This book was a little weird because I feel as though I should have enjoyed it a lot more than I did. The concept itself was pretty exciting, because it was set on a prison planet with crazy bad population. The specific figures are that there were 850 million convicts in 40 square kilometres.

The problem is that it’s almost deliberately obtuse, to the point at which I think I’d have to read it another two or three times just to understand what happened. Part of that is my fault, because when I’m reading a book like this and I’m not particularly enjoying it, I start to zone out. But I also think that part of it was down to the book.

So here we basically have the complexity of Dune but without any of its iconic story line and perhaps too much worldbuilding, if such a thing exists. It was just kind of unnecessary long and dull, with occassional bits of action followed by a ton of filler.

With The Santaroga Barrier, Herbert was able to build a kind of steady and consistent feeling of dread, while in The Green Brain, he grossed me out a couple of times by writing about people made entirely from insects. Here, he just made me kind of wish that I was reading something else, and that’s a shame.

So in a quite literal way, the Dosadi Experiment was a failure, but that’s okay. You can’t like them all, and Herbert is just one of those authors who has some good stuff and some bad stuff. I’m happy to keep on reading his stuff to try to find the wheat amongst the chaff, but I think I’ve also learned to temper my expectations with a certain amount of caution.

And that’s the key takeaway here – if you’re thinking about reading it, proceed with caution. ‘cause like, it’s not great.

If you've ever wondered what Dune would be like with aliens and computers, well... that's not exactly what this is, but it is a non-Dune Frank Herbert space opera so that's sort of what's going on. I was able to follow the basic arc of the plot, but I admit a lot of the details of the intrigues ("plans within plans within plans..." à la Dune) were hard to follow; it was also difficult to keep track of all the characters, factions, alien species, etc.

The basic plot centers on McKie and Jedrik. McKie is an agent for the Bureau of Sabotage, a shady organization whose mission is to keep laws in check in the ConSentiency (a pan-galactic, multi-species government). Jedrik is the leader of the resistance on the planet Dosadi. McKie is sent to Dosadi to investigate whether it was an illegal experiment. Dosadi is a crazy place: violent, overcrowded, populated by humans and Gowachin (frog-like aliens), and sealed off from the rest of the galaxy with a "God Wall." And it all just gets weirder and weirder from there.

I've always loved the the weirdness of the Dune series, and Herbert kicks the weirdness into high gear with this one. Still, there's something oddly familiar about the weirdness of the Dune universe that I didn't feel here, which was maybe because I didn't read the previous book set in this universe (a few internet searches for background partly made up for this, though).

As for interesting stuff to think about, this one brings up some Dune-like themes about human potential, whether toughness forged in adversity is preferable to soft, humane compassion, and the use of military, legal, and political power all with a dash of weird mysticism.

I was tempted to give this three stars for a convoluted plot and being difficult to get into the first 100 pages or so, but I can say that I loved the world-building and the weirdness of it all. I wish Herbert had lived long enough to do more with this universe.

Having never read a Frank Herbert book outside his Dune series, I’m pleased to report that he does not need to deal with Arrakis or the Atreides lineage to craft a fine Sci-Fi novel and stuff it to the brim with rich world-building and labyrinthine “wheels within wheels”.

Apparently this is the second part of another series, but the prior book doesn’t feel like essential reading to me.

An extra half-star for the jazzy frogman on the front cover!

After being disappointed with several other of Frank Herbert's early works that I'd thought I'd liked in my youth, I initially felt good about his 1977 book "ConSentiency, Book 2: Dosadi Experiment, The". If anything, the material is even more relevant in today's world of overreaching government and organizations than it was when he first published it. Unfortunately, about two-thirds of the way through the book, he basically starts saying "and then a miracle occurs" and his characters become supermen. A bit later, he explains the crux of the plot away with an unknown super-power. And, finally, at the end, all the characters start behaving with knowledge and training that they shouldn't have. So, a good start, but a bad finish. I'm splitting the difference and rating the book at an OK 3 stars out of 5. But, if you're interested, I'd highly recommend you borrow a copy from the library first.

...My opinion that The Dosadi Experiment is Herbert's best non-Dune book has remained unchanged. It is a novel that summarizes many of the themes that can be found in his works but also highlights some of the problems with his writing. The lack of character development, the constantly changing viewpoints and the cognitive leaps that characterize the novel keep it from being a great work. Herbert's grasp of the ideas he wants to discuss is unrivaled in science fiction but the way he translates them to the plot is less so. Personally, I can live with Herbert's shortcomings as a writer though. I wouldn't recommend anybody new to Herbert to start here, but if you like his style this is certainly a novel you'll not want to miss.

Full Random Comments review

I read this Frank Herbert novel out of sequence which is perhaps why I didn't get much out of it.

