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Double Star

by Robert A. Heinlein

Cover artist: Richard Powers

Publisher: Signet

Pub year: 1957

Cover price: 35¢

 

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Book detail for Double Star

Cover tagline

A daring impostor fools two worlds in tomorrow’s galactic empire

Back cover text

Outer space hoax!

A jobless actor in 2100 cadges a drink from a space pilot and finds himself shanghaied to Mars for the most important and dangerous performance of his whole career.

The role — Doubling for a missing leader — the most loved — and most threatened — Earthman on the Planet.

The stakes — Peace with the Martians if he succeeds, and colonial union with the democratic inter-world empire.

The risk — Quick death if Martian foes detect the ruse, or lifelong pretense if the politician never reappears!

"In Double Star you can smell and feel and practically taste the future."
— Chicago Tribune

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Interior text

Interworld Masquerade

When the most important statesman of the 21st century disappears on Mars, the only hope of preventing interplanetary war lies in a ham actor's ability to impersonate the missing leader well enough to fool two worlds!

Kidnapped from Earth to act the part in this desperate plot, trouper Lorenzo Smythe glories in the performance, despite the risk of assassination if his deception is discovered. But when the vanished politician is secretly found, broken in mind and body, Lorenzo faces a lifetime masquerade — and must choose between causing disaster by quitting, or saving galactic peace by sacrificing his own identity forever.

Here's a gripping science-fiction yarn brimming with future space conspiracy, by one of the foremost storytellers in the field.

"In this intricately plotted novel of interplanetary intrigue, Heinlein is at his best."
— St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Pleasant and exciting reading."
— Galaxy Science-Fiction

"Bears the Heinlein cachet of credible authenticity," Anthony Boucher.
— Fantasy and Science-Fiction