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    Double Star
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    Double Star
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    Double Star
    Ebook209 pages3 hours

    Double Star

    By Robert A. Heinlein

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Many of Heinlein’s fans consider the novels he wrote in the fifties amongst the author’s strongest work; when he was at the peak of his talents. Double Star is considered by many to be the finest of his titles. Brian Aldiss called it his “most enjoyable novel.”

    Whether it is the simplicity of a lively tale, the complexity of the situation, or the depth of characterization, the book has developed a loyal following. It also won Heinlein his first Hugo.

    The story revolves around Lawrence Smith—also known as “Lorenzo the Great”—a down-and-out actor wasting the remainder of his life in bars.

    When he encounters a space-pilot who offers him a drink, before he knows what is going on, he is on Mars involved in a deep conspiracy with global consequences. He is given a mission where failure would not only mean his own death, it would almost certainly mean an all-out planetary war.

    “Heinlein’s novels of the 1940s and 50s shaped every single science fiction writer of my generation and everyone currently writing science fiction. Or making science fiction movies ... and Double Star is an excellent example of all the reasons why.”—Connie Will

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPhoenix Pick
    Release dateOct 17, 2015
    ISBN9781612422862
    Unavailable
    Double Star
    Author

    Robert A. Heinlein

    Robert A. Heinlein, four-time winner of the Hugo Award and recipient of three Retro Hugos, received the first Grand Master Nebula Award for lifetime achievement. His worldwide bestsellers have been translated into twenty-two languages and include Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, Time Enough for Love, and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. His long-lost first novel, For Us, the Living, was published by Scribner and Pocket Books.

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    Reviews for Double Star

    3.5/5

    711 ratings43 reviews

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    • 3/5
      For many, this is is their favorite Heinlein novel, sitting in the sweet spot of his transition from young adult novels, without the issues of The Puppet Masters. It's for adults, not because there's any sex, but because it's almost all about politics. I can understand why this may be so. It's compulsively readable, despite my critiques to come. The political view is aggressively inclusive. The sexism is typical for 1950's American SF, but not a dominating factor. So why is this not my favorite Heinlein? I don't mind that the book is almost all dialog and monologue, but why then have an opening chapter straight out of a pulp mystery magazine? It's surprisingly weak as science fiction. The story of an actor hired to impersonate a politician kidnapped at a crucial point in his career could easily have been told with no SF elements. The action moves around from Earth to Mars to the Moon, but, like a cheap B movie, stays almost always indoors, with no serious use of the changing locales. The major outdoor scene on Mars, when our hero has to make peace with the Martians, reads just like a pow-wow with Native Americans in the desert. Even its link with Heinlein's post-hoc Future History is limited mostly to passing references to torch ships.Recommended for adults looking to see how Heinlein's writing worked, when it worked well, and not particularly interested in SF. But my favorite Heinlein remains Citizen of the Galaxy.
    • 3/5
      This is a book I would have loved as a kid. Feels dated now. Glad I read it but I was thankful it was short.
    • 4/5
      This was a pretty good book...hope for things to come? (I'm reading his novels in publication order.)

      One observation: a book based on a premise of overcoming prejudice ought not to have racist phrases out of the context of the moral being imparted; phrases such as "make heap big smoke"

