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Double Star

Robert A. Heinlein

3.91 · Rating details · 22,618 ratings · 799 reviews

One minute, down and out actor Lorenzo Smythe was — as usual — in a bar, drinking away his troubles as he watched his career go down the tubes. Then a space pilot bought him a drink, and the next thing Smythe knew, he was shanghaied to Mars.

Suddenly he found himself agreeing to the most difficult role of his career: impersonating an important politician who had been kidnap ...more

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Mass Market Paperback, 243 pages

Published October 12th 1986 by Del Rey (first published April 1956)

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Jul 21, 2013 picoas picoas rated it liked it

Shelves: 2017, 1992

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

Pax Americana: "Double Star" by Robert A. Heinlein

Implausible and impossible to put down- like all of Heinlein’s books I’ve read its hero is a man of action and boundless self confidence, a wisecracking all-American cowboy figure who brushes obstacles aside, a genial dictator figure who knows that as long as he’s left in charge everything will be o.k. The voice is always the same – and I can see why the new wake of science fiction writ ...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: stole-from-dad, science-fiction

Review also posted at Fantasy Literature.

In Double Star, a 1956 Robert Heinlein novella, Lawrence Smith (aka Lorenzo Smythe or "Lorenzo the Great"), an out-of-work actor, accepts a job to impersonate a man for a few days, without, perhaps, asking as many questions about the job as he should have. He promptly finds himself whisked off to the planet Mars, standing in for one of the most important political figures in the solar system, who has been kidnapped. Larry's first task: fool the Martians ...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Lyn rated it really liked it

Really enjoyed this.

Heinlein's first but least recognized Hugo Award winner. Like many of his better works, this is a science fiction vehicle that he uses to discuss other issues, here he spends time with politics, maybe even adding some subtle, and not too subtle ideas about what he thinks is right and wrong in politics.

Not consistent with other novels about Martians, or his future fiction in other books, but excellent characterization and a fun story. Borrows heavily from the Prisoner of Zen ...more

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May 15, 2010 Michael rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1950s, fiction-that-speculates

Before I begin, I'd like to thank you all for choosing to read this review today. It is you who actively participate in the Goodreads community that are the pulsating heart of this great country, _____. (Insert your country name here.) Without your efforts, intellectual life everywhere would be sure to stagnate. This has always been my position, and I am a man with firm convictions, never changing my mind about anything.

Just yesterday, a young, impoverished child asked me how I was going to hel
Before I begin, I'd like to thank you all for choosing to read this review today. It is you who actively participate in the Goodreads community that are the pulsating heart of this great country, _____. (Insert your country name here.) Without your efforts, intellectual life everywhere would be sure to stagnate. This has always been my position, and I am a man with firm convictions, never changing my mind about anything.

Just yesterday, a young, impoverished child asked me how I was going to help improve this country if I am elected Czar. And I said...*checks notes on palm*...lower taxes by wagging war--wagging war? Oh, uh, sorry--WAGING war...on evil countries full of terrorists. I also prioritize putting children first, and also putting the environment and our future first.

It is my pleasure to discuss Double Star this afternoon. Double Star is a terrific book of mine, and I've known it for several weeks. Honestly, I can only say nice things about it. Having won the Hugo in...some year...it is a book with the greatest of accolades to its name.

It's the story of an actor asked to play the most challenging and dangerous role of his life: representing a politician during a ceremony that, if it isn't conducted exactly right, could mean death. But after the ceremony, the politician isn't yet ready to return to his duties, and the actor is hired for another job.

Witty and fast-paced, Double Star is very fun, and I can't honestly say whether I liked this or Starship Troopers better. Yes, I can. I liked this one better because at the end of the day, the message here was, "Politicians can be replaced by decent actors without anyone noticing," whereas the message in Starship Troopers was "Woo Haa! Go team!" While I give full credit to those willing to serve in the armed forces of ________, and I'm aware that they are the pulsating heart of this great country, and without them, nobody would protect our borders from those dangerous terrorists and immigrants, I relate more with the former message.

