Snake is a healer; a healer who's story begins with troubles.

Her name, "Snake" was given to her at adulthood, and is considered a great honor, because there have only been three other healers with that name, and all those accomplished great things.

Snake, however, has lost her dreamsnake.

Healers have three snakes, a cobra, a rattler, and a dream snake. And with these snakes they go about helping their pacients. The natural venom can be changed to cure many different diseases. The dreamsnake is not for curing disease however; it is for giving painless death, acting as a pain-repressor.

Snake loses her dreamsnake when she leaves it with a small boy she is trying to heal. But the child lives across the desert, where healers such as Snake are uncommon; when the parents find a snake curling around their sleeping son, their concern ends in the snakes death.

It also starts Snake on a journey, in which she hopes to find redemption. Not only are dreamsnakes important signatures of the best healers, or great tools; dreamsnakes are also very rare; and their is no sure way to breed them.

But another pacient of Snake's might have a solution. If Snake can ever get far enough to try it. Because a 'crazy' is following her... one that isn't against attacking her for what he wants...

ENTERTAINMENT... gosh, I seem to be saying that a lot lately. I don't know how else to put it though. It's a lay down and relax book.

How original the ideas seemed. The snake's venom is facinating, it even makes the idea of shots more barable.

Snake has a lot of bad things happen around her; it all leads to a good ending, but it's still rather sad.

I enjoyed it. I thought it was facinating, with the mix of a more primative seeming society, and a more advanced one.

Cloning is accepted and done, and genetic manipulation happens a lot with the healers, so it makes an interesting contrast to traveling by horse back... actually, Snake rides Squirrel, her tiger-pony. Apparently, Snake genetically manipulated Squirrel to acheive a facinating color change in his coat. He has stripes, similar to a zebra's but in a tiger's colors. This book definately has some neat ideas in my opinion.

This is rated PG-13, because people get bit by snakes a LOT, people die, there is a little girl who was sexually abused, and basically just mature themes. Nothing graphic enough to go higher though. There are definately kisses, and if a romantic is interested, there is this one guy that has fallen in love with Snake and is trying to find her throughout the book... it might interest the romatics. But if you're not a romantic, that stuff is easy to ignore.

Anyway, I rather liked it. I tend to like original-idea type stories.

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Created Sep 26, 2003 at 1:25am • Submit your own review...