You know, Science Fiction written in the 1950s can
be quite fun. Case in point, Double Star by Robert Heinlein which was published
in 1956. The novel is contemporary to
The Martian Chronicles, predates-the original Star Trek television series, and is
what seems like “light years” ahead of Star Wars.
As I read it in 2023 it is difficult to discern
whether it was knowingly comic in parts or if that developed as the novel has
aged, regardless it is quite funny poking at events “back then” that are still
entirely relevant today.
The big picture of the story concerns the
internal/external politics of The Empire, set in intergalactic space (or what
was known at the time mainly Earth, Mars, Venus, Saturn). The government is
headquartered at Batavia, on the Earth’s moon.
It operates in a parliamentary form of government, with multiple
representatives from various planets, and more divisions within. The two major
parties are the Expansionists -- think America’s manifest destiny history; and
the Humanity Party, the more isolationist one. The Humanity Party currently holds the Supreme
Minister (prime minister) slot. An
election is coming up however and John Bonforte, a former Expansionist Supreme Minister, is
thought to be the likely winner. To
block that, allies of the Humanity Party have secretly kidnapped Bonforte and
are holding him captive until after the election so that he can’t
campaign. In response, Bonforte’s team
hires an actor named Lorenzo Smyth to impersonate him on the campaign trail and
also at an upcoming diplomatic meeting on Mars.
They have only days to pull this off.
One of the more humorous parts of the book is when
Bonforte’s team have to stop for a phone book to try to find an address, before
they head back from Mars. Opposition
research is done using the Encyclopedia Batavia – what older people reading
this will recognize as the Encyclopedia Britanica.
Bottom line: it’s a fun read.
