Most animal species are extinct, regions of the planet are radioactive, and the sky is hidden by dust. The story is set after a nuclear holocaust that 'destroyed everyone who knew or cared about the reasons it had happened'. Dreamsnake, McIntyre's second novel, was released by Houghton Mifflin in 1978, with a cover illustration by Stephen Alexander.

That story grew into Dreamsnake, and was used unchanged as the first chapter of the novel, which also incorporated two other pieces by McIntyre: 'The Broken Dome' and 'The Serpent's Death', both published in 1978. McIntyre's effort would become her 1973 short story ' Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand'. During a 1972 workshop session, one of the assignments was to create a story from two randomly chosen words, one pastoral, and one related to technology. One of the workshop's instructors was Ursula K. McIntyre, then living in Seattle, set up the Clarion West writers' workshop, which she helped run through 1973. Le Guin called it 'a book like a mountain stream-fast, clean, clear, exciting, beautiful'. Scholar Diane Wood wrote that Dreamsnake demonstrated 'science fiction's potential to produce aesthetic pleasure through experimentation with linguistic and cultural codes', and author Ursula K. Reviewers also praised McIntyre's writing and the book's themes. The strength and self-sufficiency of Snake as a protagonist were noted by several commentators. The novel was well-received, winning the 1978 Nebula Award, the 1979 Hugo Award, and the 1979 Locus Poll Award. Dreamsnake also explored varying social structures and sexual paradigms from a feminist perspective, and examined themes of healing and cross-cultural interaction. McIntyre subverted conventionally gendered narratives by rewriting a typical heroic quest to place a woman at its center, and by using devices such as avoiding gender pronouns to challenge expectations about characters' gender identities. The book is considered an example of second-wave feminism in science fiction. The novel follows Snake as she seeks to replace her dreamsnake after its death. The central character, Snake, is a healer who uses genetically modified serpents to cure sickness-one snake is an alien 'dreamsnake', whose venom gives dying people pleasant dreams. The story is set on Earth after a nuclear holocaust. It is an expansion of her 1973 novelette ' Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand', for which she won her first Nebula Award. Dreamsnake is a 1978 science fiction novel by American writer Vonda N.

Dreamsnake vonda mcintyre