Dreamsnake by Vonda Neel McIntyre

First published: 1978

Type of work: Fantasy

Themes: Health and illness, coming-of-age, friendship, science, and sexual issues

Time of work: The twenty-first or twenty-second century, after World War III

Recommended Ages: 15-18

Locale: Unspecified mountains and deserts

Principal Characters:

• Snake, a Healer undergoing her trial year alone, accompanied by her serpents, Mist, Sand, and Grass
• Arevin, a member of the tribe that kills Grass, who loves Snake and seeks to atone for his tribe’s mistake
• The Crazy, who stalks, assaults, and robs Snake and eventually leads to the solution for her problem
• Melissa, a badly scarred and abused child with potential as a Healer, whom Snake adopts
• North, a genetically damaged and mentally unstable giant who abuses a precious cache of dreamsnakes

The Story

Because the plot involves a quest, tests of endurance, and a breaking away from the familiar, if not a literal coming of age, Dreamsnake is a sort of Bildungsroman, set many years after a nuclear holocaust has decimated the earth’s population, causing a schism between the fortified Cities and the rural populace. The protagonist, a girl of about twenty, has completed her Healer’s training except for the obligatory trial year alone; because of her tremendous potential, she has been given the name “Snake.”

Mounted on her tiger-striped pony (genetically engineered to prove her laboratory skills), Snake bears three serpents as her major medical tools: Mist, an albino cobra whose venom can be modified to cure certain illnesses; Sand, a rattler whose venom has different curative powers; and Grass, the rare and delicate dreamsnake whose venom eases pain, calms fears, gives gentle dreams, and facilitates peaceful dying for the incurable.

Snake’s first serious case, healing a child’s deadly tumor, results in tragedy. The boy’s tribe, terrified of serpents, kills the harmless Grass, which Snake has left to reassure the child while she prepares Mist to produce healing venom, an arduous process requiring several hours and the assistance of Arevin, one of the boy’s relatives. Without her dreamsnake, Snake is crippled as a Healer; she cannot ease pain or dying. Despite Arevin’s pleas and her strong attraction to him, Snake departs in despair for her School, facing possible expulsion for losing the vital and irreplaceable dreamsnake.

Sidetracked by assault, robbery, and various requests for aid, Snake befriends and adopts the adolescent Melissa, a scarred and abused orphan with potential as a Healer. Together they set out for the City, where Snake hopes to learn from its advanced technology the secrets of regenerating damaged tissue and of breeding dreamsnakes. Denied entry because the City is sealed against winter storms and because its dwellers fear “mutants” such as Melissa, the two journey toward the Healers’ school, only to be attacked by the Crazy, who has been haunting Snake for several months and who has already ransacked her possessions.

After overpowering the emaciated robber, Snake discovers his obsession: Addicted to dreamsnake venom, he has been cast out by North, the self-proclaimed ruler of a broken-domed City where dreamsnakes abound. Since obtaining a breeding supply would solve her School’s major problem as well as her own dilemma, Snake reluctantly promises the Crazy a dreamsnake of his own if he will lead her to the City. After they arrive, he betrays her to North, who throws Snake and Melissa into a pit teeming with the rare serpents; only Snake’s healer-acquired immunities allow her to save Melissa from becoming addicted.

Staggering from the broken City with the unconscious Melissa and a precious sack of dreamsnakes, Snake is found at last by the frantic Arevin, who has been only a few days behind her on the trail. Now that she can atone for Grass’s death and share her discovery of how to breed the indispensable serpents, Snake can freely admit her love for Arevin and take her place as a full-fledged Healer.

Context

Dreamsnake began as an award-winning short story that incorporated McIntyre’s soon-to-be prominent themes of ecology, feminism, the need for commitment to oneself and to others, and the existence of human imperfections and problems even in a nonsexist society. Like McIntyre’s other novels and short stories, Dreamsnake reflects her scientific training (a degree in biology and graduate study in genetics). Because McIntyre is interested in human foibles, none of the characters in Dreamsnake is a stereotype. None is totally good or totally evil; even the weak, treacherous Crazy and the demented North are deserving of pity. Like several of McIntyre’s other novels (The Exile Waiting, 1976; The Entropy Effect, 1981; Superluminal, 1983), Dreamsnake features a realistic, strong woman protagonist in conflict with her own weaknesses as well as with external factors.

Coming early in McIntyre’s writing career (only The Exile Waiting preceded it), Dreamsnake helped to introduce her use of the journey motif: Snake journeys litterally across mountains and through deserts and caves as she journeys metaphorically toward maturity, competence, and self-knowledge. Later protagonists travel not only across and under the earth but even across the universe, especially in her three Star Trek novels (The Entropy Effect, 1981; Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, 1982; Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock, 1984).

In addition to emphasizing her use of the journey motif, Dreamsnake helped to establish McIntyre’s strong feminist and ecological concerns and her ability to portray realistic conflicts even in science-fiction or fantasy settings. Although Snake’s easy acceptance of her sexuality and of sexual responsibility make the novel more appropriate for older adolescents, Snake’s struggles with “the establishment” (usually including narrow-minded adults), her confrontations with self-doubt, and her sturdy self-reliance strike an answering chord in all adolescent readers.