It is truly a shame that so many of our representatives seem to simply say what they think people want to hear, but unfortunately, some people are stupid enough that they can get away with it. Not you people, though, you people are the foundation that this country is built upon. It's time we take back this country from bland, insipid politicians, and put someone with real positions on the issues back in office! And I have positions! On the issues!

I believe that our children shouldn't take drugs, and education is important! Unlike you-know-who, who wants to undermine all the values that you hold dear! Say no to socialism and fascism! And vote like a patriot! Vote for our future! Vote for me! Click "yes" below, and take a stand for values! You like values, right? ...more

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Apr 05, 2019 HBalikov rated it really liked it

I read this book growing up and I can’t tell you exactly why I remembered liking it, but a friend was recently reading it and I decided to add it to my list.

There is a lot of hit or miss on the Heinlein bookshelf and I can respect those who don’t find this one interesting. First, it really isn’t focused on the science fiction though we get a lot of what RAH imagines about humans spreading out in the solar system. Second, the lead character isn’t (in Heinlein’s terms) “a spaceman.” He is a somewh ...more

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Feb 13, 2009 Manny rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

Brian Aldiss, in Trillion Year Spree, says this is Heinlein's most enjoyable novel. Who am I to fault his judgment? It is, indeed, a lot of fun: pathetic, failed actor Laurence Smith (stage name, "Lorenzo Smythe") is hired to impersonate John Joseph Bonforte, leader of the Expansionist party, and the Solar System's most important politician. Bonforte has been kidnapped, and for complicated reasons there is an appointment he must attend; no excuse will be acceptable if he fails to turn up on time Brian Aldiss, in Trillion Year Spree, says this is Heinlein's most enjoyable novel. Who am I to fault his judgment? It is, indeed, a lot of fun: pathetic, failed actor Laurence Smith (stage name, "Lorenzo Smythe") is hired to impersonate John Joseph Bonforte, leader of the Expansionist party, and the Solar System's most important politician. Bonforte has been kidnapped, and for complicated reasons there is an appointment he must attend; no excuse will be acceptable if he fails to turn up on time.

So Smythe is drafted in, proceeds to learn Bonforte's mannerisms and background story, and starts his unusual new job. The first public appearance goes fine, and no one suspects a thing. Then he has to do another one, and then yet another. Pretty soon he's living Bonforte's life for him. I don't want to give away too much of a fun plot, but the basic message is that politicians, even good ones like Bonforte, are fakes. Any halfway competent actor with a few weeks of prep time could step into their shoes, and they would do just as well.

I think Heinlein was unusually prescient here. When he wrote it, remember that there was no Reagan or Schwarzenegger. And even now, the book has some punch left. Politics is less and less about ideas, more and more about appearances; you need a good script, and the ability to project your character in a convincing way. For a couple of weeks in 2008, it looked like Sarah Palin had a decent shot at becoming Vice President (and maybe, later, President), largely on the strength of her "hockey mom" persona. It now seems that that was largely a construct, but I believed it at the time, even though I didn't like it.

In England, it appears that we're going to get David Cameron as our next Prime Minister. He's a Conservative, and he's campaigning on a platform of helping the poor and the environment; it's difficult to believe it's any more honest than Dubya's "compassionate conservatism". But that's not the important thing. He interprets the role imaginatively, and he looks convincing; if this were the Oscars, I'd be tipping him for a statuette, and most voters are viewing the election in pretty much that way. Heinlein had a point.

...more

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Nov 22, 2015 David rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Actors, politicians, and liars (but I repeat myself), Martianphobes

Shelves: heinleinesque, audiobook, science-fiction

This is one of Heinlein's early novels, which you can tell by the brevity and the lack of wankery. Also the fact that he just jumps straight into the story and never wastes much time on exposition.

This is in fact one of Heinlein's greatest strengths, and I think a major reason for his grandmaster status — he may be a bit out of fashion nowadays, and he often lost the plot in his later works, but he was first and foremost a storyteller. A spinner of yarns, a teller of tales, and if readers freque This is one of Heinlein's early novels, which you can tell by the brevity and the lack of wankery. Also the fact that he just jumps straight into the story and never wastes much time on exposition.

