The Naked Sun

An intriguing setting for an intriguing whodunit.

The events are supposedly happening in the distant future, where positronic robots are commonplace and intergalactic travel is a thing of the past. Yet Elijah Baley feels incredibly old-fashioned, like he was stuck there from a different time period: the pipe, the fear of technology, the "noir film detective" type of attitude. I mean, he addresses robots as "Boy!". Well, what can I expect from a book written in the 1950's? I just wish Asimov tried to reach a bit further into his imagination when envisioning people of future, instead of copying from his contemporary sources. His view of futuristic cities is, however, beautifully eerie.

The Naked Sun is the second entry in Isaac Asimov’s Robot mystery series, preceded by The Caves of Steel. It was first published in 1957 after being serialized in Astounding Science Fiction in 1956. Like The Caves of Steel, this story is structured as a whodunit murder mystery though this one is set on the Spacer world of Solaria. Again, Elijah Bailey is reunited with his robot partner Daneel Olivaw to investigate the murder, thus time of a Solarian scientist. And this story is a true detective novel- with the main plot revolving around Bailey attempting to solve the case. But have no fear this is still sci-fi! Asimov includes issues of space exploration, population control, fertility, robots, and artificial intelligence. As mentioned, Elijah Bailey is called to planet Solaria to investigate a murder. Solaria is incredibly different from earth. Its inhabitants (whose way of life is extremely different from life on Earth: there are about 20.000 humans on the planet) have a very rigid controlled birth rate and their infants are raised to prefer solitude, direct personal contact being their strongest taboo. In contrast with the low numbered human population, there are 200 millions robots, who serve and work for them, all specialized for their type of task. What makes this novel interesting is the contrast of worlds Asimov has created. Asimov seems to have a ton of fun playing with cultural differences here between Earth (with its overcrowding, its attitudes towards robots, the way humans touch and interact) and Solaria (with its lack of humans who fear touch and abundance of robots) and he spends a significant amount of timing exploring these differences as they relate to the plot and it's murder mystery. Bailey, when he arrives on Solaria, is confronted with an interesting dilemma: the people of Solaria don’t really even want contact with each other and don't like seeing each other in person. So how does one commit a murder and what would the motive behind such an act? The answer may revolve around manipulating the Three Laws of Robotics: First Law A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Second Law A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Third Law A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. Reread August 2020.

I actually found this book to be slightly more interesting to it's predecessor. Although still dated and jumping to irrational conclusions, I found the mystery and the discussion regarding androids to be much more in depth and interesting. While I still don't love Lije as a main character, he's grown on me a little bit over the course of The Naked Sun. I was, however, mildly disappointed in the relationship between Lije and Daneel being so limited in this book. In the first book, it was much easier to see how he could be mistaken for a human being. In this one, he was much more clearly a robot. Asimov didn't make as strong an attempt to blend the human and the android aspects in The Naked Sun, which I found slightly disappointing. All in all, I'd give this one 3.5 stars tops. The culture of the world grated on me a little bit. Obviously Baley isn't the most sensitive person around, but it really wasn't that hard to understand that being seen was an intimate sort of thing. The rest of the culture was equally odd, but not difficult to understand. I still kind of wonder how exactly they managed to extend their lives so dramatically, but then this is the future and science fiction does expect some suspension of belief. Needless to say, the book being older and more dated was sometimes somewhat frustrating. For instance, the sexism. I can't say I really blame Asimov - he was, as we all are, a product of our times. But really? The only two female characters were an assistant (who was not attractive and hated children) and the murdered man's wife (who held no true profession with which to really benefit society aside from being slightly artsy and was very pretty and often ogled by Baley). I just really was not that thrilled with how he treated his women. I also thought that the mystery was fairly thin. I love mysteries, but this one could have been way way better than it was. I mean, seriously, the one character who absolutely loathed him from the start is kind of the obvious villain. If you are looking to read this book, you definitely need to read The Caves of Steel first. This is not really a book where they recap the prior story for you.

Very similar to Caves of Steel, this is the 3rd book in Asimovs Robot series. Fun detective novel in a space setting. I was a bit disappointed by some of the answers, but overall it was satisfying.

Very similar to Caves of Steel, this is the 3rd book in Asimovs Robot series. Fun detective novel in a space setting. I was a bit disappointed by some of the answers, but overall it was satisfying.

Another comfort re-read. Not as good as The Caves of Steel, since there was less R. Daneel.