View source for Double Star

{{Short description|1956 SF novel by Robert A. Heinlein}}
{{About||the astronomical term|Double star|other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{infobox book | 
 | name          = Double Star
 | title_orig    = 
 | translator    = 
 | image         = Double Star (1956) front cover, first edition.jpg
 | caption = First edition cover
 | author        = [[Robert A. Heinlein]]
 | illustrator   = 
 | cover_artist  = [[Mel Hunter]]
 | country       = United States
 | language      = English
 | series        = 
 | genre         = [[Science fiction]]  
 | publisher     = [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]]
 | release_date  = 1956
 | media_type    = Print (hardback & paperback)
 | pages         = 
 | preceded_by   = 
 | followed_by   = 
}}

'''''Double Star''''' is a [[science fiction]] novel by American writer [[Robert A. Heinlein]], first serialized in ''[[Analog Science Fiction and Fact|Astounding Science Fiction]]'' (February, March, and April 1956) and published in hardcover the same year. It received the 1956 [[Hugo Award for Best Novel]] (his first).

==Plot summary==
The novel is set in a future when the Moon, Mars, Venus and Jupiter's moons have been colonized and the Solar System is governed by a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy from a capital city on the Moon.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Walton |first1=Jo |title=Parliamentary Democracy with Martians: Robert Heinlein's Double Star |url=https://reactormag.com/parliamentary-democracy-with-martians-robert-heinleins-double-star/ |website=Reactor |date=22 July 2010}}</ref>  The indigenous alien race inhabiting Mars has recently been admitted to citizenship in the human-dominated solar system government.
 
The story, which is told in the first person, centers on down-and-out actor Lawrence Smith (stage name Lorenzo Smythe, also known as "The Great Lorenzo"). A brilliant actor and mimic, he is down to his last coin when a spaceman hires him to double for an unspecified public figure. It is only when he is on his way to Mars that he finds out he will have to impersonate one of the most prominent politicians in the [[Solar System]], and one with whose views Smith deeply disagrees&nbsp;— John Joseph Bonforte. Bonforte is the leader of the Expansionist coalition, currently out of office, but with a good chance of changing that at the next general election. Bonforte has been kidnapped by his political opponents, and his aides want Smith to impersonate Bonforte while they try to find him.

Bonforte is rescued, but he is in poor health due to his treatment during his imprisonment. This forces Smith to extend his performance, even to becoming temporary Prime Minister and running in an election. This is made possible only through the use of Bonforte's extensive [[Farley file]]s. The central political issue in the election is the granting of [[suffrage]] to Martians in the human-dominated Solar System. Lorenzo shares the anti-Martian prejudice prevalent among large parts of Earth's population, but he is called upon to assume the persona of the most prominent advocate of Martian enfranchisement. Smith takes on not only Bonforte's appearance, but some aspects of his personality.

[[File:Double Star cover.jpg|thumb|right|200 px|Cover of ''Astounding Science Fiction'' by [[Kelly Freas]] that carried the first segment of the serialized novel in February 1956]]
At the moment of electoral victory, Bonforte dies of the aftereffects of his kidnapping, and Smith is asked to assume the role for life. In a retrospective conclusion set twenty-five years later, Smith reveals that he wrote the first-person narrative as therapy. By this point, he views his early life and ambitions as almost those of someone else. He has applied Bonforte's ideals in his political career to the best of his ability. Bonforte's adoring secretary and now Smith's wife, Penny, says, "she never loved anyone else."

== Critical reception ==
The noted science-fiction writer and critic [[James Blish]] was no fan of Heinlein's treatment of his first-person protagonists in a number of his novels. Writing in 1957, however, Blish says that "The only first-person narrator Heinlein has created who is a living, completely independent human being is The Great Lorenzo of ''Double Star''.  Lorenzo is complete all the way back to his childhood—the influence of his father upon what he thinks is one of the strongest motives in the story—and his growth under pressure is consistent with his character and no-one else's."<ref>[[James Blish]], ''The Issues at Hand'', pp. 53-54.</ref>

''[[Galaxy Science Fiction|Galaxy]]'' reviewer Floyd C. Gale praised the novel, finding it "an excellent example of Heinlein's ability to take one of the oldest plots in any literature ... and present it as an enjoyable reading experience."<ref>"Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf", ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'', September 1955, p. 110</ref> Admitting "a certain reservation, even disappointment," [[Anthony Boucher]] nevertheless concluded that Heinlein was "simply creating an agreeably entertaining light novel, and in that task he succeeds admirably."<ref>"Recommended Reading," ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction|F&SF]]'', June 1956, p. 101.</ref>

At the 1957 [[Worldcon]] it received the [[Hugo Award]] for [[Hugo Award for Best Novel|Best Novel]] (Heinlein's first).<ref name="WWE-1956">{{cite web
|url=http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1956
|title=1956 Award Winners & Nominees
|work=Worlds Without End
|access-date=2009-07-26}}</ref>

In 2012, the novel was included in the [[Library of America]] two-volume boxed set ''American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s'', edited by [[Gary K. Wolfe]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/classic-sci-fi-novels-get-21st-century-enhancements-from-library-of-america/ |title=Classic Sci-Fi Novels Get Futuristic Enhancements from Library of America |author=Dave Itzkoff |date=July 13, 2012 |department=Arts Beat: The Culture at Large (blog) |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=January 9, 2013}}</ref>

==Cover controversy==
The cover illustration by Anthony Roberts<ref>{{Cite web |title=Publication: Double Star |url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?132281 |access-date=2022-08-30 |publisher=ISFDB}}</ref> for a 1970s UK edition of ''Double Star'' was the subject of an unlikely controversy when it was used as the basis of an entry for the 2000 [[Turner Prize]] for modern art. The artist in question, [[Glenn Brown (artist)|Glenn Brown]], was accused of plagiarism.<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1044375.stm |title=Copycat row hits Turner Prize
|publisher=[[BBC News]] |date=2000-11-28 |access-date=2007-11-26}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Novels}}
* [[1956 in science fiction]]
* ''[[Dave (film)|Dave]]'', a 1993 film about a double for the president of the United States who has to keep impersonating him
* ''[[The Prisoner of Zenda]]'' (1894) by [[Anthony Hope]], a novel about a double for the King of&nbsp;Ruritania

== Citations ==
<references />

==External links==
* {{ISFDB title|id=2080}}
* {{OL work|id=59715W|cname=''Double Star''}}
* [http://www.worldswithoutend.com/novel.asp?ID=294 ''Double Star''] at Worlds Without End
* ''Double Star'' parts [https://archive.org/stream/Astounding_v56n06_1956-02_EXciter-LennyS#page/n7/mode/2up one], [https://archive.org/stream/Astounding_v57n01_1956-03_EXciter-LennyS#page/n101/mode/2up two], and [https://archive.org/stream/Astounding_v57n02_1956-04_Gorgon776#page/n111/mode/2up three] on the [[Internet Archive]]

{{Robert A. Heinlein}}
{{Hugo Award Best Novel}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Double Star}}
[[Category:1956 American novels]]
[[Category:1956 science fiction novels]]
[[Category:American science fiction novels]]
[[Category:Doubleday (publisher) books]]
[[Category:Hugo Award for Best Novel–winning works]]
[[Category:Novels set on Mars]]
[[Category:Novels about actors]]
[[Category:Novels by Robert A. Heinlein]]
[[Category:Novels first published in serial form]]
[[Category:Novels republished in the Library of America]]
[[Category:Novels set on the Moon]]
[[Category:Works originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact]]