| Title | : | The Dosadi Experiment (ConSentiency Universe, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0765342537 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780765342539 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 320 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1977 |
Generations of a tormented human-alien people, caged on a toxic planet, conditioned by constant hunger and war-this is the Dosadi Experiment, and it has succeeded too well. For the Dosadi have bred for Vengeance as well as cunning, and they have learned how to pass through the shimmering God Wall to exact their dreadful revenge on the Universe that created them . . .
The Dosadi Experiment (ConSentiency Universe, #2) Reviews
-
Frank Herbert’s
Dune was a masterpiece, not just of the genre but of literature, it was and remains an amazing achievement. The second Dune book was good, the third pretty good, and the fourth OK, and so on. Fans of all the Dune books (and I am one) worshipped the original (correctly and justly) and simply enjoy reveling in the world building.
And so I come to Frank Herbert’s 1977 novel The Dosadi Experiment. I read a review I liked and recalled the quality of his writing that I had enjoyed so much and thought it time to give him another try, this time away from Arrakis. The idea, that of a social and biological experiment conducted on an epic, planetary scale, is similar in tone, if not style, to Philip K. Dick’s
The World Jones Made. But where PKD’s novel is thematically surreal and emblazoned with his signature otherworldliness, Herbert’s novel is darker, more brooding.
Herbert sets the stage for a fascinating legal drama , albeit a weird, baffling, alien but nonetheless hypnotic drama. Herbert’s use of mysterious alien legal and cultural frameworks would make Alfred Bester scratch his head, but he somehow pulls it off. Dosadi is much akin to Arrakis, a small world where a spartan, violently simplistic society breeds a possible change agent that may affect everything else.
Finally, this makes me think that, along with the Dune novels, that Herbert belongs in the ranks of Dick, LeGuin, and Bradbury and the “soft science fiction” side of the house because unlike hard science fiction Heinlein, Asimov, and Clark, Herbert’s story lines revolve around legal, political. economic and cultural elements and often involve a future so far forward that the plot is purely fantastic.
-
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. -
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)**** -
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!!! -
...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 -
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. -
Според моето скромно и крайно тенденциозно мнение това е най-добрата книга на Хърбърт. Тук той взема есенцията на най-добрите си идеи от Дюн, изчетква ги от алюзиите със земната история и ги хвърля в турбомесомелачката на научната фантастика от "новата вълна."
Връзката с предишния роман от историята - Фани Мае - е сравнително слаба, крепи се на главния герой, но той израства толкова бързо, че още към средата на книгата вече е друг човек. По-интересно е как Хърбърт завършва цялостната си концепсия за междувидова комуникация от Фани Мае и я изхвърля на боклука с едно изречение... но... избързвам.
Да спомена само, че отново имаме нулева приемственост на преведената терминология между двете книги от поредицата, нещо с което в България сякаш смме свикнали, но тук ми се стори оправдано, защото наистина звучи по-добре.
Така изве��тният ни супер-саботьор Йори Маккай отново е захвърлен в центъра на събитията. Обучаван от гоакините за нещо като адвокат в тяхната правна/антиправна система (пред която въжделенията на Хайнлайн о�� "Странник в странна страна" звучат наивно като четиристишия от 14 годишна девственица) му се предлага разследване пряко свързано с работата му в Бюсаб. Гоакините този път са се осрали и могат да изпаднат от Съюза на галактическия разум като приложат планетарен холкост или да застрашат същия като изпуснат отрочетата на експеримента си сред затъпяло-оялите се съюзници. Планетата е Досейди и никой не казва на Маккай защо е заселена и какво става там. ТОй се впуска безотговорно, както винаги и се оказва на място където теорията на Дарвин е турбоускорена и той - най-острото шило на Бюсаб - е като пеленаче пред резултатите.
Досейди е изкуствено затворена от един Кейблан планета, където слабо направляван цари един брутален анархо-капитализъм. Поколениятяа са отсяли индивиди, които са намалили комуникацията до минимум за сметка на моментни действия, а всяка дума, движение, решение може да им коства живота. Досейди е люпилня за базкомпромисни политици, корави войни и оцеляващи на всяка цена.
Самата идея за еволюция (в същността си за приспособимост), която възниква при поставени изкуствено зверски тежки условия, без (забележете) суспендиращ политико-социален апарат, на мен ми влезе страшно вдъхновяващо....
Както и да е... Маккай все пак успява да изненада досейдийците, гоакините и дори рийвовете и кейбланите и ако не да овладее ситуацията, поне да яхне вълната. А, и оспява да се влюби, което е направо постижение след двуцифреното число бракове по изгода, които е сключвал през годините.
