Paperback, 159 pages

English language

Published Nov. 16, 1957 by New American Library.

ISBN:
978-0-451-12695-5
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
7125635

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4 stars (5 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 kidnapped. Peace with the Martians was at stake — failure to pull off the act could result in interplanetary war. And Smythe's own life was on the line — for if he wasn't assassinated, there was always the possibility that he might be trapped in his new role forever!

12 editions

Review of 'Double Star' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I originally read this book many years ago (nearly thirty, I think), and I enjoyed the re-read. It's a satisfying story, not hugely original, but well written and well paced. It does reflect the technology of 1950's America, and more so the attitudes. There are parts that are repulsively sexist by modern standards. But such attitudes were common in the age in which this novella was written. All in all, I find this to be one of the more enjoyable of Heinlein's early works.

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jkb

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4 stars
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