4.0 to 4.5 stars. This is best "non Dune" book by Frank Herbert that I have read. It is a sequel of sorts to Whipping Star (a book I did not really like) and is set in the universe of the ConSentiency. The basic plot involves a secret experiment in which a group of humans and aliens are kidnapped and placed on a planet with a brutal environment in order to produce...( no spoilers).

In tone, this story reminded me a lot of the later Dune books in so far as its focus on the psychological motivations of the characters and its significant exposition on the basis of the main characters' mind-set. I liked that but I can see that some would have found the lack of true action to be slow. If, like me, your favorite book in the Dune series was
God Emperor of Dune, then I think this book may be for you. If, on the other had, you thought God Emperor of Dune had way too much psychological babble about the "Golden Path" then this book might frustrate you. For me, I really liked it, and will probably re-read at some point because there is a lot to take in and digest on a single reading. Recommended!!!

JDN 2456280 EDT 17:06.

The Dosadi Experiment was a novel Frank Herbert wrote in the middle of his career, with some Dune books before it (up to Children of Dune) and some after it (God Emperor of Dune and beyond). Actually, come to think of it, it's roughly "the good Dune books" before and "the bad Dune books" after.
tIt's a strange novel, longer than it needed to be, and with characters who manage to be complex without being particularly interesting or sympathetic. The closest to sympathetic are the co-protagonists (and by the end, they are co- in a way I probably shouldn't give away), McKie, a galactic equivalent of a federal agent who is practically a James Bond stereotype, and Jedrik, a local to the hostile planet of Dosadi who is far more dangerous as an operative. It's actually a sequel, though I didn't realize that when I started it; the previous book is called Whipping Star, and there was also an earlier short story called "The Tactful Saboteur".
tBy being removed from the Dune canon, the novel gives us a glimpse into the mind of Frank Herbert himself, revealing the themes he felt were important enough to cross worlds. A surprising example is the chairdog, a genetically-engineered lifeform that apparently combines the functions of, well, chairs and dogs, a piece of mobile, living, affectionate furniture. Much less surprising is the ubiquitous betrayal, ruthlessness, and political intrigue; Herbert revels in this stuff, and frankly it gets so intense in The Dosadi Experiment as to be outright annoying. You never know anyone's real agenda, even the co-protagonists', until the very end (and even then...).
tParticularly bizarre are his depictions of women and gay people, which I had hoped would be confined to Dune, but alas, I was wrong. In the ConSentient universe as well, women are superior beings to which men must bow down (this is what ruined the later Dune books), and gay people are depraved. This line was so bizarre I had to stop myself from laughing out loud: "With rare exceptions, primitive Humans of the tribal eras reserved their homosexuals as the ultimate shock troops of desperation. They were the troops of last resort, sent into battle as bersekers who expected, who wanted to die." As far as I can tell, there is absolutely no historical basis for this claim of homosexual berserkers. The Spartans were pederasts... but that's the closest I can get. I'm not really sure what Frank Herbert was smoking here.
tAlso weird is that once again we have another group, this time another species, who uses their females purely as breeding engines; in Dune it was the Bene Tleilax, here it is the Gowachin. Let me just say... I think Herbert had some issues with women. In all his stories they are either godlike or sub-sentient; the idea of an actually, well, human woman is apparently foreign to him. (Jedrik literally makes no mistakes throughout the entire novel. None. Zero. Everything goes according to her plans. Mary Sue Jedrik should be her name.)
tThe story had some interesting potential, but I didn't feel like that potential was well applied. The experiment itself involves an entire planet of millions of people that has been isolated for thousands of years in order to evolve in a particular way... and then when you get to the reason why, it feels really anti-climactic and banal. Surely any civilization capable of engineering chairdogs can think of a better way to achieve this objective (which I guess I shouldn't spoil?).
tThe book also displays more of Herbert's ambivalence toward technology, which actually I sort of like, not because I agree with it, but because it adds a necessary corrective to a general trend among hard SF authors to love technology unconditionally and underestimate its risks. Herbert compensates for Asimov and Roddenberry. It was for this reason that I was very excited to read The Butlerian Jihad, and rather disappointed by its execution by Brian Herbert (Frank's son).
tThen again, The Dosadi Experiment does a particularly poor job of discussing the limits of technology, as it grants superiority to the impoverished people who have evolved in a state of violence for thousands of years, rather than the wealthy technocrats who put them there and have ruled them, and presumably advanced in their technology, for those same thousands of years. It would be rather like pitting Rwanda against the United States and expecting Rwanda to win (only many times more so). This was also a bizarre outcome when the Fremen did it in Dune, so once again it seems to be a Herbertism. (Why, oh why, couldn't it be the Spacing Guild versus the Bene Tleilax? That makes so much more sense.)
tIn all, I was not particularly impressed by The Dosadi Experiment. It's all right I guess; not as good as the early Dune books but better than the later ones. At least there weren't any space-dominatrices conquering men by the power of sex.

