Dreamsnake

By: Vonda N. McIntyre

Narrated by: Anna Fields

Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

A New York Times best seller and winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards, Dreamsnake is the haunting, critically acclaimed novel of an extraordinary woman and her dangerous quest to reclaim her healing powers.

When the healer Snake was summoned, she traveled the blasted landscape with her three serpents. From the venom of two of them, she distilled her medicines. But most valued of all was the alien dreamsnake, whose bite could ease the fear and pain of death.

When the dreamsnake is killed, Snake's powers as a healer are all but lost. Her only hope of finding another dreamsnake lies in a treacherous journey to the far-off Center City, where Snake will be pursued by two implacable followers: one driven mad by love, the other by fear and need.

©1978 Vonda N. McIntyre (P)1999 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Nebula Award Winner, Best Novel, 1978

• Hugo Award Winner, Best Novel, 1979

"Anna Fields narrates with her usual mastery of the nuances of plot, mood, and character....Fields adds to the haunting sense of reality and possibility that underlies the events set forth." (AudioFile)

Will there be more

I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the characters and glimpses of the world that they inhabited. I hope that there will be more stories set on this world. There is a lot of people variety from desert nomads to space ports and signs of a massive planet disaster. The civilizations that each developed are only glimpsed at. I hope that there will be more to come about this world.

Dream Snakes

A future story about a healer who uses snakes and how she found out how to breed some too.

Well crafted post apocalyptic tale

Excellent story of a post apocalyptic world. Given when it was written, it was very forward thinking and presented an open minded view of humanity, even after nuclear war. Great characters, good adventure and a few twists and turns. :)

Solid story

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I’m just bummed there’s no sequels, there was a lot of room for world building.

Chick Book

Very imaginative and enjoyable enough, but written from a more emotional prespective that would seem to be geared more toward women. I'm not motivated to read other books by this author.

Average

Not a bad story; however, I don't feel that it is Hugo or Nebula quality.

Loved it!

I sincerely hope there will be more books about Snake. One was not enough! Perfect read for magician adventure lovers. Snakes rule!

I liked it more than I thought I would.

I honestly only listened to this title because it is one of the few books to win both the Hugo and the Nebula awards. the synopsis sounded terrible, and I thought I was going to hate it. I actually really enjoyed it.

Fun, unknown classic

This is a fun story set in a post-apocalyptical time. The characters are engaging and interesting. There is a lot of "free love" in the book, which kind of upstages the really outstanding plot and dramatic idea, which involves alien snakes, long journeys and ultimate danger. The performer was quite good, but the sound quality was very strange. The narration was loud, but the dialogue was very quiet, which is really frustrating in a car. In the end, it's a good book, though.

Reading all the Hugo/Nebula Winners

Dreamsnake is 40 years old and succinctly manages to tell an an engaging story in a interesting and comprehensible setting, with explicable plot elements, and in a voice which is understandable and easily related to. With it's vivid settings and interesting characters, it is easy to see how this novel was selected for recognition with both the Hugo and Nebula awards. Having read a number of the more recent winners of these literary prizes, it is easy to see similarities to this work and its influences and wish that certain recent winners were as focused on the craft of story-telling.