This 1978 novel won both the Nebula and Hugo Award for Best Novel in its year, which puts it in very select company with Herbert's Dune, Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, Card's Ender's Game--less than a couple of dozen in all. And no, I wouldn't think it quite belongs in such a list--but it is good.
Snake, the protagonist is a Healer in her "proving year." Like an internship--but more actually in the old way of journeymen traveling about on her own learning by doing what it means to deal with the sick, injured and dying. But what makes Snake different, and earned her that name are her three snakes: Two are genetically altered terran snakes whose venom can be changed into medicines, Mist an albino cobra and Sand, a rattle snake. Her third, Grass, is special and quite rare--an alien "dreamsnake" who can bring comfort to the dying. Without Grass she can't do her job, and when Grass is killed, that leads Snake on an odyssey across an altered world in search of a replacement. What that world is, I'm not sure. I think a post-nuclear holocaust Earth, but it's never spelled out, and by and large I'm fine with that--I think part of what keeps things interesting is trying to figure out this world we find ourselves in and the people in it.
McIntyre may not have turned out to be the second coming of Ursula Le Guin, and her best selling, best known novels are her Star Wars and Star Trek novels. When I first read this as a teen, it impressed because it was so rare to find strong female protagonists--not that this comes across as a feminist screed. On second read decades later, no I wouldn't rank this among my favorites--but it is a good yarn, well-paced and with a flowing, immersive narrative, and with characters I cared about.