This is in fact one of Heinlein's greatest strengths, and I think a major reason for his grandmaster status — he may be a bit out of fashion nowadays, and he often lost the plot in his later works, but he was first and foremost a storyteller. A spinner of yarns, a teller of tales, and if readers frequently read too much into the author's id because of what his characters did, that was their own lookout.

Double Star is typical of Heinlein SF. We get a fully sketched out (but barely described) interplanetary society, in which the United States still exists as a sovereign state, in cooperation with an Empire that governs across the solar system. Mars is its own planet, and the alien Martians coexist with humanity, with some on both sides wanting the two races to join together, while others are violent separatists. All of this plus the spacefaring technology, which is on the slightly soft side of hard SF, but presents nothing particularly outlandish for this rocket ships and BEM era story.

What makes Heinlein a master of his craft is that he drops us into this universe and makes it all perfectly understandable (the parts that aren't really explained don't matter), without devoting a single chapter, in fact barely a paragraph, to exposition. What exposition there is is all through character dialog, and it all happens through action rather than "As You Know Bob" conversations. Hence, our main character, Lorenzo Smythe, who is a Martianphobe who winds up having to impersonate a politician who is involved in an important formal ritual to become an honorary Martian, tells us everything we need to know about Martians between dodging murder attempts by a renegade faction of Martians (this happens in the first few pages of the book) and whining about how much he dislikes Martians on his hasty trip to go make friends with them.

Heinlein characters are always a bit freakishly competent, which is why we're supposed to believe that Lorenzo is such a great actor that even though he was grabbed seemingly at the last moment by a couple of a shady men needing him to impersonate a famous politician at a moment's notice, he manages to fool almost everyone around his subject, from the Martians to the Emperor.

There are even some space politics in this book, though Heinlein is blamed for soapboxing more than he actually did, and while there are hints of his usual rugged self-reliance and free trade philosophy, nothing is too obviously on the nose with regards to real-world politics. Are the Martians a metaphor for some Earthly Other? Maybe - you could read them that way, but sometimes a Martian is just a Martian. Likewise, the politician he is impersonating, one of those rare honest sorts who honestly is trying to do the right thing for his nation and his constituents, could easily be read as a liberal or a conservative or any other sort of party member.

This was in fact a pretty fast-paced yarn about political conspiracies and diplomatic maneuvers that could have easily been told without the sci-fi trappings. Heinlein added spaceships and Martians because that's the kind of story he wrote, but I'll bet non-SF readers would enjoy this story just as much if it had been written as a "mundane" conspiracy thriller.

This is not his most exciting or imaginative work, but it is a good showcase of Heinlein's early style, and his talents as a writer. ...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, wwe-grandmasters-challenge, wwe_grandmasters_challenge

A couple of years ago I attended an event at which Connie Willis spoke about her research for Blackout and All Clear. She referenced numerous romantic comedies and several war movies in addition to her factual historic research. I don't recall that she brought up many works of fiction, but Double Star was one of them, and it stuck in my mind as something I wanted to read. Between the Hugo win and the subject matter, I thought it would be worth a try.
Willis said that Double Star was inspired by the story of M.E. Clifton James, who was sent to North Africa and Gibraltar in Field Marshal Montgomery's place in order to confuse the Germans. She borrowed these events in her own depiction of the intelligence war. Heinlein's version is less madcap than the Willis version, and possibly less madcap than the true story, given that James was an alcoholic and a smoker (and was missing a finger!) and Montgomery was not.
Double Star is fast paced and somehow manages a light tone despite the serious subject matter. The Great Lorenzo (nee Lawrence Smith) is an out of work actor when he is plucked out of a bar to perform the role of a lifetime: impersonating the kidnapped Expansionist leader John Joseph Bonforte.
At the beginning, the actor's character is painted somewhat broadly. He spends a lot of time talking about his own acting chops, and it takes the reader a while to trust that he is actually as good as he says. This journey mimics that of Bonforte's inner circle, who agree to the deception out of desperation, but have little confidence that it will work.
Most of this shortish novel takes place over the span of a few weeks. It manages to flesh out the political situation fairly quickly, and with enough depth that there is a sense of what is at stake in the impersonation gambit. The character development of the support players is a little lacking, but Smith is fully realized, as is Bonforte in a more oblique fashion. It's interesting to see Smith's own fears and prejudice and strong personality twist to conform with the role he is forced to play.
On the whole, I think this book has aged well, but as usual with mid-century SF, I had some issues with the characterization of women. Smith learned his profession from his father, but doesn't seem to have had a mother to speak of. Bonforte's assistant, Penny, is intelligent, but also moody and petulant and subject to fainting spells. She is also deep in unrequited love for Bonforte. Thankfully, she is only threatened with a spanking once by a co-worker. If it had been twice I would have been tempted to put the book down.
I'm glad I didn't put it down. I was impressed by the taut plotting and the contained timeline. I'd be very curious to find out where the breaks were in the original Astounding serialization. The will-he-be-found-out moments dripped with suspense, and Smith's personal journey was well depicted. This is a worthy Hugo winner, and I'd place it near the top of my personal best-of-Heinlein list.
...more

