Dreamsnake is an expansion of Vonda McIntyre’s award winning novella, “Of Mist and Grass and Sand.” It’s a post-apocalyptic story about a healer named “SNAKE,” who uses snakes as part of her work. (She is not a faith healer or “snake handler.” She uses genetically engineered snakes as a kind of living hypodermic needle for chemotherapy, and uses their venom to create medicines and vaccines.) When one of her snakes is killed, a rare, alien snake whose venom acts as a kind of sedative, she goes on a quest of sorts to get a new one.