The Naked Sun (Robot Series): 2/4 (Robot Series)

Having recently decided to invest in reading classic sci-fi, Asimov was pretty high on my list of authors to look into. This is both the second book in the robot series as well as the second of his titles I have so far read and I must admit while I enjoyed the first book (Caves of Steel) a lot, The Naked Sun takes the core of what made it good and expands on it making it not only a great sequel, but an all round great book. The story once again focuses on Elijah Baley a detective on Earth who has been charged with investigating a murder, this murder is on another planet ruled by colonists called spacers, no earthman has ever set foot there before and it's an uncomfortable experience for both sides. What I loved about Caves of Steel is in abundance here, this isn't a book about police, murder, or even robots though all three aspects are present, it's about the differences in culture between earth and the spacers, how they live so differently based on their environments and upbringing with the earthmen living in super cities almost like hives, eating and showering communally, every inch of space earned through career for small extra luxuries compared with one planet of the spacers where they have so much space and robots to tend their every need that even being in sight of each other physically makes them feel sick. The, I suppose psychology would be the word, of it all and experience Baley goes through trying to understand it all rather hooked me so I read The Naked Sun happily in one day (It is fairly short regardless). Rather a shame that books three and four in the series (Robots of Dawn & Robots and Empire) to reasons unknown to me aren't available on the kindle at time of writing this. Still I have purchased the physical books as I will not miss the next in the series. If you're looking for a sci-fi series with more to it than space ships and lasers then this is a good bet. + Clever detective novel. + Different ways humans have evolved to live is fascinating. + Interesting look at technology. + Excellent themes.

This follow up to “The Caves of Steel” reverses the context of the earlier story, taking Baley out of his comfort zone - the enclosed city of Earth, backdrop for the earlier novel - and transplanting him in the wide open spaces of Solaria, one of the far-off planets colonised by humans many years before. Solaria takes the integration of robots into human society a step beyond all earlier imaginings and the machine men out-number humans by thousands to one, but thanks to the laws of robotics, they only fulfil the role of slaves on the massive estates of humans who represent the opposite extreme to the crowded Earth cities where humanity is pressed together into an intimate and convention-bound community. The inhabitants of Solaria find closeness to other humans as disturbing as Baley finds his own phobia of unbounded spaces. It is this contrast of opposing social viewpoints which provides much of the conflict and many of the obstacles during a fascinating investigation of a Solarian murder Baley has been called in to deal with. Once again Baley is partnered up with Daneel, the robot who appears so human he can deceive humans and even other robots. This sequel is not quite up to the same standard as “The Caves of Steel” due to a more intrusive didactical element to some of the dialogue, sometimes verging on philosophical debate rather than science fiction. The ending is also a little unsatisfactory as a likable murderer goes free after Baley frames another person as the culprit (although the victim of the frame cannot be said to be totally innocent of instigating the crime). Technically sloppier is the shoddiness of the frame that Baley constructs, and one suspects that anyone with any brains would perceive a logical inconsistency after a few moments of cool scrutiny. Having said this, it’s still an excellent book worth reading more than once (fourth time for me).

Loved it, the more I read the more I like. Great characters and good plot. A proper page turner and full of suspense and good concepts. Despite being written over 50 years ago the style is modern and easy to read. The incite is incredible. I'm a fan of thrillers and techno warfare novels but I also love Asimov.

Typically flawless Asimov. If you like his style (some won't) you'll enjoy this book.

To really enjoy this you need to have read Asimov's "The Steel Sky" first, otherwise you won't fully understand the relationship between Earth detective Elijah Bailey and his robot friend and colleague R.Daneel Olivaw or the reasons for Bailey's intense agoraphobia, both of which are important plot devices. As in "The Steel Sky", Asimov's human hero is both fallible and prone to jumping to wrong conclusions, which is part of the story's charm and a handy way of tying up loose ends at the conclusion, ensuring Bailey reaches a decision which, although deliberately wrong, has massive implications for the future of humanity, a theme Asimov explored in the long-awaited sequel to this novel, "The Robots of Dawn", and in his Galactic Empire and Foundation series of novels. On the other hand, you could just treat this as a fairly good detective story with several unlikely twists.

I returned to this book having read it 20-30 years ago and enjoyed the re-read. With the benefit of age the plot feels a little less plausible and the method used to discover the murderer probably wouldn’t work in reality. I would put Asimov now just below the top tier of SF writers but I’m going to continue to revisit his novels.

One day, a couple thousand years in future, on the planet Solaria, which is now occupied by humans, a man is found dead. It is the first crime to happen on the planet, so the Solarians, who are not quite capable of investigating it, invite our heroes Elijah Baley and Daneel Olivaw to solve the case. … “The Naked Sun” was first published in 1956. This edition, which I am glad is available from Amazon India, is a paperback published in England in 2018. Contrary to what another reviewer has written, I find the book wonderfully made. The cover artwork, like on all Asimovs published by Harper Collins, is fascinatingly evocative. And the typesetting, in Janson Text, is elegant. This really is a book worth buying. This novel is the second in the four novels that comprise Asimov’s Robots series and the fourteen novels that comprise his epic Robots-Empire-Foundation series of books. This is highly recommended reading, even though “The Naked Sun” is not my favourite Robots novel (that would be “The Robots of Dawn”). I really wish all fourteen Robots-Empire-Foundation books are translated to Hindi and other Indian languages. (Are you reading this, Sahitya Akademi!) And I think we should read all fourteen books before the “Foundation” TV series arrives in 2021!

Aunque ya tiene muchos años de publicado este libro, contiene una trama agradable y de cierta manera actual, aunque quizá con otras palabras.

Como esperaba

The Naked Sun manages to tell an even better mystery narrative than the previous instalment in the robot series. Asimov has done it again. I hope this book gets a film adaptation one day.

Für mich sind Asimov's Werke immer ein Fest an Logik und Rationalität. Denn auch in diesem Buch wird der Protagonist mit Problemen Konfrontiert, die er nur mit sinnvollem Denken lösen kann. Elijah Baley ist ein Detektiv und wird, nach den Ereignissen aus dem voran gegangenen Buch, zu Solaria, einer Kolonialisierten Welt, beordert um einen Mord aufzuklären. Zusammen mit dem Roboter (R) Daneel Olivaw muss er nun die verrückten, futuristischen, antisotialen Bräuche der unbekannten Welt kennenlernen, um so die Hintergründe für den begangenen Mord aufzudecken. Absolute Kaufempfehlung!