Keep reading, because it isn't as simple as this meme suggests.
The only chartacter to appear in all 6 original novels and at least 9 Brian books. A real MC of entire Dune.
Yeah, i noticed the trend with scifi books where authors attempt to solve the lack of socialism in the future of their universes. Usually they are smart enough to arrive at the conclusion that capitalism/feudalism will lead to extinction of humanity, but HUMANITY FUCK YEAH trope is also ruling out the transhumanism or transcendence for all, hence they often arrive at the ignorant masses ruled by godly human.
I just think it’s funny as fuck. Like I can’t help but think the whole character of Duncan Idaho was intended as very low key comic relief.
Definitely not at first, but remember that Herbert didn't planned next books at all, he just wrote with the flow, hence some characters take weird twists between the books. Especially Duncan as Hayt was serious as fuck, but something snapped after his hilarious death scene and when we see him next in the God Emperor he's already quite funny.
lack of socialism in the future of their universes
Do you have any sci-fi book recommendations where that is not the case?
Outside of obscure Polish and Russian sci-fi, not really, Star Trek is closest i ever seen in English. There's also Fire on the Mountain but imo it's incredibly boring and supposedly Red Mars trilogy but i didn't read it yet.
Leaving your own son to make the sacrifices necessary for the golden path because you were too scared? I can relate, but hero behaviour that is not.
Best move he could do was destroy the spice at the end of book one. It wouldn't even necessary killed him and Fremen, they could save enough to sustain the addiction for decades and the next generation of Fremen would grow clean of it (spice addiction was not genetic), though to be fair someone would probably nuked Arrakis after this out of sheer spite. But destroying the spice would also destroy all the parasites of humanity: Guild, CHOAM, Empire itself, most of nobility, the transhumanist sects. Most of population was living in the feudal subsistence anyway and didn't had any contacts with other worlds, so they wouldn't be affected. Muad'dib Jihad, Golden Path, hunger and scattering would not happen, most importantly the final enemies would also not come, Honored Matress would not happily nuke their way through galaxy (since as you probably noticed Golden Path was a way to avoid the consequences of the Golden Path itself).
Eventually humanity of the shattered empire would again turned to the pre-Holtzmann FTL methods or invent navigational computer (and i bet it would take shorter time than millenia of Leto II rule), and galaxy would be alive again, but without magical opium fucking everything and secret superhuman cabals. Renewed reliance on technology could even break the Butlerian Jihad tenets which were the reason of the fucked up Empire dystopia in the first place.
