Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #859600 in Books
• Published on: 1996-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) was educated at the University of Missouri and the US Naval Academy, Annapolis. He served as a naval officer for five years but retired in 1934 due to ill health. He then studied physics at UCLA before beginning to publish sf with ‘Lifeline’ for Astounding Science Fiction in 1939. Among his many novels are The Door into Summer, Double Star, Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Customer Reviews

What Price, To Play the Boards?
The year is 1956. Eisenhower is in the White House, following a long line of military men to reach that post. And this slim book appears, presenting the wild idea of an actor, perhaps not even a very good actor, who manages to reach the position of head of state. Obviously an idea like this could only appear within the realm of science fiction! What a difference in perspective an additional twenty five years will make, as once more science fiction becomes fact.

The route Lorenzo Smythe takes to reach this post is, however, just a little different from that of the real-world actor. The Great Lorenzo, as he styles himself, is conceited, arrogant, out of work, and down to his last half-Imperial when he is offered the job of doubling for a well-known political figure. The job is so obviously beneath his dignity that he is ready to turn down the offer when the Martians take a hand, and Lorenzo finds himself involved in murder, kidnapping, and slicing both humans and Martians into small pieces to flush down the disposal.

Forced by these circumstances to take the job, Lorenzo is even more disturbed when he finds out the identity of the person he is supposed to double for, none other that the leader of the opposition party, Joseph Bonforte, whose politics, what little he knows of them, he despises. But his own inflated idea of his abilities allows him to steady down and start studying for the role, a role he will play for much longer than he could ever anticipate.

This book is a character study, carefully and artfully detailing how Lorenzo changes under the influence of having to pretend to be someone he is not, aided by the immediate staff of the man he impersonates. It is fascinating to watch him change from someone you probably wouldn't invite into your home, to confused and beginning to search for some moral basis to his life beyond 'the show must go on', and finally to a man doing his best not just for himself, but for all intelligent beings, truly becoming the man he is portraying.

The other characters here are pretty sketchy, mainly props to help move the plot and aid Lorenzo. This is most noticeable with Penny, Bonforte's personal secretary, who suffers from the typical Heinlein failing (at that point in his writing career) of portraying women as one-dimensional beings. However, this limited portrayal of these secondary characters does not detract from, but rather enhances by contrast the masterful portrayal of Lorenzo.

Heinlein makes good use of his own experience in running for the California State legislature, as he describes the mechanics of running a political campaign, just how decisions are reached, how dependent a politician is upon the quality of the staff he selects, so that these items ring with real-world ambience. This is also probably the first book that clearly showed his leaning towards what would now be called Libertarianism, but this exposition is fairly muted, unlike some of his later works. And it wouldn't be a Heinlein book without his side commentaries: here he covers monarchies, civil servants, patronage, media management, taxes, unions, truth and lies, prejudice and xenophobia.

Published at a time when a novel of character was practically unheard of in the science fiction world, this work, like so many others by Heinlein, expanded the boundaries of the field, another step in lifting it out of its self-imposed pulp ghetto and back to the world of literature. This is probably part of the reason this book earned Heinlein his first of five Hugo awards for best novel of the year, a record matched by no other author. The rest of the reason? It's a fun, fast, great read; a story that hasn't lost its power to engross, entertain, and expand your view of the world.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

Heinlein's 1956 Hugo Award winning novel
While Double Star did win the Hugo Award for the best science fiction novel of 1956, I would not call it one of Heinlein's most important works, nor would I rate it as highly as a good number of his other novels. It's a great story, but it strikes me as rather peculiar. There is not a great deal of science fiction in the book, for one thing. More importantly, although the plot revolves around politics, Double Star is much less political than many of Heinlein's other novels. No great questions are probed very deeply, and one finds oneself entertained more than intellectually stimulated or morally challenged. Here's the story in a nutshell. Lorenzo Smythe (aka The Great Lorenzo) is a fairly good actor currently down on his luck. A seemingly chance encounter with a space man lands him a role he never dreamed of playing. At first, he is only told that the job involves impersonating an important person. Two dead men and one dead Martian later, he finds himself rather unhappily bound for Mars, and he soon learns that his assignment, which he has reluctantly agreed to, is to play none other than John Joseph Bonforte, the head of the Expansionist movement, a man loved and hated passionately throughout the solar system. The real Bonforte has been kidnapped just days before an important event. If Bonforte misses that event, in which he will be formally adopted into Mars' most prominent native family, all of the goals of the Expansionist movement may well be doomed to failure. Smythe gives the performance of his life, but his hopes of returning home are squashed when the real Bonforte is recovered in very bad health. Smythe is asked to continue the charade just a little longer. One thing leads to another, and he finds himself essentially becoming Bonforte, holding the Expansionist party together by his presence and working to make Bonforte's goals a reality. His original self had no interest in politics and had a natural aversion to Martians, but Smythe changes fundamentally as his command performance extends from one encore after another.

Some readers may say that there is too much politics in this book; this is true only insofar as the story is about politics. I really would not call the story political at all. Besides expressing an argument for the equality of all members of the empire, be they Martian, Venusian, Jovian, Terran, etc., the story is relatively free of the types of political and philosophical arguments that typify many of Heinlein's later novels. Those readers uninterested in politics should not pass this novel over out of a fear of politicization. Double Star is a very entertaining story and a fairly quick read. There is nothing earth-shattering or conscience paradigm-shifting about it, and that is the reason I am somewhat surprised that it received the Hugo award. This actually would be a good crossover introduction to Heinlein for readers not interested in science fiction in and of itself.

An all-time favorite
This was one of the first books I read when I discovered sf at the age of 13. I recently re-read it, expecting something that would entertain a wide-eyed teenager, and found something else entirely. A beautiful, funny, poignant and dramatic tale, full of passion and pathos.

Despite numerous trips around the solar-system and a planet full of martians, it never loses credibility, much thanks to the lead character. Lorenzo Smythe is unforgettable.

What's left to say, except for: READ IT!