radiator_phillip's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
reddrabbbit's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
c_morning's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
portlandcat's review against another edition
5.0
One of those great science fiction stories you’ve never heard of. Very well done.
bigenk's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
This story follows a nomadic healer named Snake. She combines her trained knowledge with a trio of rare, trained, genetically modified serpents that augment her abilities. One of these snakes (named Grass), whose venom is used as a pain-revealing and soothing drug, is accidentally killed in a moment of confusion and miscommunication by the parents of one of her patients. Snake subsequently believes that she is not able to help the populace effectively, and travels the fractured landscape in search of another dream snake.
This is perhaps one of the most tender and emotional novels I've read this year, perhaps ever. An immense amount of time is given to detailing the feelings of characters and their relationships. I would give the characterizations high marks here. I felt like I understood and cared for Snake, and a few of the other main characters. Snake is a strong character, and an excellent representation of women in genre fiction. Side characters tended to be pretty much one-dimensional by comparison. I particularly found the ultimate villain at the end to be kinda laughable in his simplicity. Plot definitely takes a backseat to character work.
I also really enjoyed the setting; a dying world in which some sort of cataclysm has befallen earth, so long ago that most knowledge has crept back to medieval levels. I enjoyed the limited suggestions towards the deeper knowledge that Snake has about why her practices work (ex. snake venom being replaced with vaccine), while the populace perceives her with an air of myth and religion. I was rather puzzled at the inclusion of vague references towards an alien influence on the world. It felt shallow, not explored enough to really make it sensical to include.
In terms of actual writing quality, I was torn. The first chapter, which was first published and written as a stand-alone novella several years before the novel, was excellent. It was highly stylized, evocative, and mythical. I really enjoyed that strong sense of voice that McIntyre had. Unfortunately the rest of the book is written in a much more plain and direct style. Sometimes it could even be characterized as boring. I think it tended to fit well with the rest of what McIntyre was trying to do, but I personally could've done with a more complex style.
Dreamsnake struggles with the issue of self-worth and agency. Many of the characters introduced have low self-esteem and feel that they are trapped in their circumstances, that they can do nothing to escape. Snake herself struggles with feelings of inadequacy after Grass is killed, convincing herself that she can't help people anymore, that she must find a new dream snake to be a healer. Yet she shows her competency a every turn, doing everything that she can to help those around her in spite of her own perceived failings. She shows other characters how they can break from their own cycles, that they have value. Much of how this theme is presented reads as young adult fiction to me, even though the literal subject matter can be dark and graphic at times.
I think I enjoyed the first section of Dreamsnake, as Snake travels through the desert, the most. Afterwards it feels a bit more uneven to me, with some pretty boring sections peppering some otherwise enjoyable character work.
This is perhaps one of the most tender and emotional novels I've read this year, perhaps ever. An immense amount of time is given to detailing the feelings of characters and their relationships. I would give the characterizations high marks here. I felt like I understood and cared for Snake, and a few of the other main characters. Snake is a strong character, and an excellent representation of women in genre fiction. Side characters tended to be pretty much one-dimensional by comparison. I particularly found the ultimate villain at the end to be kinda laughable in his simplicity. Plot definitely takes a backseat to character work.
I also really enjoyed the setting; a dying world in which some sort of cataclysm has befallen earth, so long ago that most knowledge has crept back to medieval levels. I enjoyed the limited suggestions towards the deeper knowledge that Snake has about why her practices work (ex. snake venom being replaced with vaccine), while the populace perceives her with an air of myth and religion. I was rather puzzled at the inclusion of vague references towards an alien influence on the world. It felt shallow, not explored enough to really make it sensical to include.
In terms of actual writing quality, I was torn. The first chapter, which was first published and written as a stand-alone novella several years before the novel, was excellent. It was highly stylized, evocative, and mythical. I really enjoyed that strong sense of voice that McIntyre had. Unfortunately the rest of the book is written in a much more plain and direct style. Sometimes it could even be characterized as boring. I think it tended to fit well with the rest of what McIntyre was trying to do, but I personally could've done with a more complex style.
