Loved itI have read this one. It's a science fantasy thing that I thought was decent.
Review 1 of 3
Dreamsnake (1978)
Others: Overwhelmingly positive In a world devastated by nuclear holocaust, Snake is a healer. One of an elite band dedicated to caring for sick humanity, she goes wherever her skills are needed. With her she takes the three deadly reptiles through which her cures are accomplished: a cobra, a rattlesnake, and the dreamsnake, a creature whose hallucinogenic venom brings not healing but an easeful death for the terminally ill. Rare and valuable is this dreamsnake. When Grass is wantonly slain, Snake must journey across perilous landscapes to find another to take its place...
- ISBN:
- 9780786118090
- Length:
- 313 pages
Genres: science fiction
Lists: …
Similar books
1 of 6
We Who Are About To...
Joanna Russ
1977 · 170 pages · 5 reviews
Others: Positive"A multi-dimensional explosion hurls the starship's few passengers across the galaxies and onto a barren, uncharted planet. With no technical skills and scant supplies, the survivors face a bleak end in an alien world. One brave woman holds the daring answer, but it is the most desperate one possible."--Jacket.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
On 5+ of the same lists53%Also science fiction40%Bookpilled loved bothPersonalize your recommendations7%The Gods Themselves
Isaac Asimov
1972 · 288 pages · 5 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveThe year is 2100 A.D.… And Man no longer stands alone in the universe. Now there are other worlds, other living beings. Alien beings who mate in threes and live on pure energy. New breeds of humans who have created their own environment and freed themselves from every social and sexual taboo. Yes, it is the future of new worlds, ever-changing worlds. And yet among them there is still Earth. Earth, where Man still strives to be the best. To advance himself beyond all other beings and their worlds. And this final, glorious step in mankind’s technical progress has been achieved: the discovery of an unlimited, non-polluting energy source. But what seems to be progress may, in reality, end in complete tragedy. Earth’s unlimited energy source is about to trigger unlimited destruction—and the end of a universe.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
On 5+ of the same lists51%Also science fiction41%2 creators loved bothPersonalize your recommendations8%A Deepness in the Sky (Zones of Thought)
Vernor Vinge
1999 · 606 pages · 12 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveFrom inside cover Tor First Edition March 1999: Thirty thousand years before the events of A Fire upon the Deep, Pham Nuwen is living in anonymity among the Qeng Ho interstellar trading fleet. In high orbit above the planet Arachna, they wait for the awakening of its dormant population, the Spiders, who have burrowed deep into the planet, awaiting the relighting of the On/Off star their planet orbits. For when light returns, Arachna will at long last explode into a Golden Age of technology and commerce. But the slumbering Spiders' vulnerability has attracted another lurking presence -- the Emergents, a band of traders whose plans for Arachna are more sinister than anything the Qeng Ho could envision. Reluctant to share their spoils with the Qeng Ho, the Emergents unleash an attack unlike any seen in the Qeng Ho's millennia-long history of exploration, reducing their fleet to serfdom... and then to something worse. Reaching into memories so old and painful he can barely recall them, Pham gathers the other "survivors" about him and makes a final attempt to be worthy of a reputation as ancient and storied as the history of the Qeng Ho itself. But time is running out, for soon the Emergents' assault will strip Arachna bare. As Pham's underground resistance cell struggles against its torturers in space, a wondrously gifted clan of Spiders on the planet below fights another battle - to advance their technology quickly enough to defeat their terrestrial foes, and to somehow overcome the invisible enemy lurking above.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
On 5+ of the same lists51%Also science fiction43%2 creators loved bothPersonalize your recommendations6%The Female Man
Joanna Russ
1975 · 214 pages · 2 reviews
Others: PositiveLiving in an altered past that never saw the end of the Great Depression, Jeannine, a librarian, is waiting to be married. Joanna lives in a different version of reality: she's a 1970s feminist trying to succeed in a man's world. Janet is from Whileaway, a utopian earth where only women exist. And Jael is a warrior with steel teeth and catlike retractable claws, from an earth with separate-and warring-female and male societies. When these four women meet, the results are startling, outrageous, and subversive.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
On 5+ of the same lists50%Also science fiction43%Bookpilled loved bothPersonalize your recommendations7%A Case of Conscience
James Blish
1958 · 192 pages · 7 reviews
Others: MixedThe citizens of the planet Lithia are some of the most ethical sentient beings Father Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez has ever encountered. True, they have no literature, no fine arts, and don't understand the concept of recreation, but neither do they understand the concepts of greed, envy, lust, or any of the sins and vices that plague humankind. Their world seems darned near perfect. And that is just what disturbs the good Father. First published in 1959, James Blish's Hugo Award-winning A Case of Conscience is science fiction at its very best: a fast-paced, intelligent story that offers plenty of action while at the same time explores complex questions of values and ethics. In this case, Blish has taken on the age-old battle of good vs. evil. Lithia poses a theological question that lies at the heart of this book: is God necessary for a moral society? The Lithians are nothing if not moral. Not only do they lack the seven deadly sins, they also lack original sin. And without any sort of religious framework, they have created the Christian ideal world, one that humans would be eager to study and emulate. But is it too perfect? Is it in fact, as Father Ruiz-Sanchez suspects, the work of The Adversary? And what role does Egtverchi, the young Lithian raised on Earth, play? Is he an innocent victim of circumstance, or will he bring about the Dies Irae, the day of the wrath of God, upon the earth? The fate of two worlds hinges on the answers to these questions, and will lead to an ancient earth heresy that shakes the Jesuit priest's beliefs to their very core. A Case of Conscience is a brilliant piece of storytelling, and it packs a lot into a scant 242 pages. Most readers will probably finish the book in one sitting, unable to stop until the spectacular denouement. But the questions posed by this little-known gem will stay with you for days afterward. --P.M. Atterberry
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
On 5+ of the same lists49%Also science fiction44%Bookpilled loved bothPersonalize your recommendations7%A Fire upon the Deep
Vernor Vinge
1992 · 613 pages · 19 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveThousands of years in the future, humanity is no longer alone in a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures, and technology, can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence. Fleeing this galactic threat, Ravna crash lands on a strange world with a ship-hold full of cryogenically frozen children, the only survivors from a destroyed space-lab. They are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also science fiction48%On 5+ of the same lists46%2 creators loved bothPersonalize your recommendations6%
Loved it
Loved itSo, I read it a couple of years ago. I enjoyed it.
Loved itI really do love me some regresssocieties and this book I think is criminally underrated but it just doesn't compare in terms of memorability and pushing the genre forward like my top five of this decade do so I still highly recommend it
Loved itwhat I will always think about this book and why I think it is so important why people should read it is that it really should shows This Woman's kindness and compassion towards other people