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Dec 03, 2017 Celise rated it it was ok

Shelves: sci-fi

Washed-up actor Lorenzo Smythe accepts the role of his lifetime- to impersonate a politician who has been kidnapped, right before both an important meeting meant to unite Humans and Martians. Failure to show up could result in a war between planets.

This book was originally published in 1956 and it certainly felt dated to me. Despite human existence now being on an interplanetary level, this is very much an American story with a limited scope. Lorenzo often doesn't refer to Humankind as being fro ...more

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Jul 04, 2016 Peter Tillman rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: friend-recos, science-fiction, hist-fiction

I started this reread at the recommendation of Jo Walton, who wrote that “Double Star may well be Heinlein’s best novel.” https://www.tor.com/2010/07/22/parlia... It won the 1956 Hugo award for best novel. I don’t think I’ve ever reread it, since I checked it out of the library in 1960 or so.

I’m finding it very much a book of its time, and I’m regularly hitting crude, clunky stuff that throws me out of the narrative. You’ve read the blurb, right? Well, Penny, the Chief’s secretary who is is said ...more

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Jun 16, 2013 Stuart rated it really liked it

Shelves: satirical-humorous, favorites, classic-sf

Double Star: No second-rate actor could ever become president, right?
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Double Star is one of Robert Heinlein’s most enjoyable early period SF novels, a short and tightly-plotted story of out-of-work actor Lawrence Smith (aka “The Great Lorenzo”), who is unexpectedly tapped for a very important acting job, to impersonate an important politician named John Bonforte who has been kidnapped. Initially the job is supposed to be just short-term until the real guy ca Double Star: No second-rate actor could ever become president, right?
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Double Star is one of Robert Heinlein’s most enjoyable early period SF novels, a short and tightly-plotted story of out-of-work actor Lawrence Smith (aka “The Great Lorenzo”), who is unexpectedly tapped for a very important acting job, to impersonate an important politician named John Bonforte who has been kidnapped. Initially the job is supposed to be just short-term until the real guy can be rescued, but as things drag out, this becomes more difficult. Even more surprisingly, Lorenzo finds he is actually getting quite good at impersonating Bonforte, and has started to understand and sympathize with his politics as well. But how far can this situation go before somebody blows his cover…

Published in 1956 and winner of the Hugo Award, this book is perfectly paced, with great supporting characters and plenty of twists and turns. The characteristic Heinlein wit is effortless, and even when he discusses politics, it doesn’t get tiresome. More than anything, what amazing foresight he had. I mean, that would be unthinkable that an action star or second-rate actor could be a governor, or even, God forbid, President of the United States, right?

While Double Star is a great novel, I have mixed feelings about the works of Dean and Grand Master of Science Fiction, Robert Heinlein. I couldn’t stand Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land, but loved The Door Into Summer and Double Star. I found much to admire in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress but also got tired of some of the lecturing. You couldn’t find a more opinionated person on the subjects of politics (liberal and conservative), personal responsibility to society, the military, criticism of organized religion, sexual freedom, libertarianism, very mixed attitudes (both admiring and condescending) towards women, and of course a great enthusiasm for depicting realistic future societies of all kinds.

