But the PSI, the government agency in Ria’s world that oversees social conformity had been alerted to Ria’s odd behavior and she is faced with possible rehabilitation, something that can amount to the loss of personality and reduction of intelligence to a moronic level, and she must fight to retain her individuality. Kara, an aged human shaman and her friend and colleague, Lute, one of the Mac(ro)Otters, begin to teach Ria in dreams. She has the ability to become a shaman and this becomes reality when her dreams lead her into a far different version of Earth, where giant otters exist as comrades and fellow citizens to humans. I do recommend either version, (but I preferred the original and retained that copy) but be aware that they’re the same book.ĭreamrider’s main character is Ria, a woman who lives in a far more repressive version of our own world. It claimed to be an expanded and improved version, but I didn’t find it so and I wasn’t pleased. I watched for her name for years and was furious when in 1989 a book (Shaman) appeared from a different publisher, with a different cover, and different title – which book I bought thinking that it was a sequel to Dreamrider, only to find that it was the same book. It featured a 10 page Introduction by Gordon Dickson, saying what a wonderful writer Miesel was and how this was only the first of what he expected to be many works of fiction. This was a brilliant shamanistic fantasy set in a number of alternate worlds. In 1982 Ace produced a book entitled DREAMRIDER. However in one way she had been a great disappointment to me as a reader. She is predominantly a non-fiction writer who has produced a number of very valuable works examining the writings of others both in and out of the SF field – and I do recommend most of them. Ms Miesel, born in 1941, holds Master’s degrees in Biochemistry and Medieval History.

Shaman by Sandra Miesel