Fascinating insight nto the internecine underpinnings of modern urban culture and basic complexities of natural human subversion. Riveting Sci-Fi. Timeless in so many of it's implications. Applicable to today, the Tang Dynasty, the Obama Administration 2013.

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The Dosadi Experimenti>'s basic problem is that the reader can’t really partake in its supposedly deeply intellectual plays. An important part of this book is courtroom drama: the main character, Jorj X. McKie, is not only a top notch secret agent, coincidentally he is also the only guy in the universe who was accepted at the bar of the Gowachin court – the Gowachin being frog like aliens who have a legal system with intricate, changing rules and high stakes, the courtroom being an arena.

Herbert tries to convey all this by passages like this:

They provide legal ways to kill any participants – judges, Legums, clients … But it must be done with exquisite legal finesse, with its justifications apparent to all observers, and with the most delicate timing.

Yet, the pocket is only 300 pages long, and these 300 pages simply aren’t sufficient to make the reader a Gowachian legal scholar too, so we can’t really appreciate or judge the “exquisite legal finesse” displayed by the characters. It’s like watching a game of cricket without knowing the rules. Or to use a review trope: Herbert tells a lot about finesse, but doesn’t show any.

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On a thematic level, Herbert tries to tackle quite a lot of themes familiar to those who’ve read Dune: religious engineering, breeding systems that enhance the offspring, power, violence, mind melting. But those of you thinking you might learn something about politics or power systems, look elsewhere. It’s all pretty standard fare and poorly worked out at that too. For example, the people set on Dosadi evolve to be both extremely perceptive and quick thinkers, as their violent living conditions are ruthless to the meek and the slow. Similarly, the Gowachin are focused on individual excellence, and are outright elitists. The philosophical foundation of this novel boils down to simple social Darwinism. It might have still been interesting in the late 70ies, but in 2017 it just gets a ‘meh’ from me. Moreover, it’s unclear what Herbert’s own position on the matter is in this book.

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Read the full review on Weighing A Pig

dunno if im not in the mood or if this really just highlights herbert’s worst qualities as a writer. dude was a master of building worlds and settings and it shows here but his character development and writing just arent up to par and unlike dune the world isnt compelling enough to hoist it

i might come back to this later since i do really want to like the ideas at play

As with Poul Anderson, I've only chipped at the iceburg-body of work from this author, therefore, I can not judge him too harshly. Yes, it is obvious that he is a master writer with complex yet solid plotting and inspiring world building... And it is true, that I have not yet read the Dune series, I have tried a few early short stories and the later novel "White Plague" and had to give up on those - just did not grab me! 'Cause man, I would really rather read better stories by less competent writers!!!

In this novel, he has all the right elements for my kind of Scifi: a good protagonist, weird alien beings with bizarre alien physio-bodies and socio-political-ideals and such, yet... Too much flour in the batter makes heavy dry cakes.

I'll start with a side note here: The cover of the edition I read had a synopsis that had only a slight similarity to the actual content of the book. So if you have some similar copy and are curious what's inside, don't read the book cover. It'll mislead you some. Consider yourself warned.

Although Frank Herbert is best known for his Dune series, he wrote other science fiction. The Dosadi is in this "other" category -- other in that it takes place in an entirely different universe than what occurs in said series. The ConSentiency universe is teeming with various species of life and one of the running themes in this book is how do different alien species relate and coexist with each other. An important point is that Herbert rejects a purely democratic system as it proves to become tyrannical. To deal with such tyrannies, the ConSentiency has set up the Bureau of Sabotage which is chartered to undermine schemes that lead to such oppression. Jorj. X. McKie is a Saboteur Extraordinary and the protagonist of this book.

The book itself revolves around a planet, "Dosadi" where some Humans and Gowachin (a frog-like alien species) are trapped in some sort of grand experiment. The planet is mostly poisonous, there is only one city and limited food. It's a hard world and highly illegal in the ConSentiency. McKie is sent to the Gowachin homeworld at first to get to the bottom of this. Meanwhile, the Dosadi have schemes of their own ... (dramatic sting)

Herbert writes true to form. The solutions to the various plots and subplots involve the twists and turns of human and alien culture and politics as well as mental transformation or transcendence of some of the characters. Though this seems familiar, the events of The Dosadi Experiment play out uniquely enough that Herbert's style comes through yet not in a way that seems repetitive or overdone (like my use of adjectives).

Moreover, Herbert has a wonderful ability to bring out cultural traditions and political intrigues in a way that is engaging and fascinating. The Gowachin legal system alone is worth reading this book once.

Though this book takes place after Whipping Star, I did not read the first and yet had no trouble following the events of The Dosadi Experiment. Although the former is referenced through the latter, my understanding of the latter was not harmed in any way I can imagine.

Pure philosophical science fiction. Highly recommended

Part thriller, part spy craft, part legal drama, part psychedelic love story, all pulpy, trashy goodness.

I get the sense that Jorj X. McKie is Herbert's version of James Bond or George Smiley, but of course packaged in his wild sci-fi futures. The ConSentiency series is guilty of the crime off being almost good. So much potential and it just never quite reaches it. Oh well.

