The Dosadi Experiment by Frank Herbert

Did you know that Frank Herbert wrote a book about a planet with such an extreme environment that it breeds a superior race of humanity that is highly disciplined, smarter, and tougher than the rest of humanity? This population has access to life extension and if turned loose on the rest of the galaxy, will overturn everything.

You probably have, but this is the other one.

The Dosadi Experiment is set in Herbert's Consentiency universe. "Universe" is used loosely since there was just this book and "Whipping Star." Both featured Jorg X. McKie, Sabotageur Extraordinary of the Bureau of Sabotage. BuSab was created to throw a monkey wrench into the government and thereby protect individual liberty.

We could use one of those now.

The Consentiency is populated by a variety of interesting and quirky aliens, including the frog-like Gowachin. They have kidnapped a mixed population of humans and Gowachin, which they have kept isolated on the poisonous planet of Dosadi for generations. The habitable area of Dosadi amounts to a few square miles inhabited by millions. Competition is intense.

Now, the lid is about to blow off the Dosadi experiment.

Because he was trained in the Gowachin's perverse legal system, McKie is tasked to go to Dosadi to investigate what the Gowachin were doing.

The story comes to a head in a courtroom scene where death is on the line.

I read this in its Galaxy serialization. I enjoyed it. The story mostly holds up, although there is a bit much of Herbert's tendency to make his characters appear far more insightful than they actually are.

Nonetheless, if you have a choice between the 79th instalment of the Dune saga - The Master Bakers of Dune - or this one, give this one a shot.

I was a bit surprised at first to find this book has such mixed reviews on here. I first read it as a teenager and it made a big impression on me. I have just recently finished re-reading it and if anything am more awe-struck than before. Unlike last time I also tracked down and read Herbert's earlier ConSentiency writings (The Tactful Saboteur and Whipping Star) which are far more amateurish than The Dosadi Experiment but help to fill in the background.

Herbert likes characters who are super smart and are alert/aware enough to handle themselves in tricky situations/conversations where normal mortals would have come seriously unstuck. As a result, some of the set pieces and conversations require the reader's full attention. Maybe this accounts for the polarisation of reactions to the book. Where some are gripped and enthralled others might be frustrated by being made to work too hard.

But that is Herbert's style. If you take him as you find him his works are right up there. The Dosadi Experiment in particular features an extraordinary premise with extraordinary male and female leads to match. It was fascinating following McKie having to get up to speed very quickly to be able to survive alongside the hardship-hardened Dosadi, becoming more Dosadi than the Dosadi, and his relationship with Keila Jedrik. Then there is the intriguing Gowachin legal system. Who in their right mind would want to be a Legum at the Gowachin bar? Other than the redoubtable McKie of course...

I suspect that some of my confusion with this book came from reading it out of order. However, I've lived through similar problems before and (in many of those cases) have been able to enjoy the book far more than I was able to with this book. Partly that's due to Herbert's habit of simply making up words and then expecting the reader to figure out what they mean through context (sometimes over hundreds of pages), however in this case it was more to do with some oddly aggressive comments about homosexuality that really just don't scan. Its interesting seeing Herbert play with some of the elements that made DUNE such an amazing book, however those interesting moments weren't worth the price of admission for me on this one.

It was fine, but it's no Dune.

I know that's kind of a stupid review to give, because obviously one of his books selected at random probably isn't going to be as good as his award-winning, best-selling, incredibly famous work, but maybe it's still the most relevant thing to say, since I also imagine that's the most likely reason anyone else is considering giving this one a try.

There were a few interesting ideas and fun bits, but the whole thing just fell kind of flat.

After the whipping star book, I was intrigued in the second one of the series. I was anticipating Fanny Mae to be integral part of the story, which she was not. Sometimes reading this book felt like being brought by force to a new country and being expected to understand everything. I did find some enjoyment in the intrigue of the why, but the how was ambiguous. Maybe I am one that like to understand things which is why I was disappointed by this. As a reference, I did not fully understand the ending, which was highly unsatisfying to me.

Interesting cross between an espionage thriller and a legal procedural. Herbert creates for us an interesting universe with distinctive races, and even a few with God-like powers, or is it technology? Jorj X. McKie is a human operative of the Bureau of Sabotage, charged with investigating a planet which is believed to be a massive sociological experiment. Seems fairly straightforward, but nothing ever is, really.

I caught a few nods to Dune,. which may or may not be actually there.

1 star is my standard rating for DNF. I'm not a professional reviewer, don't waste my time.

I will admit that I should have read book #1 first. I picked this one up after "The Spice Must Flow" mentioned The Dosadi Experiment as one of Herbert's best non-Dune book.
Apparently I missed a lot. Having read a summary of Whipping Star, the most incomprehensible parts of this book might have been better explained by starting at the beginning. But it certainly wasn't an endorsement to go back and find out what I missed.