Много още мога да кажа и няма да е достатъчно. Не съм на нивото на Хърбърт пък и това не е книга за две (колкото са до тук) прочитания. Тепърва ще я преоткривам през годините. -
Herbert has created a fascinating universe with the ConSentiency, a diverse alliance of an eclectic group of aliens, of which humans are just a small part. This is a very good story, essentially a conspiracy within this alliance that threatens it from the inside. However, it gets weighed down in what feels like never ending levels of political machinations, legal maneuvering, psychoanalysis and internal dialogue. In the end, it was a bit too introspective to keep me fully engaged.
-
I just couldn't get into this...in other words I found it uninteresting. May be me, I find that I'm harder and harder to please where novels are concerned. I have started several in the last few weeks and none of them has really drawn me in. I have unfinished novels of a couploe of different types and different genres laying around waiting.
Oh well, I won't rate this as frankly I didn't care enough to finish it.
Maybe you'll like it more. Good luck. -
(...)
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.
(...)
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.
(...)
Read the full review on Weighing A Pig -
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. -
Herbert is the master of what I call whafuck?! in genre fiction. With masterly aplomb, he crafts devious and often hilarious worlds with nary an explanation and then forces it down your throat with nary a warning.
It's obvious that if you haven't read the first book "Whipping Star" you will be largely lost reading "Dosadi". But that doesn't mean that you didn't leave "Whipping Star" without a whafuck?! in your frontbrain, because I bet you did, and that's why Herbert is so fun to read.
"Dosadi" carries on the story of the Bureau of Sabotage's ugly duckling ninja-saboteur McKie who gets wrangled, through an infinitely fascinating and barely explained legal conundrum into investigating a planet some conspiracy between aliens set up to do some sinister shenanigans. Since BuSab's job is to keep the chaos roiling, McKie is sent in to investigate. Turns out there are shenanigans within shenanigans involving body swapping, ego-sex limbos, and cruel love. Don't worry if you don't understand it, because you likely won't and it is a testament to Herbert's genius that he makes you not mind so much that as you're squawking whafuck?! at the utter weirdness, the alienness of his words and worlds, others are lining up to see the latest Star Wars dumbness. (C'mon, people--I draw the line at Star Wars stickers on the goddamn bananas at the supermarket--could we be made to care any more for something any less?) -
It was an okay book. It took a while to get into it; there were enough gems interspersed to keep me hoping it might get better. I was pleasantly surprised that it did.
One part I liked/thought was hilarious:
The ending [last few chapters] reminded me of Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil, but only better than Heinlein's entire book.
There were a lot of 'wheels within wheels' going on in the book; a lot of plots and sub-plots and twists and turns. Well, there was supposed to be a lot of twists and turns. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. I think there was almost too much in this book. The author obviously knew the direction in which he wanted to go; the reader was just along for 'the ride' [at a glacial pace; I think I saw a snail moving faster than the book early on at one point]. The many plots strongly reminded me of Dune, but I thought Herbert did a much better job in Dune than he did with this book. Maybe if I had read the first book before this one, this book would make more sense.
The 'weirdest' part of the book:
I did like how there were three strong female characters in the book [two of which were not human; one was a Wreave and one was a Pan Spechi that only looked human]. It was a nice touch, I felt. It was even crazier how Jedrik was so much stronger than McKie. I only say that because McKie had had all sorts of training and experience and was the most capable agent in his Bureau. Other alien races feared McKie and his capabilities, his talents, what he could do. When he reached Dosadi, it was all for naught. Jedrik may not have been physically stronger than McKie, per se, but in every other way that counts she was McKie's superior.
I really, really, really wanted to like this book. I truly did. Once it picked up [for me, it was well over halfway through the book; say, 150 pages] I did enjoy it. The problem was the length of time it took me to get to 'the "regular" good stuff'. It took a while. There were enough diamonds in the rough to keep me reading, though [such as elements of humor and the description of McKie resembling the Gowachin's deity]. Perhaps if I read it again, I'll have a better perspective about it.
At the same time, I am glad I read the book. It did have some interesting concepts in it, and some that were familiar as well [because of having read the first four books of his Dune series]. -
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. -
Saboteur Extraordinary McKie is back, in a much better sequel that focuses on a more interesting part of the ConSentiency universe. The planet of Dosadi has been locked away for generations, an experiment in applied social science that has gone tremendously wrong. McKei has been sent in to clean it up, though the ultimate motive behind his mission is a mystery.
Dosadi as a planet is like Dune on steroids, a punishingly deadly environment where simple survival has attuned its inhabitants to superhuman levels of competence. Keila Jedrik is the most Machiavellian of its inhabitants, and she leads an organization to break free and get revenge on whoever put her on Dosadi at any cost. Keila suborns McKie almost instantaneously, outplans her opponents with a mental facility which would put an Mentat to shame, and engineers an escape with McKie, who she merges egos with.
