We probably learn something about how awful and unequitable male relationships can be in this section. Then travel and an interlude at a village where the headman has been bold enough to ban indentured servitude but is blind to its inequities in his own enclave. Traveling happens, followed by an interlude with a trio of traders, where we can see how a three-way relationship may work. Unfortunately, something not unsurprising happens to her dreamsnake, at almost the exact moment she forges a deep and lasting insta-love, and she’s left somewhat bereft. This newly-minted healer is out, far past anywhere known to her, the post-apocalyptic wastelands, bringing vaccines and healing to the people trying to make a living on the edges of the world.
At any rate, best I can guess, these ‘dreamsnakes’ actually come from alien/foreigners to the world who are holed up in a city that is controlled by a wealthy, hierarchical system. Here we are, 2021 and CAR-T engineered cells are all the rage for curing cancer, which is essentially the same idea. It’s pretty fucking brilliant for 1978, I have to say. So the premise is that this woman, nicknamed ‘Snake,’ is a healer, who uses her specially bred snakes and healer training to basically create individually tailored vaccines and cures. It reminded me a bit of Carol Nelson Douglas’ Six of Swordsseries. If I sound dismissive, it’s only because I grew up in heavily genderized sci-fi and it appears that I can’t even revisit it for long. It’s always about being a biological and gendered girl in a structure that resembles the Quest of the (Male) Hero. In the 1970s, it also includes sexual inequity, possibly insta-love with a man who struggles with women’s equity, and quite probably about rape. What’s Women’s Sci-Fi, you ask? Oh, it’s simple stuff it’s the stuff that’s about being a female and owning (female) power. It turns out that my feeling was not inaccurate the book sprung out of an award-winning novellete. Not to mention the novel-length ‘plot’ feels a great deal a series of short stories strung together into a novel. But some of the responsibility needs to go to McIntyre for writing what 100% seems like Women’s Sci-Fi, 1970s-Style.
Why? I fully admit much of it is me, in this particular mood in my life at this moment. Read December, 2021 Recommended for people who really like classic sci-fi ★ ★ 1/2
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