His early books (haven’t read the juveniles, though I’m sure they were great for young folks growing up in the early 1950s) are really fun, with exciting plots, snarky dialogue, plucky characters, and interesting ideas. His middle stuff gets much further into exploring his ideas about politics, sex and religion, and his later stuff is almost unreadable, bloated, self-indulgent explorations of his own inner obsessions, with a healthy dollop of incest and kinky sex. I’m sure those books would never have been published if they were written by anyone other than Heinlein.

In the end, the SF genre has been enriched immeasurably by the presence of Robert Heinlein, along with his fellow giants Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov, and the genre will probably never see his like again. ...more

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Nov 10, 2008 Stephen rated it really liked it

Shelves: award-winner-hugo, audiobook, award-nominee-hugo, sf-adventures-investigations-and-mi

4.0 to 4.5 stars. Of the Heinlein novels I have read, this one is my second favorite after The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. I have always been a fan of the "idea" portions of Heinlein's stories but sometimes have found the actual plots a bit dry. Not so with this one which I really liked from both an idea and plot perspective.

In brief, the story revolves around a talented, but unemploted, actor named Lawrence Smith recruited to portray a popular politician after he has been kidnapped by political ...more

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Oct 17, 2015 David Rubenstein rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, audiobook

This is a story about a down-in-his-luck actor, Lorenzo Smythe. He was approached with a job; to impersonate someone for about an hour. It would be a quick job, and he would be well paid for his efforts.

Lorenzo was not told who he would be impersonating, or the reason why. He had to take the job--or leave it. He eventually was talked into taking the job, but little did he know that the job was to impersonate someone on Mars. And Lorenzo got physically sick at the sight and smell of Martians!

This ...more

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Dec 12, 2011 Petertpc rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

This may be my favorite Robert Heinlein novel, at least of the few I've read so far. I enjoy political intrigue in SF novels and Heinlein does a great job creating a detailed, believable plot full of twists and turns, that still never seems to drag. Lorenzo Smythe is a great character who grows during the course of the book to become a better person. I like that. I also like that there was none of the weird Heinlein sex stuff that made me dislike "Stranger in a Strange Land."

This was just a fun ...more

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Sep 15, 2017 Sharon Barrow Wilfong rated it really liked it

I like vintage Science Fiction novels and this fit the bill in every way. In many ways the science fiction of the 1950s were adventure stories that just happened to take place in outer space. The characters were even called "Space Cowboys" because the heroes did not act much differently then the romanticized versions of, in reality, a boring job herding cattle.

Digression:

How such a tedious job as taking care of cows metamorphosed into a glamorous, "good guys conquering the villains" persona is ...more

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Aug 02, 2020 Öznur rated it really liked it · review of another edition

"Show must go on." ...more

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Apr 18, 2010 Bryan rated it really liked it

Shelves: sf, ebooks

A fun and quick book, and another example of why the most consistently enjoyable Heinlein writings were the early ones.

There's nothing amazingly noteworthy, and it's certainly not a must-read-before-you-die type of book. But it does have a message, and it does have an exuberant style, and (probably its greatest attribute) the book is concise enough to know precisely how to avoid overstaying its welcome.

You won't regret giving this a read, whether you've never read science fiction or whether you ...more

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Mar 22, 2013 Jim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi, 2fiction, 1audio

Again, I was really tickled by this old tale in audio format. The reader was excellent & his voices occasionally had me in stitches. The King sounded like JFK & it worked. LOL!

Politics is the greatest game, but sometimes has dirty players, is Heinlein's assertion. The basic idea is that of team play. Interesting idea & I loved the way the character evolved. Again, he managed to fit a lot of his own ideas into the story without being preachy & keeping the action moving the entire time.
...more

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Jun 21, 2021 Gabi rated it really liked it

Shelves: locus_nominees, hugo_winners

The first Heinlein I actually liked. This is a light hearted, enjoyable read.