Then it's up to McKie to reveal the truth in a mortal courtroom drama. The toadlike Gowachins have an attitude of 'respectful disrespect' towards the law, and McKie is the only human ever admitted to their ranks of Legums. In the Gowachin court-arena, failure is punished with death, and the knife can be turned on defendant, plaintiff, witness, legum, and/or judge. The crime of Dosadi is not the intensive prison-planet environment, but that it serves as the raw material for a body-swapping immortality ring that is the real secret power in politics. The courtroom drama is quite tense, but the whole thing exists to make Herbert's points about power, and how it is too dangerous to put in the hands of mere humans, but also disastrous to hand over to any bureaucratic entity or superhuman. The whole thing feels like a cartoonish first draft of the ideas in God Emperor of Dune, and let's be real; if you're reading this book, you've already read all of the Dune books, and even some of the KJA ones. -
I am perhaps too lenient on this book, else this review will serve as a confession that I am too stupid to grok the Dosadi mindset. But I think that the weakness of characterization that is a standard scifi caveat hinders this novel, one of Herbert's most ambitious(I say skiffy instead of scifi usually, cause I don't give a fuck. Yeah that's right). As in Dune, Herbert attempts a merciless dissection of society. Dune, rightly regarded as a classic, began as an exploration of the effect of trade on the balance of power. This set an appropriately macro scale for the Byzantine plotting that followed, and suited the skill set of a science fiction author, a breed used to painting in broad strokes. Here Herbert attempts to paint in subtler strokes, and he doesn't succeed. The system of Gowachin law is fascinating, but the plot hinges too much on this unfamiliar system; for all its logic, we never feel the visceral twists and turns of the courtroom drama, mostly because each virtuoso legal manuever must be painstakingly explained to us as it happens. Similarly, it was rare for the calculating motives of the Dosadi characters to stand out with real clarity.
-
Pure philosophical science fiction. Highly recommended
-
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. -
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. -
The first 70 pages are hard to follow but things quickly fall into place afterwards. So be prepared.
I really enjoyed the story but the motivation of the main character was a little unclear to me.
What I especially enjoyed was how the writing mirrored the story; The confusion you feel as a reader mirrors the confusion McKie feels when landing on Dosadi and trying to integrate into their society. The brisk pace of the book mirrors the brisk mental pace of the Dosadi inhabitants. Another author might have turned this into 3 or 4 books, there's a lot of world building going on in a small amount of space but a Dosadi would consider that wasteful and stupid.
When I was recommended this book, I was told it mirrored the Palestinian conflict and I found a thoughtful blog post that explores the connection:
http://h2oreuse.blogspot.com/2007/06/... -
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.
-
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. -
Definitely better than Whipping Star, and set in the same ConSentiency universe that Herbert created. Again, the world-building is the best part of the book; it's such a strength with Herbert that it becomes the thing that carries the book. The plot is confusing, and some of the assumptions don't seem sensical. The characters are fairly unlovable. But the reader wants to keep going just to learn more about the universe Herbert has created. There isn't the universe depth of the Dune series; that's not possible in two short books and a novella. But it's still quite impressive, and it covers a multitude of plot-related sins.
-
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.
-
I read this Frank Herbert novel out of sequence which is perhaps why I didn't get much out of it.
-
2/10
I did *try* to understand this book at first. Then I realized that the reader isn't supposed to understand. We are constantly told that a certain action is brilliant (or moronic) based on [insert reasons that the reader just has to take at face value because we don't understand the backward legal system of this race]. The whole book is like this:
Character does something ->Protagonist explains that it is smart/dumb based on rules the reader was never introduced to.
Not a lotta showing, but a whole lotta telling -- and not the exposition kind of telling, where you just have to learn it first. Many concepts are introduced in-depth (using confusing language) and then never revisited. So I stopped trying to understand, and that probably did not help my confusion.
I did like Keila Jedrik.... at first. She was a cold, calculating, ruthless character, basically a machine, and the result of generations of breeding and training to create a figure to save Dosadi. That is eventually thrown out so she can become McKie's lovey-dovey sweetheart. It was yuck.
McKie was eh. It is frequently emphasized that it takes being born and raised on Dosadi to be like a Dosadi... but McKie sure got the handle on it in a few days.
I like the idea of this book a lot. That's about it. -
A fun unique adventure that kept me guessing, even when it was all over. Four stars because i really liked it.
Jorj Mckie investigates a survival planet to gain Bene Gesserit-like abilities in a vast spacefrog conspiracy. All the Dosadi bits are done extremely well, and the space-frog courtarena battles invoke the battle of wits in Dune.
