Double Star

Told in first person, the story centers on a down-&-out actor, Lawrence Smith--aka Lorenzo Smythe, The Great Lorenzo. A brilliant actor & mimic, he's down to his last coin when a spaceman hires him to double for a public figure. It is only when he's on way to Mars that he finds out how deeply he's been deceived. He'll have to impersonate one of the most prominent politicians in the solar system with whose views he disagrees: John Joseph Bonforte, leader of the Expansionist coalition, currently in opposition but with a good chance of taking power at the next election. Lorenzo grows tremendously as a person during the story, as he takes on not only Bonforte's appearance, but aspects of his personality. Bonforte is literally a "good & strong" political leader, commanding deep loyalty from his aides. When the role he assumes becomes extended due to the incapacity of Bonforte who'd been kidnapped & drugged by people linked to his political opponents, Smythe takes on more & more of his persona. The kidnapping & drugging must be kept secret. Tho the politician is retrieved, he's in poor health, forcing Smythe to extend the role, becoming temporary Supreme Minister & fighting an election campaign. The impersonation is noticed by the Emperor, but the ruler's sympathetic & keeps mum. At the moment of the election victory, Bonforte dies of the aftereffects of the drug overdose. Smythe realizes he's little choice but to assume the role for life. In a retrospective conclusion set 25 years later, we learn that he's become Bonforte, suppressing his own identity permanently. He's been generally successful & has carried forward Bonforte's ideals to the best of his ability. Penny (Bonforte's adoring secretary, now his wife) says, "I never loved anyone else." Smythe has transformed from self-centeredness to noble self-sacrifice. The central political issue in the plot is the granting of votes to Martians in a human-dominated Solar System. Lorenzo shares the anti-Martian prejudice prevalent among large parts of Earth's population, but he's called upon to assume the persona of the most prominent advocate for Martian enfranchisement. At the end of the book his former life, including former prejudices, seem to him like things that happened to another.