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