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Jun 16, 2018 Jamie rated it liked it

Of the so-called "Big 3" of sci-fi, I'd put Heinlein squarely at #4. Though I found this surprisingly tolerable and entertaining, sci-fi was clearly just a vehicle for him to write about his true passion, politics. He just can't help getting up on his soapbox and lecturing us on the virtues of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Every time I read something from Heinlein I swear it will be the last, and this time I probably mean it. ...more

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May 06, 2012 Ed [Redacted] rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2012

I have a soft spot for Heinlein. Often I think that a Heinlein book that I really enjoy will not be for everyone, however, in this case, I think nearly everyone would enjoy this light, entertaining romp of a book.

The narrative is from the POV of the protagonist Lawrence Smythe (hack actor "The Great Lorenzo"). Smythe is a narcissistic, self delusional asshat who is suddenly, more or less without his informed consent, thrust into what turns out to be the life changing role of a lifetime. It is f ...more

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Aug 08, 2019 Ben Loory rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I don't know why I continue to read Heinlein; I've only ever liked Starship Troopers and that was when I was like 17. They just seem so emotionally stunted and are always about how the main character is such a hero and outwits everybody and the chicks dig him. It's embarrassing. This one is better than some of the others because the main character is an actor and so outwits everyone heroically in actor-ly ways instead of just shooting them in the face with his laser gun ...more

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Sep 17, 2015 Violinknitter rated it it was ok

Note to self: you find Heinlein unbearably offensive, even if he can write a good plot. Stay away in the future.

I picked up this book as an Audible Daily Deal. I absolutely loved the narrator's performance. He has to read in the voice of an actor who is often acting as someone else, plus give recognizable accents to the rest of the cast of characters. The audiobook is worth it for the narration alone.

Heinlein, unfortunately, is his typical misogynistic self in this story. The political machinati ...more

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May 20, 2020 Finny rated it really liked it · review of another edition

''He must have been dead, a hole burned through his belly you could poke a fist through, before he hit the floor.''

A hell of a good time.

Double Star is a borderline psychedelic sci-fi political thriller that feels years ahead of its time.
It touches on ideas and themes that would later be beautifully developed on by Philip K Dick.
Yes, it's Heinlein preconfiguring PKD.
And it's as good and mad as that sounds.

I guess it can be a bit predictable at times, but I can't honestly consider that a flaw ...more

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Jan 25, 2017 Lubinka Dimitrova rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, award-winning, space, the-narrator-nailed-it, history-will-teach-us-nothing, sci-fi, adventure, male-author, thought-provoking, hugo-awards-odyssey

''If there were ethical basics that transcended time and place, then they were true both for Martians and for men. They were true on any planet around any star—and if the human race did not behave accordingly they weren’t ever going to win to the stars because some better race would slap them down for double-dealing.''

4,5 stars. One couldn't not love the good, old sci-fi, especially when sprinkled with some political Libertarianism. I really liked all the characters, but I was also deeply troub ...more

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Mar 26, 2012 Denis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: softcover

I've read this fine novel twice. I liked it better the second time 'round. Upon my first reading, I felt I had read - or watched - to many like it before. It was also a different sort of story than what I was expecting, or used to, from Heinlein. But it is well crafted, I liked the characters and the humour. If it's an original idea at the time it was published, it deserved the Hugo and the praise it continues to get.

Scalzi could have written this had he been born a couple generation earlier, I ...more

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Jan 01, 2010 Jeff Yoak rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2020, read-with-kids, audio-collection, read-in-2014, read-in-2010, read-in-2007, read-in-2006, read-in-2000, read-in-2012, read-in-2016

Unusually for Heinlein, he starts with a rather undesirable character and writes a convincing arc where he rises to greatness. In this case, it is a rather seedy actor who ends up playing a great man over a period of time and comes to mix the virtues he already possesses with those of the character he plays and ends up looking like a real Heinleinian hero.

