Editing Double Star (section)

==Plot summary==
The novel is set in a future when the Moon, Mars, Venus and Jupiter's satellites 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 the treatment inflicted on him during his imprisonment. This forces Smith to extend his performance, even to becoming temporary Prime Minister and running in an election. This is made plausible through Bonforte's extensive [[Farley file]]s. The central political issue in the election is the granting [[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 has 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."