      Two particular likes:
      1 - a character referred to the Communist fear phase (of the fifties) as the New Dark Ages. I like that and will borrow it for what I think the right wingers are creating today.
      2 - "Sounding spontaneous is a matter of careful preparation."
    • 4/5
      This is a nice little study of an actor in the very challenging role of having to perfectly emulate a well known public figure--not only to the voters, but to his intimates. It is also a portrait of an insecure, superficially polished, down at the heels man who, though he has great belief in his talents and skill, achieved that skill through his father's abuse, and is a lonely and isolated individual. Through his involvement with a mission he had no personal interest in he is changed in many ways.Not to mention a well paced adventure story.
    • 4/5
      Good. Interesting fast paced read.
    • 3/5
      An interesting read, a little too heavy on the libertarianism for me.
    • 4/5
      I read Stranger in a Strange Land and could barely get through it, so I was not looking forward to reading Double Star. Luckily, they almost seem like they were written by totally different people. Double Star has an engaging plot that is easy to follow and moves at a great clip - everything that Stranger in a Strange Land lacks.
    • 4/5
      This lovable out-of-work actor ends up Supreme Minister of the Empire, retains his humility, and gets the girl. It's evidently a what-if game played with the history of the Lincoln assassination. Very endearing.
    • 4/5
      This was delightful. I just finished Starship Troopers and hated the lectures, characters and the plot. In this the main character is fantastic, the author's own opinions more muted and the plot, although not original, is engaging.
    • 4/5
      This was just fun to read. The narrator made me laugh with his observations & sky high opinion of himself.The political intrigue was paced well & I thoroughly enjoyed it. A quick & easy read.
    • 3/5
      An interesting read, a little too heavy on the libertarianism for me.
    • 4/5
      What would you do if a politician's staff came to you and asked you to be the man's double for a few days because he had been kidnapped? Especially if you were an actor with an enormous ego? Would you turn them down or would you think that this would be an incredible opportunity to show just how good an actor you were?This is the premise of Double Star. It's not a long book, in fact, it's a pretty quick read. However, the situation that the protagonist finds himself in doesn't need very much room to be told. It's a who-dun-it but also an excellent look at the politics of the 1950s on Earth as well as at the author's future history. The 1950s were far from boring, even if President Eisenhower was not the most charismatic man eve to sit in the Oval Office. Between the Cold War, bush wars popping out all over the world (the Vietnam War actually started in 1948 -- we were simply late-comers to it), and angry words were exchanged between even the best of political friends. It was the time of the Communist Conspiracy (which never really existed), Wisconsin's own Joe MacCarthy, and nightmares for every child on earth. Somehow, Heinlein manages to weave all this into his tale of intrigue and ego, and come up with a story about a not so likable man who, because he has to "become" a great leader, actually learns how to lead. This is not a great, earth-changing story. It is, however, one that I come back to every once in a while because it shares that one thing all the Master's books possess -- good writing.
    • 3/5
      You can tell right away that Double Star is from the fifties - almost all sci-fi elements feel ridiculously anachronistic. There are rocket ships, but you still need to dial the operator when you use your car phone; at least two other alien races exist but microfilm is still in use and every executive have a female secretary.

      Luckily the futuristic stuff are more of a backdrop to the straightforward political intrigue that is the plot.
      The narration is heavy on dialogue but is easy to get in to and avoids being lecturing and retrospective.

