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Dreamsnake
by Vonda N. McIntyre
1979 Hugo
Award Winner (1978 Nebula Award Winner)
Audiobook
read by Anna Fields
Got it
from: Audible
9h 41m
Why
nuclear war killed off most of the planet and left the landscape with poisonous
pockmarks, no one knows. It has been too
long and anyone who would have known, was killed off anyway. But life has gone on in a kind of worldwide
Wild West.
Despite
the destruction and relative dark ages, a society of healers have developed,
utilizing advanced (even now) medical and scientific techniques and an alien
breed of snakes they call “dreamsnakes”.
In combination with the dreamsnakes, healers use their intimate knowledge
of biology and a method of transforming the poison of snakes like cobras and
rattlers into powerful drugs capable of healing even tumors. Our story begins when the healer “Snake,”
named for her uncanny abilities, in attempting to help a clan living on the
outskirts of civilization neglects her patient and her dreamsnake is killed,
severely impacting her ability to heal and her membership the society of
healers.
The power of mystery
If last
week’s review of Gateway introduced me to the
power of unresolved mystery in SF, Dreamsnake perfected
the craft. How much is known about the
alien plants and animals that have found their way to Earth? Who are the off-worlders? After society’s near-complete destruction,
how did the healers learn such advanced medical techniques? There are just about as many questions as
there are answers in Ds. As unsatisfying
as that can be when McIntyre’s world is so ripe for exploration, it is also
what makes the damn place so intriguing.
Once
Snake’s medicine and her extraordinary abilities were revealed (early in the
book), I anticipated learning more about healers and their snakes. When that didn’t happen I was at first upset
and skeptical. Then, as realized how
terrifying it would be to need the healers for even mundane treatment and not
have the slightest understanding how they did what they did nor the experience
with snakes to stay calm, I truly understood the power of being left in the
dark. Which is to say, I also creeped
the hell out. I’m not scared of snakes
in general. I’ve been around some snakes
(constrictors) but I’m sure if I came across a poisonous one in the wild my
response would be…unbecoming of an adult male.
The point though is that, stories or video of snakes has never bothered me…until
Dreamsnake. I think that deserves a tip of the hat, no?
A word about the audiobook
Normally,
I would want to say more about the text itself but one of the things that made Ds great in my experience was the
reader. Ds
was what you might call a fast-paced slow book – 0ne in which the action is
gripping and the tension oozes from the pages (in this case, from my
speakers). Nothing of that tension was
lost in Anna Fields interpretation. I
thought her tone and pace complemented the text in the way Clint Eastwood
defined the role of the lone vigilante in the American West (“The Man With No
Name” from A Fistful of Dollars
was one of my all-time favorite characters ever). This is to say that every healer/wanderer in
every post nuclear-apocalyptic world is going to be compared to Anna Fields’
reading of Snake. She is the new
standard.
Anna
Fields’ child’s voice, the voice of Melissa, was the best kid’s voice I’ve
heard in an audiobook. Hands down. Other than that, she isn’t one of those
readers that can do completely different voices for each character (at least
she didn’t for Ds), but she did change
her inflection or pitch enough to be satisfying and it complimented the tone of
the book in a way that. Her eerie
reading combined with Snake’s unnerving brand of medicine and the ghastly pain
of a radiation poisoning victim was enough to literally make me stop listening
on two separate occasions. I love gore
and all manner of schlock so that this happened at all was kind of a world
changer for me. Oof.
Recommendation
Was this book
perfect? Certainly not. I thought Ds
began a lot stronger than it ended. For
instance, the moment between Snake and Arevin when they just sat with each
other was just amazing and electrifying for the unspoken something that
passed. I was convinced that Arevin’s
attempt to find Snake and then ill-conceived and unsuccessful attempts to save
her from apparent danger were maybe an allegory for the changing role of women
in society and that Arevin may turn out completely inept or never find
her. Of course this was exciting me to
no end the whole time, but I was pretty disappointed when it turned out
otherwise.
With that
being said, did Ds include everything
that I love about SF? Absolutely! Did I enjoy every second of this book? No question about it!
HEP SCORE
Universe 5/5
Social/Political
Climate 5/5
Dialogue 5/5
Scientific
Wonders 5/5
Characters
5/5
Overall
25/25
The roll of the die...
This
week’s book is Ringworld by Larry Niven.
Next
week’s book is Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
by Kate Wilhelm. After such a great
experience with Dreamsnake, I might go for another audiobook here.
In other news...We moved this week and our internet hasn't been set up yet because apparently Comcast needs to invent a new internet before they can install it. Posts will be light this week but lots of cool stuff will be coming soon...
Incredible HEP score! I need to read this one again.
ReplyDeleteOh, and have a look here. You are quoted :)
ReplyDeletehttp://bookviewcafe.com/bookstore/book/dreamsnake/
Thanks for pointing out the quote. That's pretty neat! This was one of the books that has benefited from my new take on the HEP Score. Those snakes probably wouldn't have gotten very far when I first started scoring Hugos. I'm not sure your take on audiobooks, but this would be one to try if you ever get back to it.
DeleteWOW! you were quoted! Is that on your bucket list?
ReplyDeleteDid you see the company he keeps? Le Guin. Zelazny. Publisher's Weekly! That's bound to be on everybody's bucket list ;)
DeleteI'm not sure I have a bucket list. If I ever make one. I'll add this retroactively for sure!
Delete