We all have our favourites. Something that we hold close to our hearts and cherish.
When it comes to sci fi characters, it will come as no surprise to those who know me that my all-time favourite is Duncan Idaho, from the Dune series.
Duncan Idaho started off as a minor player in the first instalment of Dune, as the security and weapons advisor to House Atreides. In Dune, he sacrificed himself by launching a full attack on the Emperors elite Sardauker Troops, to give Paul and Lady Jessica the time required to escape to the desert. We learn in later novels that he managed to best 19 of them before finally falling due to ‘massive head trauma’.
Being an instant fan favourite, he was wisely revived, as a Ghola, and is now the only character to be present in every Dune novel written.
So what is it that made Duncan so popular? I read the first Dune novel in my early teens, what made him such an attractive character was his loyalty to House Atreides, and his awesome combat skills. Simple stuff.
Later, as Duncan was revived time and time again to serve first Paul God Emperor, then later the Bene Gesserits, Duncan’s character becomes much more complex. He still had his loyalty to House Atreides, but this was tempered by his utter disgust at what the Atreide’s had become. Paul reveals that, of the Duncan Ghola’s that had been created in the thousands of years since his initial death, only 19 had died naturally. The rest had been killed by Paul after failed assassination attempts by Duncan on his master.
In the years of his service to the Bene Gesserits, Duncan became even more powerful. Eventually being revealed as the true Kwisatz Haderach in the final novel. By this stage, Duncan Idaho had harnessed the physical and sexual powers of the Honoured Matres and the Bene Gesserits, but kept hold of his humanity and emotional attachments.
Throughout all the novels Duncan maintains his every-personness (is this a word?). Being reborn constantly also means that the huge timeline of the series (spanning thousands of years), doesn’t become too burdensome for the reader, as Duncan is as bewildered as we are by the changes that have occurred in the intervening years.
So out of all of the Duncan’s we have seen, which one is my favourite? It has to be the Duncan Idaho from Children of Dune. His final words to Paul after goading Stilgar to murder him “two deaths for House Atreides. The second for no better reason than the first” sum up pre- Kwisatz Haderach Duncan perfectly. He is resigned to being used. And eventually sacrificed, by those that he loves.
So do you have a sci fi character that is a favourite?
When it comes to sci fi characters, it will come as no surprise to those who know me that my all-time favourite is Duncan Idaho, from the Dune series.
Duncan Idaho started off as a minor player in the first instalment of Dune, as the security and weapons advisor to House Atreides. In Dune, he sacrificed himself by launching a full attack on the Emperors elite Sardauker Troops, to give Paul and Lady Jessica the time required to escape to the desert. We learn in later novels that he managed to best 19 of them before finally falling due to ‘massive head trauma’.
Being an instant fan favourite, he was wisely revived, as a Ghola, and is now the only character to be present in every Dune novel written.
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| Illustration by Jim Burns for F Herbet's Road to Dune |
So what is it that made Duncan so popular? I read the first Dune novel in my early teens, what made him such an attractive character was his loyalty to House Atreides, and his awesome combat skills. Simple stuff.
Later, as Duncan was revived time and time again to serve first Paul God Emperor, then later the Bene Gesserits, Duncan’s character becomes much more complex. He still had his loyalty to House Atreides, but this was tempered by his utter disgust at what the Atreide’s had become. Paul reveals that, of the Duncan Ghola’s that had been created in the thousands of years since his initial death, only 19 had died naturally. The rest had been killed by Paul after failed assassination attempts by Duncan on his master.
In the years of his service to the Bene Gesserits, Duncan became even more powerful. Eventually being revealed as the true Kwisatz Haderach in the final novel. By this stage, Duncan Idaho had harnessed the physical and sexual powers of the Honoured Matres and the Bene Gesserits, but kept hold of his humanity and emotional attachments.
Throughout all the novels Duncan maintains his every-personness (is this a word?). Being reborn constantly also means that the huge timeline of the series (spanning thousands of years), doesn’t become too burdensome for the reader, as Duncan is as bewildered as we are by the changes that have occurred in the intervening years.
So out of all of the Duncan’s we have seen, which one is my favourite? It has to be the Duncan Idaho from Children of Dune. His final words to Paul after goading Stilgar to murder him “two deaths for House Atreides. The second for no better reason than the first” sum up pre- Kwisatz Haderach Duncan perfectly. He is resigned to being used. And eventually sacrificed, by those that he loves.
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