes
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Pass
Technobabble: Minimal to moderate.
Review: Less-is-more world building with good execution. A lot of interesting tidbits to keep you wondering what the rules are, who the people are, and so on. Story itself can be slow and stakes are consistently low. "I'm going to a place, surprise! something comes up, I will go to another place along the way." Characters are well written though not particularly complex.

The Medium of It

Spoiler Free!

Let's get a few things out of the way. Yes, the main character is named Snake. Because she has snakes. And one of her snakes is a Dreamsnake. Which is also the title of the book. So yes, a lot of that is pretty lazy, which set my expectations quite low starting this one off.

Unfairly so, as it turns out. It's very good. 

There are a few different approaches an author can take to world building. One is the Le Guin/Tolkien school of extreme detail. If we meet a city council member, the author probably knows her grandmother's favorite color. These books are world-heavy; a lot of detail is given, often through monologues, in-universe books, or the injection of an outsider who needs to have these things explained. Another approach is that of Roger Zelazny's This Immortal - lots is different, but it is not all that important. The world is shifted to fit the plot - we need a giant beast, thus the world has giant beasts. Not much is said of the world; anything that is serves the story.

McIntyre's approach manages to hit a remarkable middle road. Her attention to detail indicates that she is well aware of everything that has happened to her world. Lots of things have changed between our present and the time of Dreamsnake - certainly war, of some kind, at some point, radiation, and much more. But it is not the shotgun approach of Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang. McIntyre successfully walks a tightrope, feeding the reader enough to keep us interested and invested in the world without either A) slapping us silly with information or B) restricting us to one narrow view. She keeps us guessing. I love this approach; she blends the familiar and the unfamiliar in such clever ways that it makes everything both tangible and alien. It's remarkable.

The plot is less so. It feels very much like watching someone play an RPG. We begin with a very simple quest: Snake's Dreamsnake has been killed, and she has to go back to the healers to tell them. Point A, Point B. Of course, someone in between needs help, and off she goes. And someone else does, and what is a healer to do but go help elsewhere. And so on. The issue is that the stakes do not every increase. In Jim Butcher's Dreseden Files, for example, many of the books start with a simple mission; recover an artifact, find a person, do a favor for a friend, and so on. Lo and behold, the artifact is owned by vampires, the person is dead, the friend is being held hostage, and so on. It is eminently predictable - I mean, Scooby Doo uses the same setup - but it succeeds in making the situation dire. That is never the case for Dreamsnake. Many snakes, low stakes, as my grandfather may have once said in some very specific situation. 

All that said, it is serviceable. We are moved around enough to see much of the world, which is essential. We are able to view different groups, different cultures. It works.

Characters are, qualitatively, somewhere between the story and the world building. The two perspective characters are both decent enough. They are not interesting, exactly, but I was still rooting for them. The issue is that everyone who is good is just... that. They are good but with some flaw, almost always a flaw that they think is debilitating but is not. The smart girl who is brilliant with animals is badly burned. The beautiful, kind guy has some reproductive issues. The healer has no Dreamsnake. There is no real depth to anyone. This also makes the love story feel patently ridiculous. A character can say, "We were only together for a few days, how can this truly be love?" But if they then ride out across the desert to find the object of their affection, well, it feels silly.

This one is worth a read for the truly superb world building and the remarkably light touch McIntyre uses to convey a lot of information. Just don't expect to be wowed by the plot or characters.

If you don't mind wincing slightly each time you remember that the main character is named Snake, please use the link below to order the book! I'll get a few cents at no additional cost to you. It's also a pain to get a copy of this; I was lucky enough to have a fan of the blog send me a copy. One link below is the cheaper hardcover option, the other is the cheaper paperback and audiobook.

Hardcover Link!

Paperback/Audiobook Link!

I'm sure that there are other places to get the Ebook, of course, so if that's your thing, go for it!

The Long of It

Spoilers Ahead!

Who the heck are the offworlders? They seem to have snakes that cause some pretty interesting dreams. And they are maybe human. And... that's all we know about them. For some reason, I'm okay with this. It's another bizarre element to this world.

What makes this world work so well is the juxtaposition of the technology and development of the healers with the medieval feel of the world. Snake is out there with vaccines, riding her genetic mutant horse, while on the way to vaccinate scrap gatherers in a rural community. There is little to no technology, but there is clearly knowledge. It's an interesting mix.

I'm torn on the secondary story arc of Arevin's quest to find Snake. It's based on a totally underdeveloped romance that seems utterly unfounded, which is issue enough. More importantly, however, it adds very little to the story or world as a whole, except to show us that Snake is valued by those whom she has helped. Is it worth retreading the same locales for this? I don't know.

Plot trajectory is odd. I would argue that the most out there (and potentially dramatic) plot moment is Snake visiting the city. She interacts with those who have dealings with the offworlders. But it does nothing, really. It's just a lot of trudging around without much payoff, until she literally falls upon a new supply of Dreamsnakes. 

I mentioned earlier that the main characters are pure goodness. Snake is a healer, and of course she is the first one in quite some time to journey to the outlands. Why would she not be an explorer too? She helps a woman come to terms with her pending death, heals an infected wound, helps a guy with his sexual problems, and adopts a girl living in an abusive situation. It's just all good, all the time.

All in all, it's a curious and complex world, which makes it surprising that the characters and plot are flat. Still, an interesting read.

I hope you don't lose your Dreamsnake, Stranger.

And don't forget to read a book!