Dreamsnake

Snake is a healer in a post-apocalyptic nuclear world. She travels wherever her abilities are required as a member of a select group committed to helping the sick.

Along with her, she carries three lethal reptiles that help her cure patients: a cobra, a rattlesnake, and the dreamsnake, a snake whose hallucinogenic venom eases the dying rather than heals them.

This dreamsnake is precious and uncommon. Following the senseless death of Grass, Snake must travel through dangerous terrain in search of a substitute.

I got to read it from shabd.in

Dreamsnake: A book about a healer named Snake who heals with Snakes. I picked this up basically because it seemed like a really funny concept for a book, and it had won some awards.

Unfortunately this is an entirely earnest presentation of that ridiculous premise. Worse than earnest, it's also extremely linear and contains basically no surprises. It's more of a sketch than a novel, to be honest. The characters are pretty one note and the scifi world is largely unexplored.

It feels kind of like one of those fantasy romance novels from DAW books, but the romance as well is underdeveloped and barely shown.

5 estrellas en imaginar otro tipo de relaciones:
Una utopía feminista igualitaria respecto a las relaciones familiares (que no de sangre), de pareja, profesionales... Especialmente esperanzador cómo se proyectan las relaciones romántico-sexuales y las relaciones de género, libres de todo estereotipos.

4 estrellas en worldbuilding:
No se entra en detalles sino que es únicamente el telón de fondo. Pero el mundo postapocalíptico en el que se ha perdido la tecnología, pero no la medicina y el conocimiento sobre genética, resulta muy interesante y coherente.

1 estrella en cuanto a la trama y su ritmo:
Narrativa deslabazada, con saltos incoherentes y ritmo sincopado.

Like many shorter pieces that are made into novels, this sometimes feels stretched out. The first part, "Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand," which was the original story, is absolutely marvelous, and is totally worth reading; after that, it's up to you.

One of those surprisingly good 70s SF gems. I love its gentleness and emotional depth, its progressive attitudes toward relationships, and the quiet strength of the protagonist. It's a world and a story that seems real somehow, very grounded.

When a book is set in the far future and an apocalyptic even has created a clean break from the past, it's easier for a Sci-Fi book to age.

While it is indeed a products of it's time, there any glaring anachronisms.

We take a journey in a broken world with a broken past. While we are subjected to stereotypes the world as a whole is rich and interesting and the plot isn't simplified and doesn't offer simple solutions.