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Jun 27, 2011 Valerie added it · review of another edition

In a sense, the narrator is irrelevant. A poorly-educated waif (I never have quite understood Heinlein's apparent worship of abusive father/teachers. The narrator recites a tale of beatings and abuse that would likely serve as a pretty good legal brief for a lawyer suing the father for damages) becomes 'educated' by subsuming his own personality into the person he's hired to impersonate. Essentially an education by suicide, reminiscent of one of Zenna Henderson's stories in which a woman is one In a sense, the narrator is irrelevant. A poorly-educated waif (I never have quite understood Heinlein's apparent worship of abusive father/teachers. The narrator recites a tale of beatings and abuse that would likely serve as a pretty good legal brief for a lawyer suing the father for damages) becomes 'educated' by subsuming his own personality into the person he's hired to impersonate. Essentially an education by suicide, reminiscent of one of Zenna Henderson's stories in which a woman is one of five women...but she's not sure which.

Not necessarily a good education, either. The character Bonforte is almost as abusive as Lorenzo's unlamented father (where was his mother, by the way?), if not so physically so. To take just one instance, it's not pacifists who are dishonest. It's militarists. The basic argument of militarists is "We're right, and no reasonable people will disagree with us. But there are unreasonable people out there, and we have to convince them--by killing some of them, if that's necessary to convince others." Not that it will, of course. People are remarkably tenacious of their beliefs. But the argument for militarism is one of those 'sophistries of villains' Lorenzo is so rightly contemptuous of. And he too readily gives up his own beliefs wholesale to become what he's always despised.

I'm not saying that Smythe was always right (or even often so). But he'd be better advised to shop around, and to pick and choose what he'll accept. If this causes doubts about his 'Bonforte' identity, he should just say that people grow and learn, and he's changed his mind. People do, you know.

The technical elements are frankly sketchy, and more than a little scary. Technologies where you have to operate at a breakneck pace to avoid getting a potentially lethal dose of radiation are hardly ideal. Heinlein accepted nuclear technologies too readily, without (apparently) much real understanding of the risks involved. This is true of many of his books. It's more or less sidelined in this one, in which the 'torchships' are just settings, and ways of cutting the lengthy trips shorter, so that somebody could plausibly do something on Mars and (less than a fortnight later) be politicking on the Moon. But they'd have impacts on the Solar System that aren't well thought out, and aren't really developed. ...more

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Dec 15, 2015 Steve rated it really liked it

Laurence Smith, stage name Lorenzo Smythe, in search of work, takes on a performance offered by a space pilot, with few details offered. Smythe then very rapidly finds himself immersed in a much more involved project than he believed that he had signed up for. The pilot asks Smythe to assume another man’s persona, again without details, and whisks Smythe off in a spaceship into the reaches of the solar system. Written before man went into space, Heinlein foresees an interplanetary government tha ...more

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May 03, 2012 Kat Hooper rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook

Originally posted at FanLit:

Most of Robert A. Heinlein’s adult novels have interesting ideas or premises but many lack likeable characters and/or fun quickly-moving plots. Fortunately Double Star has all the right elements and is entertaining from start to finish. It’s one of Heinlein’s best novels, I think, and I must not be alone in that opinion since it won the Hugo Award in 1956 and was nominated for Locus’ All-Time Best Science Fiction Novels. Double Star is a character-based novel that exp ...more

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Goodreads Librari...: add cover to audiobook	6	21	30. Mai, 17:46 Uhr
Science Fiction &...: Double Star by Robert Heinlein (July 2017)	6	8	24. Juli, 20:47 Uhr
Space Opera Fans : Double Star by Heinlein on sale until March 7	2	11	05. März, 02:23 Uhr
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The Hugo Awards B...: December 2016	1	7	07. Dezember, 14:14 Uhr
SF Masterworks Group: Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein	1	8	19. Juli, 14:39 Uhr

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About Robert A. Heinlein

Robert A. Heinlein

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Robert Anson Heinlein was an American novelist and science fiction writer. Often called "the dean of science fiction writers", he is one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of "hard science fiction".

He set a high standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of literary quality. He was the first SF writer to break into mainstre ...more