      In the beginning I felt that Smythe, the narcissistic and self delusional main character, was going to be an 'unreliable narrator' and make me guess what part of the plot really happened. I am a little disappointed that this didn't happen. That being said, I very much liked how the story was told. A pleasant surprise all in all.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      Try this for a scenario: It's 1968. President John Kennedy is just finishing up his second term in office.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 limbYet 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.
    • 4/5
      Double Star is a much more straightforward adventure novel than Heinlein's other famous books, but as such it is very successful. The setting is imaginative, the main character flawed and interesting and there are plenty of sticky situations. Maybe not a masterpiece, but a very enjoyable piece of craftsmanship nevertheless. It does have some interesting insights into politics, and so isn't entirely void of food for thought either.
    • 3/5
      Reasonably entertaining tale of an actor recruited to stand in for a kidnapped political party leader. Comes with all the usual trappings of 50s/60s science fiction, where men are men and women are secretaries, and engineers pilot their rockets using slide rules.
    • 4/5
      One of Heinlein's best, in which down-and-out actor Lorenzo Smythe is drafted as a body-double for a famous statesman. The description of how he does this is fascinating, as is the story of how he has to keep doing it. Lorenzo is an appealing character despite his manifest weaknesses and follies, and actually manages to evolve. An interesting slant on the world of politics -- written in the mid-1950's, years before Reagan began to build a political career.
    • 5/5
      A great short book for thinking about acting and politics. Written for the YA audience, readable by all. SF, but applicable to those who are not particularly enthralled by that genre if they can stomach a little unreality in the mix.
    • 3/5
      A quick and moderately fun read but definitely not meeting my expectations. The book overall was quickly paced with little real story. Basically it touched on racism as the main theme but I found the main character to be mostly unbelievable.
    • 3/5
      This is sort of a retelling of "The Prisoner of Zenda," and the plot succeeds or fails based on whether or not you buy the possibility that, with just a little grease paint and some talent, one man could pass himself off as another, at close range, to people who knew him. The other part of the story is that this man whom you are impersonating is a key political figure in the story of mankind reaching out to the stars. He brings an end to human-centered government, and xenophobic relations between Earth and the other inhabited planets in our Solar System. Heinlein takes on this sort of theme much more powerfully later in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress." This book is more of a romp, with some stuff to think about just coming along for the ride. How different was the world of late 1950's sf publishing. Novels could be 140 pages long. No need for warp drive in order to meet aliens (though some sort of relativity drive makes it possible to get from the Earth to Mars in a matter of weeks), because they're right here! They live on Venus, and Mars, of course. Did we really know so little about conditions on Mars as to think big people-sized creatures could live there, in 1956? Hard to imagine we were that ignorant still. Of course, we had still not one satellite in orbit in 1956, let alone sent any robot vehicles off to the Moon and planets. But canals with shrimp growing in them? And an atmosphere that would allow someone to breath, albeit only for a short period. Mars would kill you in a matter of minutes, it's barely better than the Moon. Several themes of Heinlein's later work are on display here, though he develops them a lot more later on. His whole interest in the impersonating schtick is to explore what it would be like to inhabit another person's...life. In a later work, he has an old man taking over a young woman's body ("Time Enough for Love"). All of this raises interesting questions about what is it I'm talking about when I say "I"? Also, the motif/theme/whatever it is of the Wise Old Man is here, in the person of the politician, Bonforte. He's not preaching and pontificating yet, as he will in later novels, but he is there. I enjoyed reading this, but be prepared for some major boners in future-prediction. There are mountains of microfilm filling up vaults on the Moon, which I'm guessing the "robot brains" (computers) can read somehow. Slide rules still...rule. As another reviewer here said, it's more Ruritania than sf, but what the hey. Give it a read.
    • 3/5
      This is an interesting book about political intrigue and the inner workings of a possible interplanetary, interspecies government. This book shows the rivalry of political dissidents as well as a loyalty not often seen in people today.
    • 4/5
      I like visions of the future from the 1950's. There's always an overload of microfilmed data.
    • 4/5
      This is one of Heinlein's best.
    • 3/5
      This book could be described as a lightweight romp from Heinlein, very entertaining and very readable, except for the philosophical discussions that RAH always manages to insinuate into his stories.Lorenzo Smythe - an actor tagged the Great (especially in his own mind) and whose career is stalled (to put it politely) takes on the role of a lifetime as the impersonator of a major politician in the Galactica. Through his need to mimic this man in entirety we learn about the society of the time, the beliefs of his cadre and the changes being attempted and challenged to the order of the day.It must be emphasised that this book was written many years ago - which can be seen in the writing, in the characterisations of the main players and with some of the obvious outdated technological descriptions - but the xenophobic attitudes, the cynical political manoeuvring and the social structures are still relevant today.Despite the sometimes incredulous assumption of the ease in which the whole deception is delivered I liked Heinlein's description of the structure and philosophy of alien societies, I liked his almost inexhaustible desire for impassioned, innovative men to succeed and I was left to contemplate whether, with enough knowledge, enough innate ability and enough desire, one's own persona can be totally transformed.Light on the science fiction, weak with an improbable premise of a plot - and despite the constraints of the writing of the time - the story still manages to throw up quite a few intelligent questions for a reader to ponder.I read this for a group read on this site and I'm glad I did.
    • 4/5
      One of the more enjoyable Heinlein works, from his early period. The book gets a little bogged down, as his tend to do, with political discussion, but overall it's a good story. The tale begins with a down on his luck actor being hired to be a stand-in for a famous opposition politician, who has been kidnapped. One thing leads to another, and, well, he has so stay in character somewhat longer than originally intended. It's a fast read, but well worth the time
    • 4/5
      This is an interesting book of Heinlein's, one that I picked up well after I had read most of his standards. It seems transitional, in that he is moving away from the straightforward space writing in "Starship Troopers" and moving towards the social and political writing that would make him famous in the Sixties with "A Stranger in a Strange Land." As such it has elements of both worlds, but isn't in either of them.In this book an actor is hired to be a body double for an incapacitated politician during a delicate phase of diplomacy with Mars and the Martians. That really is the essential plot. It is all from one point of view, and the plot unfolds quite linearly, with only a few twists.The characters are starting to sound a lot like they will in Heinlein's later books, particularly like Jubal Harshaw will later. Now, Heinlein was never afraid to have characters stand around and explain why his philosophy of the world was right, but previously that had been subsumed by other things, whereas here it is starting to come further into the foreground. The other major difference here to his earlier career is that there is no military involvement at all in this novel.One huge difference between this and what will come later is the lone female character: late his females will be hyper-compentent, able to do anything kind of gals. This one is a little useless. In most scenes she cries, and she even faints twice. It's a bit embarassing, really. To contrast that, however, there is a strong message of racial tolerance in this book. One of the characters is incredibly afraid of and bigoted towards Martians and is shown the error of his ways. Considering that the book was written in 1956, it was a bold statement.Overall, if you've ever enjoyed a Heinlein book you'll enjoy this one, and if you've always loathed his writing, this won't change your mind. I for one, enjoyed it quite a bit.
    • 3/5
      Only a little dated, cool idea, not deep or trying to be shocking like other books by Heinlien.
    • 3/5
      To be honest, I'm not a big fan of Heinlein; I find that his plots follow a pretty standard formula that he uses in nearly every novel (Starship Troopers is the only exception that I have encountered so far). Nevertheless, I did find this novel's first-person account of a down-and-out actor who finds himself in the most unexpected role imaginable to be surprisingly entertaining. While he fits the story into his formula, he moves the plot forward nicely as his protagonist finds himself further and further immersed in the politics of deception, Still, I couldn't help but think as I read the book how much more interesting the novel would have been had Philip K. Dick written it.