I hated this book less once I realized my mistake, and reflected back if it would have made more sense if I just ignored all the Whipping Star bits. Sadly, no, the explanation of what/who/where the Dosadi are just didn't come together before I decided I was just reading gibberish. I guess this book just wasn't my vibe.

While I think I may have preferred the previous ConSentiency Universe novel more than The Dosadi Experiment, but that may be more because I prefer linguistics and math-crazy plus-dimensional aliens over most other ideas.

However. This novel is pretty damn fascinating on its own, but for completely different reasons. I don't normally see hard-SF novels revolving around Alien Law. Or economics. Or psychology. Or a whole world that is a social and biological experiment writ very, very large.

This is Frank Herbert, after all. When he runs with ideas, he really runs with them, doubling down and throwing in ever more complicated twists and complications and worldbuilding that is always on target and propels the main plot.

I DO believe that there are a few flow issues with this novel, but not serious ones. I DO think the themes of overpopulation pressures, male/female and identity fiction, writ in alien biologies, alien psychology, or the results of the pressures of the experiment, itself, is done VERY well.

I see tones of the male/female question from Dune and major overpopulation issues explored by Silverberg and Brunner and PKD. Herbert is very aware of the SF conversation going on and, in my humble opinion, attacks it in some of the very smartest ways.

When I judge novels by Frank Herbert, I judge them by his own novels, not by the full SF field. He really belongs in a level of his own.

Just finished this book. The characters are extremely well-developed and likeable. Like other Herbert books, sometimes it can be a bit tightly packed with information, rending it hard to read at speed, but the world building that emerges is exquisite.

Reread: Herbert's work, even aged more than 30 years, provides insight about people and their intrinsic relationship with law, which still rings true even with the mass change of our societal circumstances. Amidst so much dross, this brings clarity to the human condition and our compromises to co-exist.

Being a big dune fan I was excited to read this book when recommended by a friend. Unfortunately it just didn't work for me. Its the same themes of dune but rather than the natural forces of the dune andd the religious ferver it created we have the artificially created plant of dosadi which of course spawns a monster. Power, control, decay, dogma, ambition, etc. Herbert manages to raise more questions than answers which of course is the idea.

Became convuluted. Courtroom suspense toward End was like ‘watching a cricket game without knowing the rules ‘, but enjoyable for how Herbert uses maxims to head his chapters, and how introspective his characters are, the motif of ‘feints within feints’ mind-fencing, he is truly deft at such crafty dialogue and inner narration. Con: almost needed some assistance, some spoon-feeding as to what was really transpiring between everyone, there was: Broey (the bad guy turned ? guy), his sketchy alliance with Tria & Gar (humans, the former a 2x agent), then Jedrik—straightforward , then Aritch proved central, as well as Ceylang in the courtroom, and Bildoon comes back, I couldn’t get a grip on the various interests at play, why Aritch held secrets about the Rim for example, his sending McKie out there, it helped for me, the reader, to be immersed in the riddle & uncertainty, to make it ‘live, real-time’, only I wish I understood Gowachin law! And what was the Running Phylum (is this like a Nerve Runner from Herbert’s “The Jesus Incident”?) and what exactly was Ceylang?

Herbert lets the reader in on secret conversations & plottings between nemesis and fellow nemesis, the reader is privy to plans, and the mental deliberation is described in with such acuity & candidness that every action is justified within the context of the plot. It’s a thing the author is renowned for. Though the mix of different beings makes it baffling as a story: Panspechi + Calebans (by the way, the instantaneous interstellar travel sometimes cheapens the “close-to-home” feeling, like one can say Orwell’s “1984” novel is great for its accuracy of how surveillance grows enormously, or Gibbons’ “Neuromancer “ , but this future is so far away that it is like fantasy instead of Science) + Wreaves (sound terrifying!) + Palenki (fascinating creatures Herbert introduced in “Whipping Star” the prequel).

McKie is fun to follow & to root for . The emphasis on his adaptability is thoroughly mapped & illustrated, his reactions to situations perilous are believed, his response to Jedrik I followed well, how he stayed silent initially meeting her, how dangerous it was that he make the right first impression; and Herbert plays well on people’s vices & addictions, a history student might recall how China suffered an opium epidemic, and he also plays well on people’s leanings to fanaticism & berserker States & mobs.

The ConSentiency Universe is very imaginative & the agent McKie navigates through danger, duty, duplicity and the like in such a way as to make each (two 1/2 novels) solid as a stand-alone read. Not great, not bad, for any SF fans I’d recommend it but for all others I’d suggest some of his other books instead.