Double Star

This is a lesser known Heinlein compared to 'Moon', 'Stranger' and 'Troopers' but is as entertaining. I felt that the first half of the novel was better than the last one. ( )

Read this one way back, in HS. A minor Heinlein, but one immensely entertaining, and, in a small way, thought provoking. The provoking part for me was the change in the character of the protagonist (Lorenzo). In the opening pages of the novel he is a second rate, failing, but admittedly talented actor. He is 'prissy', and petty in his thoughts, for example, displaying a physical prejudice against the (harmless and politically associated) Martians of this fictional universe.

As the novel progresses Lorenzo is taught how to impersonate and stand in for a statesman (the man himself having been kidnapped). In doing so he is exposed to a wider world, forced to re-think his beliefs and mis-beliefs, and become a better person.

From my recollection of the Heinlein oeuvre this is one of the few (single) instances where a character changed in this fashion.

The story itself is a ramble through a future, a few centuries hence, when several planets in the solar system have been colonised, and the system government is a constitutional monarchy, with the Hapsburg's on the throne(!) The protagonist is an enlightened politician who fights for equal rights for Martians, Venusians, and everyone (no mention of homosexuals).

A little different from the 'normal' Heinlein—if there is such a thing. ( )

This isn't my favorite Robert Heinlein book, and it's not in my opinion his best book, nor his most famous book, but it may very well be his most fun--science fiction writer Brian Aldiss thought so. It's one of only four of Heinlein novels that won him a Hugo in his lifetime. (The others were Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.) Lorenzo Smythe, an actor who bills himself as the "Great Lorenzo" is shanghaied to Mars and offered the role of a lifetime--to impersonate a kidnapped Mars politician and thus avert interplanetary war. The fun comes from seeing Lorenzo grow into, and play, his role. The book isn't perhaps as thought-provoking as Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but it does have interesting things to say about politics and politicians and has plenty of intrigue and adventure. It's told by Lorenzo himself and he's one of Heinlein's most vivid characters--as befits an actor a fine observer of people around him. The book was published in 1956, and sure, some details social and technological are dated, but it's still tremendously...yeah fun. ( )

Try this for a scenario:
It's 1968.
President Kennedy is just finishing up his second term in office. He's wildly popular.
The President asks for time on television to talk to the nation.
He reveals a deep dark secret: He's NOT John Kennedy.
John F. Kennedy was asassinated in Dallas in 1963 BUT the Democratic Party quickly and secretly hired a good actor to take his place and carry out his programs "for the good of the nation"

I imagine he would just about get that far before the nation rose up in a body and tore him and everyone who supported the mascarade limb from limb

Yet that is the exact premise of Double Star by far my favorite of all Robert A Heinlein's novels.

It's about a down on his luck actor who gets picked up to double "temporarily" for
a leading political figure who has been kidnapped - and then falls ill. But the politico dies - and the actor is asked to stay with the role - perhaps for life!

What's striking is that nobody asks the question - is it ethical for the party and the actor to lie to all the people on four planets who voted for "John Joseph Bonforte" and are going to be handed four years of some "actor fellow" pretending to be Bonforte instead?

Yes, a political leader is not a man but a team we get that. But if the leader of the team dies - then it's a new team? Right?

In the middle of having fun throwing around theatrical slang in the Space Age Heinlein seems to have ignored the main question - would "Bonforte" who believed in honest dealing and open government - agree to have his place taken by a small time (if very well intentioned) actor? Forever? I suspect not.

And people in politics who believe that the solar system would end in fire and flood if their man and their party were out of office give me a quick pain in the you-know-where.

Anyway the book is a good read and short. But if I could conjure up the ghost of Bob Heinlein, that's the first thing I would ask him.

(AFTER I asked him about people on Mars in the far distant future doing calculations of election returns on a SLIDE RULE! ) ( )

In an effort to read more award-winning books, and even more (classic) science fiction, I picked Double Star by Robert Heinlein as my first read of 2012. It is the oldest unread Hugo winner I own, and even though I have 8 books by Heinlein on my shelves (or in boxes, because the shelves are overflowing), I had never read anything by Heinlein.
This is the story of Lorenzo, an actor. It is the future, and mankind has met the Martians, Venetians and other aliens. We have colonies on the moon and live and travel to the planets. There is one great human empire, ruled by the figure-head Emperor Willem (yes, of Orange, great to see our royal house do so well in the future). Lorenzo is contacted to do the acting job of his life, which leads him to a nest of Martians (who he can't stand) and to a meeting with the emperor himself.
The book was written in the fifties, and in some ways shows its age. The only woman is an in-love-with-her-boss secretary, and computers are nowhere to be found (slide rules are still going strong). And except for aliens and space travel, the book isn't really science fiction. It is more about politics and could have taken place on earth, where the aliens are people from a different culture. But all this doesn't matter if you keep it in mind. It is a very enjoyable novel, short but good. Four out of five stars. ( )