Double Star

While I didn't care much for Heinlein's Starship Troopers, I loved his Stranger in a Strange Land. This book falls somewhere in the middle of the two. Now that I have read three of his works, I have to express my appreciation for their variety. Science fiction can take so many forms, with the most obvious and in your face being the space opera, or the more actual scientific stuff, such as Jurassic Park, which I don't always understand, but I do respect. What I really like about Heinlein's books is how his worlds and the alien involvement feels so natural. In this case, a down and out actor is hired to take on the role of a significant politician, which he does with great skill. This is truly the performance of his life because both his life, the politician, and the world depend on it. I'm not a fan of politics in my fiction, but sometimes, it can be fun, as it was here. There was some annoying sexism to deal with, as is to be expected of the time, but it was not nearly as prevalent and frustrating as it was in Stranger in a Strange Land, which I still loved in spite of that. The technology is also amusing, looking at it from our 2015 perspective, but the rest of the science fiction certainly stands the test of time.