Dreamsnake struggles with the issue of self-worth and agency. Many of the characters introduced have low self-esteem and feel that they are trapped in their circumstances, that they can do nothing to escape. Snake herself struggles with feelings of inadequacy after Grass is killed, convincing herself that she can't help people anymore, that she must find a new dream snake to be a healer. Yet she shows her competency a every turn, doing everything that she can to help those around her in spite of her own perceived failings. She shows other characters how they can break from their own cycles, that they have value. Much of how this theme is presented reads as young adult fiction to me, even though the literal subject matter can be dark and graphic at times.
I think I enjoyed the first section of Dreamsnake, as Snake travels through the desert, the most. Afterwards it feels a bit more uneven to me, with some pretty boring sections peppering some otherwise enjoyable character work.
ojayhartman's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
sunnie's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
greenwillow77's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
clauleesi's review against another edition
3.0
My rating: 3.5
One of my colleagues recommended me this book since it was supposedly a good sci-fi for fantasy lovers. I work in a very nerdy bookstore, so I went immediately to the shelf and looked at it. The premise sounded so intriguing and I opened up to read the first page - a moment later I realised that I had become totally immersed and was actually a few pages in, which is when it landed in my to-buy pile.
One of the things that had me so immersed so quickly is how fascinating and almost mysterious this book is. We have this fascinating character called Snake, a healer who uses different serpents to help people - one of the serpents being an extremely rare alien creature, a dreamsnake named Grass. As she travels around this strange and wrecked world, events has her set on a different quest to figure out more about the dreamsnakes.
Let me just get the main thing I had an issue with out of the way - it is, as a matter of fact, my only complaint but one that I find crucial to any story where the world is not truly ours as we see it today.
'Dreamsnake' lacked worldbuilding. I kept waiting for it to explain if the plot was taking place on our Earth or on an entirely different planet, if it was post-apocalyptic or not, and how it might have ended up like that. We get literally no information at all about this. I think there were something about some places being radioactive, a different people that populated the planet before the people that do now (are they different? No one knows) and also there were supposedly intelligent beings living on other planets. I don't know. The things we do explore are beautiful and made me so curious about the rest, but they're also the mundane and ordinary parts of this world and I needed more backstory, more details and clues to what this world actually was, and how it came to be.
What McIntyre did do well, however, was how well she painted all these different people and cultures living in the places Snake visited. There was still nothing about how these cultures was born, but I found it interesting to read about how different the mountain people could be from the ones living in the desert. Also, everyone's look on sex and sexuality was incredibly refreshing - it was LGBTQ+ friendly and slutshaming was not even on the map. Unfortunately, there was also a lot of things unexplored here; the Dome people are still a complete mystery to me.
Characterwise, this book was very satisfying. Snake was an amazing main character - a confident, powerful and kind woman who often doubted herself but never failed to believe in others. She more often got angry on others behalfs than her own, she was independent but could also feel lonely at times, and also never stopped fighting on despite everything. There wasn't much character development, but only because Snake was such a complete characters straight from the beginning. She wasn't perfect - she could be arrogant and naive, but she was aware of this and fought against her faults and anger. I loved to see her interact with others; her relationship with Melissa was so tender and important, and I would've loved to read more just about Melissa. That girl was fierce and loyal and I just wanted to give her a big hug. Her relationship with Arevin though - that I didn't understand. I felt that their odd instalove had no part in this book and was utterly unnecessary. In my opinion, Arevin was possibly the most dull character of the story.
This book was also very slowpaced, but in a surprisingly comforting and warm way. It wasn't boring, just didn't have any hurrying in getting to where it wanted and when it finally got there, I was once again completely immersed and flew through the pages. A slow, nice burn.
All in all, I very much enjoyed this book and if it had been a series, I would've loved to continue on with it. Unfortunately it isn't, and I can't really look past the poor worldbuilding, especially not since it was a world that I so badly wanted to see explored properly.
