The novel “The Dosadi Experiment” by Frank Herbert published in 1977 is set in the same universe as “Whipping Star“.
The protagonist is once more the saboteur extraordinary Jorj X. McKie who, while working for the BuSab, discovers that the planet Dosadi hosts a secret experiment carried on by a Gowachin faction with help from members of other species. On Dosadi humans and Gowachin taken from other planets are submitted to a selective memory wipe and put into an isolated society with limited technology.
What’s the goal of the experiment? And why at a certain point the experiment starters want to stop it with violence, killing all the test subjects?
Jorj X. McKie, despite being a human, practices law before the Gowachin tribunals. The Gowachins have a legal system which is sophisticated and flexible but also brutal because one of its principles is that in a trial, to have justice, there must be the chance that everybody who’s taking part to it could end up dead. The saboteur extraordinary will have to fight on several fronts not only for his life but for the Dosadi inhabitants lives too.
Once more Frank Herbert created a sophisticated insterstellar mosaic with some similarities with the Dune saga, though he doesn’t reach the same complexity. In “The Dosadi Experiment” we have in fact a struggle among various factions, each with their own agenda focused on a specific planet. We also have a protagonist who gets involved in the conspiracy and will be changed by the planet he’s forced to go to though he knows that he might get into a trap. Just like in the intrigue around Arrakis, behind the appearences there are hidden truths, not necessarily the ultimate ones.
Despite those similarities there are peculiar elements in this novel, starting with the fact that in “The Dosadi Experiment” various species are involved, each with its own phisical and cultural features. The planet Dosadi is a secret place while Arrakis is a pivotal place in the civilization of the Dune saga.
Though “The Dosadi Experiment” is set in the same univers as “Whipping Star” the two novels are very different: Frank Herbert didn’t write another story made mostly of conversations centered around communications problems between two of the protagonists but he used a more conventional plot, as conventional as a story written by Frank Herbert can be. For this reason “The Dosadi Experiment” is a novel that I can recommend to all science fiction fans.
