The Dosadi Experiment [Mass Market Paperback]

Frank Herbert (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Ballantine (1981)
• ASIN: B001I7MMZK
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Frank Herbert (1920-86) was born in Tacoma, Washington and worked as a reporter and later editor of a number of West Coast newspapers before becoming a full-time writer. His first sf story was published in 1952 but he achieved fame more than ten years later with the publication in Analog of Dune World and The Prophet of Dune that were amalgamated in the novel Dune in 1965.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Herbert's Best, which says a whole lot, September 16, 2002

By 

718 Session (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dosadi Experiment (Mass Market Paperback)

Frank Herbert deserves his rep as one of the greatest science fiction writers. Dune, his most popular book (with 2 film adaptations) is an incredible epic. This book, however, is something that has stuck with me and improved with every reading. It a superior work in a lot of ways.

Some spoiler-free background:

Like a James Bond in the future, 500-year-old Jorge McKie is an agent for the government. The government in question is the ConSentiency: an amalgam of all sentient races in the galaxy worknig to keep the peace. This alone is an incredibly difficult prospect, for surly a race with a different biology and a different culture would come up with a different set of laws. How could such a thing as a ConSentiency exist? Making things more difficult are two relatively new uphevals: 1> that stars are sentent beings, and 2> stars themselves allow instant travel from place to place in the galaxy.

And now, as our story starts, the uneasy peace is threatened by an experiment: 200 years previously, a race of aliens has created Dosadi: a poison planet inhabited with kidnapped humans and aliens who have had their memories erased and been dumped on the planet to fend for themselves. How will they survive when cut off from the rest of the galaxy and not given enough resources?

The makers of Dosadi hope to learn how to improve their own race, but their creation becomes something else entirely. It is horror enough that this world exists, but what to do with the experiment? McKie, with the fate of the entire planet in his hands, is ordered to visit the planet and discover for himself.

All of this is revealed in the first few chapters, and I won't go into any more plot detail. The beauty of this book, though, is the extremes of the ConSentiency and Dosadi; and the truly alien nature of the aliens. Herbert fills the ConSentiency and Dosadi with many layers of meaning that unpeel before the readers eyes. McKie is a character who has dedicated his life to reaching for the alien shore (his expertise is in alien law and ethics). When McKie travels to Dosadi, he will find how life-altering his vocation can be.

I'd also like to add that few authors could write a book that includes a courtroom drama so completly alien and so compelling.

This is a wonderful book. Some passages ring so piercingly that you just have to put the book down and absorb them. Dosadi is an unpleasant world, to be sure, but it works as a nice stand-in for our own. And there are a ton of ethical questions abounding in this book, not that Frank is one to hit you over the head with them. For in addition to all of the philosophy and metaphysics, it is a ripping good yarn.

Note: "The Dosadi Experiment" takes place in the same universe as "The Whipping Star" and "The Artful Saboteaur", but it is NOT a sequal and it can be read on its own.

Enjoy!

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite "non-Dune" Herbert novels, September 26, 2002

By 

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dosadi Experiment (Mass Market Paperback)

Yes, Frank Herbert wrote other novels than the "Dune" series. Of these, "The Dosadi Experiment" is by far one of the best.

Dosadi is an artificially populated planet with a dark, dark secret. Jorg X. McKie, who was introduced in a companion novel "Whipping Star" is sent to investigate the goings-on on Dosadi, an assignment that could very well lead to his destruction.

Dosadi is a toxic planet, where survivors live either in an overpopulated fortress of a city and survive on their wits, or struggle to live on the poisonous Rim, where the very soil and plants are enemies. The people of Dosadi are tough indeed, but they are a lot more than just tough survivors. They hold a desperate secret that could upset the balance of the rest of the galaxy.

McKie's struggle to survive and to discover Dosadi's secrets make for a really exciting tale. The characters are vivid, creative (all kinds of sentient species) and very interesting. If you love good science fiction, this is a must-read.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars more of Herbert's mastery of the closed society topic, July 16, 2000

By 

J. K. Kelley "literary mercenary" (Eastern WA, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dosadi Experiment (Hardcover)

If you read Dune (or almost any other Herbert book) you know that one of his favourite themes is that of the sequestered/closed society in a harsh environment. No one ever did it as well.

_Dosadi_ offers a lot. It offers a very interesting alien race (well, more than one, but one that gets the most attention) that is truly alien, with a fascinating legal system that questions the basic assumptions we start with. The plot unfolds like a sunrise, letting out bits of information gradually until the reader comes to understand just what a monstrous timebomb has been created by shortsighted beings. The protagonist and other main characters are well-described and interesting, as is the interplay among them.

This is not light reading, but if you like fiction that inspires you to question your assumptions, this is one of the best examples of same. Especially recommended to those with an interest in the topic of law and legal proceedings, or to anyone who has already decided they like Herbert's style.