The cops up here seem to find small amounts of pot to be too much paperwork to charge anyone for it, and that's probably the main reason they ever decriminalized small amounts of the stuff. That, and all the small charges probably took the attention away from the dealers and distributors. If they find less than an ounce (which is a LOT just to be carrying around) then they'll likely just take your shit, which is pretty bad too! Otherwise, it's considered trafficking.
But back on topic...
I finally finished The Dosadi Experiment!
It took me a while because I started it in the beginning of the summer, then stopped to re-read Jurassic Park for perhaps the fourth time, then started The Road, then started re-reading Heretics. But finally I forced myself to finish the bitch, and last night I did it!
It was pretty good, if not a little bit confusing. I definitely enjoyed The Whipping Star more. I just found it more of a solid story all-in-all. I was kind of disappointed that Fannie Mae had such a small part in Dosadi. I was half expecting her and McKie to hook up romantically by the end, but Jedrik served that purpose I suppose.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one to be confused by the guilty/innocent thing in the Gowachin arena.
I think I definitely liked the first act more than the rest of the book. Frank took his time more with the prose in the beginning, and I quite liked that.
Some similarities to Dune are hard to miss. The way the Dosadis read eachother a la the Bene Gesserit, the immense populace of fierce fighters conditioned by a brutal planet, the breeding programs, lots more. I wasn't surprised to see McKie refer to Jedrik's inner presence as "Jedrik-within." He does the same thing with Odrade-within and O'Neill-within in The White Plague. Actually, now that I think about it, Dosadi came first, so this would be the first X-within reference that I'm aware of. Unless someone knows of an earlier book where he used the term...
I was relieved to see Bildoon finally do the ego-transfer. You see, I had read A Matter of Traces, The Tactful Saboteur, Whipping Star, and Dosadi all in order
and pretty much all through the latter two, I was wondering why Bildoon wasn't changing egos, since I'm pretty sure McKie said he was about to at any time.
Did anyone else notice the similarity between the Trial of Trials in Dosadi Experiment and the trial at the end of White Plague? Both climactic trials, in which one member of the jury is found to be suddenly "dead" (Herity, Bildoon)... I wonder what that's all about.
I also can't help but wonder if Frank planned a third novel. It would have been cool to see McKie/Jedrik as head of the BuSab in a changing consentiency. Perhaps with Fannie Mae as his secretary?
What do you think? Was it meant to be the consentiency trilogy? Would make an interesting bit of fan-fic... Maybe I'll give it a shot.
Needless to say, it was no match for Dune, but a very interesting story nonetheless.