Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #11 February 2015 | Page 31

“It’s a haunting, rich, and tender novel that explores the
human side of science fiction in a manner that’s all too
uncommon. The world it creates is vivid and fascinating,
and Snake is a marvelously well realized character.” —
Roger Zelazny
Dreamsnake follows the journey of a young female
healer in a post dystopian world that has been reduced
to the neolithic and yet has retained technology of a
biologic nature. There is space flight and knowledge of
other worlds, but access to this is curtailed.
Snake depends on three different types of serpents
in order to be a successful healer, without one she is
unable to perform her biological tech based medicine.
Sand is the rattlesnake that has venom for vaccines and
potions, Mist is a cobra with stronger venomous properties than Sand, and finally there’s Grass whose venom
is used as a pain reliever and acts as a hallucinogenic
drug similar to LSD. What makes Grass unique is that
he’s a snake from another world without the ability to
breed (as far as we know) and therefore his kind are
very rare on Earth.
Snake loses her precious dreamsnake during a visit to
a village who have a fear of snakes and thus kill her pet
and tool. When she is called upon to heal another patient, Jesse, who had been injured after a fall from her
horse, Snake is hesitant to help due to her lack of being
able to make a hallucinogen as medicine. Her duty
as a healer overrides her concerns and she heals the
woman as best she can. Jesse is grateful to Snake and
bids her to go to a place known as Central City where
the otherworlders touch down. There she might find
a replacement for her dreamsnake Grass. Snake, Jesse
and a companion set off for the city together.
Not long after the start of their journey, Jesse begins to
sicken. The place that she fell off her horse was a radioactive crater and she has developed radiation poisoning. Snake is unable to cure her of this ailment. Before
Jesses dies, she bequeaths her horse to Snake in the
hope that the horse will be recognized by her people
and Snake will be allowed access into the city despite
Jesse’s absence.

learns that her belongings have been destroyed and her
precious journal has been stolen. This is where we are
introduced to Arevin, the young desert dweller who
had fallen in love with the young healer during a previous meeting. Snake continues her travels and enters
another town where she heals the governor and invites
the governor’s son to her bed. This is where we learn
about some of the strange sexual trainings and odd
tribal practices – the governor’s son failed in a thing
called biocontrol (a biological method of birth control
that is based on training instead of drugs) and because
of this the boy walks around covered in a cloak to hide
his shame. Snake helps him to overcome his failing.
Eventually, Snake reaches her goal of traveling to the
great city, but what she finds there is not what any of
them expect.There is some controversy about this classic science fiction novel. It is one of the first to explore
transgender and to feature a woman protagonist that
is female in outlook instead of a poorly disguised male
character. At the time, the male dominated science
fiction realm was scandalized by this. There are relationships in this book, but the sex is freely given and
somewhat graphic in places. While the story is structured like a classic quest, the outcomes are subtle and
are gained via understanding and teaching instead of
via violence. As a teenage girl reading the book when
it debuted, I admit that it rather blew my mind. At that
age I could not put my finger on why the novel had
such an impact on me both as a reader and as a writer,
but now I see the threads of feminism and new ways
for societi