Science Fiction · LightA struggling actor hired as a double learns on the trip to Mars that he must impersonate a politician
Double Star
An actor takes on the role of a lifetime, as a politician he opposes
Astounding Science Fiction serialized the novel in February, March and April 1956, and Doubleday published the hardcover the same year. It is set in a future where the Moon, Mars, Venus and Jupiter's moons are colonized and the Solar System is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy. Lawrence Smith, whose stage name is Lorenzo Smythe, is a struggling actor. He is hired as a double for a public figure, and learns only during the trip to Mars that he must impersonate John Joseph Bonforte, a prominent politician whose views he opposes.
More about this book
Who
Lawrence Smith, known on stage as Lorenzo Smythe, the politician John Joseph Bonforte and Penny.
World
A colonized Solar System governed as a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy.
What makes it different
It was Heinlein's first Hugo. The Library of America included it in its 2012 set American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s.
Feel
Brisk and light.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- Double StarWikipedia