One of my colleagues recommended me this book since it was supposedly a good sci-fi for fantasy lovers. I work in a very nerdy bookstore, so I went immediately to the shelf and looked at it. The premise sounded so intriguing and I opened up to read the first page - a moment later I realised that I had become totally immersed and was actually a few pages in, which is when it landed in my to-buy pile.
One of the things that had me so immersed so quickly is how fascinating and almost mysterious this book is. We have this fascinating character called Snake, a healer who uses different serpents to help people - one of the serpents being an extremely rare alien creature, a dreamsnake named Grass. As she travels around this strange and wrecked world, events has her set on a different quest to figure out more about the dreamsnakes.
Let me just get the main thing I had an issue with out of the way - it is, as a matter of fact, my only complaint but one that I find crucial to any story where the world is not truly ours as we see it today.
'Dreamsnake' lacked worldbuilding. I kept waiting for it to explain if the plot was taking place on our Earth or on an entirely different planet, if it was post-apocalyptic or not, and how it might have ended up like that. We get literally no information at all about this. I think there were something about some places being radioactive, a different people that populated the planet before the people that do now (are they different? No one knows) and also there were supposedly intelligent beings living on other planets. I don't know. The things we do explore are beautiful and made me so curious about the rest, but they're also the mundane and ordinary parts of this world and I needed more backstory, more details and clues to what this world actually was, and how it came to be.
What McIntyre did do well, however, was how well she painted all these different people and cultures living in the places Snake visited. There was still nothing about how these cultures was born, but I found it interesting to read about how different the mountain people could be from the ones living in the desert. Also, everyone's look on sex and sexuality was incredibly refreshing - it was LGBTQ+ friendly and slutshaming was not even on the map. Unfortunately, there was also a lot of things unexplored here; the Dome people are still a complete mystery to me.
Characterwise, this book was very satisfying. Snake was an amazing main character - a confident, powerful and kind woman who often doubted herself but never failed to believe in others. She more often got angry on others behalfs than her own, she was independent but could also feel lonely at times, and also never stopped fighting on despite everything. There wasn't much character development, but only because Snake was such a complete characters straight from the beginning. She wasn't perfect - she could be arrogant and naive, but she was aware of this and fought against her faults and anger. I loved to see her interact with others; her relationship with Melissa was so tender and important, and I would've loved to read more just about Melissa. That girl was fierce and loyal and I just wanted to give her a big hug. Her relationship with Arevin though - that I didn't understand. I felt that their odd instalove had no part in this book and was utterly unnecessary. In my opinion, Arevin was possibly the most dull character of the story.
This book was also very slowpaced, but in a surprisingly comforting and warm way. It wasn't boring, just didn't have any hurrying in getting to where it wanted and when it finally got there, I was once again completely immersed and flew through the pages. A slow, nice burn.
All in all, I very much enjoyed this book and if it had been a series, I would've loved to continue on with it. Unfortunately it isn't, and I can't really look past the poor worldbuilding, especially not since it was a world that I so badly wanted to see explored properly.
eccles's review against another edition
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.5
A sweet, gentle, if slightly clunky fantasy. Set in an interestingly sparsely-drawn post-apocalyptic world, after some kind of vaguely hinted-at nuclear war and alien invasion have left a barren and hostile landscape populated with a few scattered tribes eking out a subsistence living. Our hero is a wandering Healer, using snakes to treat tumours and other diseases. There’s a fun mingling of a witch-doctor-y vibe with high tech genetic engineering, hinting at snippets of pre-apocalypse knowledge, or perhaps alien technology that has been adopted into this medieval economy. This interesting world feels small, somehow, with most of the main points of interest within a few days ride of one another. I suppose the author isn’t trying to write a space opera or build some comprehensive vision of an alt-future; rather telling a story about people moving through a strange-but-plausible world. The plot is compelling and often surprising, but wanders, and in the end feels like a small epic pieced together from loosely connected episodes. The characters are charming, but a bit clunky at times, and there is an unexpected amount of time dedicated to interactions that tell us something about on sex and consent. Each bit of this wandering tale was interesting, but the whole felt to be one or two too many ideas strung together, and eventually I just lost interest.