Particularly strong and unconventional female character in Jedrik, but kind of backed into tropes at the end.
I really wish there were more Consentiency books after this - everything about the world building seems fresh and vast, ripe for many many adventures. -
Towards the end of the book Herbert starts a chapter with a quote from a fictitious book titled 'Insights (a glimpse of early Human philosophy)'. It goes like this: 'In a changing universe, only a changing species can hope to be immortal and then only if its eggs are nurtured in widely scattered environments. This predicts a wealth of unique individuals.'
Sounds familiar? If you've read any of Herbert’s Dune novels, it probably does.
However, unlike roses a 'Golden Path' by any other name does not smell as sweet. In The Dosadi Experiment Herbert touches on many of the same themes that he uses in his more famous series, but I don't think he managed to work them into a similarly compelling story or setting. Note here that this work is from 1977, a year after Children of Dune and thus right in the middle of Herbert's six books in the Dune universe.
One of the reasons things don’t quite come together in this story probably has to do with the brevity of the work. At about 300 pages Herbert tries to do a lot of different things, and the somewhat loose connection to the earlier novel Whipping Star doesn't give him the opportunity to lean on the world-building done in that novel. Readers are thus left with an entirely new universe, populated by a wide variety of races, and to make matters more complicated, are asked to contrast this to a similarly new world (that of Dosadi) and to do all that through the eyes of a character who, by virtue of his job, stands outside common society and interacts mostly with similarly non-typical characters. Adding to the complicated situation is that his already curious relation to an alien species takes the form of a complex role in an elaborate legal system, and this forces Herbert to frequently pause the action to explain what is going on, what it means, and why it was important and/or clever.
The combination of these complications made the first 100 or so pages quite a drag to get through. There were some classic Herbert lines in there to keep me interested in how the story would unfold, but by the time the protagonist Jorj McKie gets to Dosadi I put the book down. The story didn’t seem to be going anywhere, the characters on Dosadi that were introduced as secondary point-of-view characters were hard to place or relate to, and whatever secret there was to Dosadi just didn’t seem urgent. Not to mention that there are only so many times a character walking through a corridor that leads to a door, which opens up into an empty room, a large empty room, is interesting.
A few months later I decided to finish the story, only to find I had abandoned the story right at the moment where things come together in a more or less single storyline. Perhaps not surprisingly, I notice a lot of reviewers have also pointed to the events of around page 100-150 as the moment at which their interest was renewed. In a rather fast-paced sequence of events, the protagonist learns about Dosadi’s secret(s), its fate and those attempting to avert it – as well as the means by which they intent to do so. The story then wraps up as the protagonist, changed by his experiences on Dosadi, confronts the forces of the outside world.
Two problems. First, because we get to see so little of the day to day workings of the ‘normal’ galactic society, Herbert’s constant emphasis that the people of Dosadi are different, and by virtue of their differences a potential threat to the status quo, becomes a classic case of ‘tell don’t show’. Crucially, if the reader is to believe that isolating two alien species on a harsh alien world for a long – but not dramatically so, certainly not in comparison to what we might suppose their evolutionary history to be – period of time somehow elevates them above the level of a galaxy-spanning society, I think there should be more to it than was presented. That the main character was able to grasp these differences and ‘become Dosadi’ within a matter of days also harms the credibility of this supposed contrast between the rough and ruthless world of Dosadi and the complacent and decadent galactic society.
Second, the moment the protagonist discovers the secrets behind the Dosadi Experiment he is also put on the trail of somewhat sinister ‘shadowy forces’. There isn’t a whole lot to this, but if these forces work, operate, and scheme across racial divides and across the galaxy one wonders how exactly they are not a match for the people of Dosadi. The same applies to some extent to the people the protagonist is most familiar with, the alien Gowachin, whose legal zeal, and the plotting that goes along with it, similarly seem like they should theoretically be quite capable of opposing the people from Dosadi. All the more so as half the people on Dosadi are of their own race!
After I finished the book I browsed through some of the earlier chapters to see if they made more sense to me now that I knew what they were building towards. I was surprised by the degree to which they did, and I might want to go back to this book to see if a second read offers a more balanced view of the story. As it is, though, I don’t think there is a lot here that would surprise readers of other Herbert books – and those who want to explore some of his favourite themes are probably better off with the early Dune novels. -
Herbert takes on politics, government, and the law, as he did for religion in Dune. His usual level of insight makes for great reading, and Jorj X. McKie is always a compelling character. Right up there with Dune for Herbert’s best book, in my opinion. And the ConSentiency universe is much more interesting. Highly recommended.
And read the chapter epigraphs. Great context and humor.