I wanted to give this book a low rating because the first 70 pages are painfully boring and unintelligible... on the first read and the ending is kind of blah...

Nevertheless, it has some unbelievably redeeming qualities (if you're a Dune fanatic)... and I even suspect that these 70 pages might yield whole new insights upon the second reading. I'd even go so far as to say that this is a must read for any serious Dune afficianados because the text provides one more point of entry into that universe... and that is priceless and more than worthy of 4 stars!

Actually, It's mind-boggling to me that none of the other commenters have really touched on the fact that this book is so closely related to the Dune Saga. Oddly, most of the reviews like to point out how unrelated this book is to that series. I mean, I know this is actually the 3rd book in another series (which I have absolutely no interest in reading, as it seems the preceeding books expand on the parts of the universe that bored me), but by the time it was over, I was seriously considering (and still am) a re-read of 'Chapterhouse Dune' as further confirmation of my suspicions. In fact, I'm convinced that a back-to-back re-reading of these two books would provide some seriously deep insight into the mythology/origins of some of the pivotal races in the Dune universe.

See below my brief/oversimplified thoughts on why I'm convinved that 'The Dosadi Experiment' was, ultimately, Herebert's playground for working out many of his ideas that would later come to fruition in Dune series:

****SPOILER ALERT for this and Dune series books (especially Chapterhouse Dune)****



The Benegeserit/Honored Maitres = Dosadi
-The Dosadi are essentially tested and tempered by the crucible of their own planet
-Jedrik is the product of a generations long breeding experiment
-When Jedrik and Mckie join, there's the issue of being nearly driven crazy because of the difficulty in managing the linkage to multiple consciousnesses at once.
-When Jedrik dies, her consciousness is able to maintian its own space within him and continue to thrive and it is implied that it will be able to 'advise' or posess McKie, as necessary.
-Rule through the exploitation of addiction.
-The cruel methods of child rearing as a means to an end.
-The complex system of hand movemements to convey meaning, not just in battle.
-The terse communication methods implying multiple levels of meaning
-Wheels within wheels = plots within plots

Facedancers = (forgot their names)
-The multifaceted eyes
-The abilities to morph into other life forms
-The possibility that they might be able to take over the existing bodies without the awareness of their hosts.

The Beneteilax = Gowachin
-The male priviledge and suppresion of females
-The secrecy surrounding the hidden females definitely smacks of the whole axlotl tank mystery.
-The idea of a consciousness that can move from body to body to prolong lifespan.
-The ritualistic secretive nature of their society.

...and those are just the obvious correlations that I can make without looking too deeply...

I keep coming back to one final question though... "what does this book have to say about the idea of men having benegeserit powers?" That Leto I, II and Tig are dangerous, abominations in this respect is one of the main levers for the entire Dune series, and one that is never answered explicitly and I keep trying to figure out if this book gives further insight into where Herebert was going with that, but I can't put my finger on whether this is addressed here via the McKie character (maybe I missed it) without another reading.

An astute political drama

This is thought provoking book that analyzes the politics of power; the means of holding power; and the strategies of manipulating others through political power.

Most drama is romantic, or social. This one is about power over other people. It’s a unique genre, and won’t be everyone’s cup of tea

This should not be the first Frank Herbert book you read. I love Herbert and his universes and characters. However, in my opinion, if you want to read Herbert, which I hope you do! But if you want to read Herbert, you should start somewhere else and THEN this book.
Maybe I'm wrong! If by chance you started your Herbert journey here and even more chance, you're reading this; please let me know what you thought of the book. I would love to hear it!

This had the makings of a second "Dune", twelve years after publication of that ground-breaking book. And all the elements are here: a richly-imagined world - Dosadi, a strong emotional focus - an enslaved population, a back story that goes back generations, and sinister forces to ramp up the suspense. And, also in prime form, Herbert's dramatic, impactful prose.

And Herbert kept the suspense at a peak for much of the book. The story could have taken a turn for something entirely different at virtually every point. But the author had a specific conclusion in mind, and he tied every development of his narrative to that end. I thought this was the strongest part of Frank Herbert's books, the sense that he has a fully conceptualized story and each chapter is an integral building block. Not much meandering.

As with Dune, The Dosadi Experiment comes with a heavy dose of pseudo-mystical and religious undertones that have adherents wondering about their truths this far removed from first publication. As an example, the Dosadi city of Chu being likened to the Gaza strip. I was looking for a resurrection of Sha'i Hulud.

Overall, I still enjoyed the book on this re-read; i.e., it still packs a punch. Still worth 5 stars and another re-read in maybe 10 years. Where I was not focused was in the front and end portions where Herbert tries to wordsmith through a simulated legal proceeding. In this regard, TV's Suits does much better.