Double Star
by Robert A. Heinlein · first published 1956
50% recommend50% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Fast, entertaining 1950s science fiction with a political-intrigue plot. It is one of Heinlein's best and a good starting point for his work, especially his young-adult novels.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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 m
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…end. You probably wouldn’t like the book any better, but it’s not remotely what you’re implying. Edited to add: I realize post-juvenile Heinlein is not to everyone’s taste — and I’m personally convinced Double Star may be his finest single book — but if one is interested — Stranger, Glory Road, Starship Troopers, Moon is a Harsh Mistress, are all worthwhile — and different from each other. I’m not gonna defend…
on “Robert Heinlein and the Harsh Politics of Science Fiction (2013)” ↗…what we now know about the other planets. Asimov (The Martian Way I think got Saturn’s rings very wrong) and Heinlein (Mars and Venus are both depicted very wrongly and still a very entertaining story in Double Star) had a few stories and novellas.
on “Atomic Rocket” ↗You could go back even before Gattaca. In the beginning of one of Heinlein's earliest works (and one of my all time favourites), "Double Star" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Star], he discusses using latex fake fingerprints to frame someone. Book was written, I believe, in the early '50s.
on “Doctor 'used silicone fingers' to sign in for colleagues” ↗…Rings. If you liked the movies be prepared to love the books. If you hated the movies, no problem, the books are far better. OR science fiction. Read all of Heinlein's books for young adults. Start with Double Star then read Have Space Suit Will Travel. A Door Into Summer speaks to any engineer. Tunnel In the Sky is the classic survival story. When you are hooked on Heinlein read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress; it…
on “Ask HN: Are books worth it?” ↗If we're doing recommendations, I'd say Double Star is Heinlein's best work of the 1950's, although it contains neither time travel nor implied incest.
on “All You Zombies” ↗…in a strange land) Later on a man called Charles Hall tried to patent his design, and he was denied the patent by the USPO on the grounds that Heinlein's description in Stranger in a strange land, and Double star constituted prior art. It would be fascinating to see if this precedent is followed...
on “Samsung cites Kubrick's "2001" as Prior Art in Patent Case Against Apple” ↗…years later, in 1968. > Charles Hall, who brought a waterbed design to the United States Patent Office, was refused a patent on the grounds that Heinlein's descriptions in Stranger and another novel, Double Star (1956), constituted prior art. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land
on “The Predictions of Robert A. Heinlein” ↗Rather, Dave was a bit of a ripoff of "Double Star", for which Heinlein got a Hugo way back in 1957: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Star Pay the Grand Master his proper due!
on “Is North Korea using doubles to hide the death of Kim Jong-Il?” ↗Or rewrite The Count of Monte Cristo as a science fiction novel and get The Stars My Destination. Or rewrite Heinlein's Double Star into present-day and get the movie Dave.
on “Anthropic - Introducing 100K Token Context Windows, Around 75,000 Words” ↗…sarcastic, but I'm going to treat it as serious just in case.] Yeah, I'd say characterisation is a weakness of his. I've read Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers, and Double Star. Heinlein does explore characters more than, say, Clark, but he doesn't go much for internal change or emotional growth. His male characters typically fall into one of two cartoonish camps: either supremely…
Curious if Doctorow got this from Double Star (Heinlein, 1956)
on “China can apparently now identify citizens based on the way they walk” ↗