I remember really liking the six-dimensional chess of The Dosadi Experiment when I'd first read it. On a re-read, the chess seems much flatter: for one, it's harder to miss that for the most part, the characters seem smart because they're allowed to know what the author is thinking.

But the Gowachin legal system + the Bureau of Sabotage are both fascinating and I want more, so I'm willing to put up with Herbert's insistence that the outsmarted hods' every move had been foreseen by the protagonists' brilliance.

This is a fantastic novel. Vivid, brilliantly plotted, with well-rounded, believable, characters, describing an alien culture of great complexity and sophistication with a consistently sure touch. Wonderful.
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This is one of those books that you cannot skip over, or skim through because you want to prove you're a fast reader. (Come on, we've all been there. Some people read fast, some don't. It is not the speed which matters, a good reader knows that.) You have to absorb EVERYTHING, from star to finish. If you are a past Frank Herbert reader, you already know this. But in case you aren't, then welcome to the wonderful and detailed leave-nothing-to-chance world of Frank Herbert. There is no vast world-building like in Dune, but there is plenty of intrigue, conspiracy and that is on par with his more famous saga. What separates this from that is that "The Dosadi Experiment" deals with more uncertainties regarding the future of space travel, colonization, consent when it comes to technological breakthroughs as well as the ethical boundaries that come with it or that we -as humans- and other species are willing to break to reach their goal.
It's like an arms base. Who cares about the sacrifices, when the end justifies the means. The main character realizes this, he is aware of the part he and another one (if I say who, then it will be a big spoiler) very close to him have to do in order to set in motion a chain of events that will lead to a desired goal, and while this is tragic and grim, the character's acceptance of it, brings him a certain sense of relief and completion.
This novel is part of his ConSentient universe. As previously stated, unlike the Dune saga, humanity is not alone here. But unlike the positive visions of the future where everyone struggles to maintain the peace, and there is one union of systems that is held together by firm beliefs of fraternity and co-existence, this is not the case.
This was written at the end of the 70s, when trust in American government was failing, and the Cold War was still raging on, so this can be the reason why unlike the first two novellas set in this universe, there is a harrowing take on a galactic system -that althoug not an empire, behaves like one. Even the protagonist sees it this way. The ConSentiency are not what they appear to be and the planet Dosadi is living proof of that.
Most writers are defined by a certain saga; this book lets you know that as passionate as Herbert was about politics, he was more passionate about science fiction and willing to take digs at his own works. If Dune is about the dangers of messiahs, and dictators, The Dosadi Experiment is the anti-Dune, warning about the dangers of totalitarian governments disguised as benevolent forms of governments.
The only nitpick that I have about this novel, is that it could have been longer or have a sequel. It is well done, but a lot of it, especially towards the end, felt rushed (the trial for example) and inconclusive.

20th book for 2019.

Spoilers ahead.

For Herbert's future universe imagine something like the Star Trek Federation, but one where things are kept in check by the Bureau of Sabotage, which basically goes around screwing any social structures that come into being to avoid power accumulating too much; basically a supra-governmental CIA/FBI group of James Bond-like anarchists.

One of the alien species in this federation is a frog-like race, who have the charming habit of eating their young tadpoles in a sort of Darwin fitness test, where only the very fastest survive their parents feeding frenzy. These frog-aliens decided it would be a cool to do a totally not review board approved experiment where they get lots of frog-aliens and humans (millions) and stuff them into a city (Dosadi) in the middle of an unknown totally deadly planet and then see what happens. Oh and to make things more interesting it turns out stars are actually the outward manifestations of some interdimensional alien species, one of which is hired to act as god and prison warder for the inhabitants of this city. Of course, the experiment hundreds of years later has gone too well, and the frog people hare scared of their hard-assed and very pissed off subjects are going to come out into the world. (Also as a side-note the experimenters, who seem to be part of the corrupt 1% have somehow been using the star aliens to harvest bodies from the experimental subjects to achieve a sort of immortality). One of James Bond anarchists, how is also a lawyer for the frog people, has like 72 hours to infiltrate and save all the experimental subjects before the experiment is terminated with deadly intent and everyone burnt to a crisp. There is also a love story with the James Bond guy, which includes body-swapping, but I won't go into that now. So 007 basically manages to save everyone, but then there is this huge courtroom scene, where he now has defend the experimenters, while still exposing everything. The frogs have their own sense of justice though. The innocent are always guilty, because like everyone is guilty, but the innocent are so so guilty, so when 007 shows his client is innocent he is torn apart by the spectators in approved and time honored fashion. Also he spears a judge to death at a critical moment much to the audience's approval. In the end he sets himself up for a long hunt after the puppet masters behind the experimenters, with the help of his dead girlfriend who is now sharing his body, after her's was blown up by the 1% while she she was chilling on Tahiti-world.

Too bad the book wasn't longer or that there wasn't a sequel. Too bad I wasn't higher when reading it.

3-stars.

once again freaky sex is a plot point in a frank herbert book. HOWEVER this is a really fast paced and fun book that has the classic weird thought provoking aspect every dune book has delivered. i like how it explores a lot of classic sf questions in new and novel ways than most old writers never even conceptualized. keila jedrik could do anything to me