The Naked Sun (Robot Series): 2/4 (Robot Series) (The Robot Series, 3)

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.

Lije Bailey is a city cop. In a future where humanity has split into 2 camps. There are the people of Earth who live a troglodyte existence, safe in the all enclosing womb of big covered cities. The ‘outside’ is a place to be feared and avoided at all costs. All earth dwellers envy but also hate the all powerful ‘Spacers’ who in the dim past emigrated from earth to colonise other planets. Spacers are rich, healthy, powerful and long lived. Their life style is made possible by the extensive use of advanced robots. The introduction of robots into the rigid society of Earth is disrupting and destroying the hierarchy of the cities - taking jobs from people who rely on their employment to give additional status and therefore small relief from the basic existance of life on Earth. In this, the second book in the series, Bailey, having been reluctantly involved in the investigation of the murder of a Spacer on Earth some years before (Caves of Steel) is now called upon to not only leave his safe city environment but also travel into space. Required now to investigate another crime, Bailey has to battle his own phobias about the open air, as well as the prejudices of Spacers against what they see as a dirty and disease ridden Earthman.

This is the second of Asimov's full length robot novels featuring Earth detective Elijah Bailey and Robot Daneel Olivaw. Another re-read from my youth, this is one of my all time favourite novels. It's the perfect blend of brilliant dialogue and detective ratiocination by "Partner Elijah", as Olivaw (out of action for over a third of the novel, but still a great character) calls him. Set almost entirely on the planet Solaria, where human individualism and dependence on robots has found its ultimate expression, the characters are rather more memorable than those in its predecessor novel, The Caves of Steel, and their ways of thinking, contrasting with those of Elijah and his fellow Earthmen, are vividly and memorably drawn. Wonderful stuff.

Long ago Before the dawn of Star Trek and Well Before Star Wars, we had Science Fiction. When even before Man had reached his Satellite the minds of writers like Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein, Silverberg and especially Isac Asimov had their readers venturing beyond our Solar System, even outside our Galaxy. Whilst other writers like John Wyndham where speculating about science gone wrong - I wonder if Triffids would be regarded as a GM Crop? Asimov's Speciality was to write about the Evolution of Robots - Most famously Creating the idea of Positronics and In built Logic or Robotic Laws to define their behaviour. Against this background he descibed a future where after a period of Galactic expansion Society had polarised; into Earthmen still inhabiting a vastly overpopulated Earth; Starmen(and Women) - Inhabitants of the former earth colonies - who were effectively preventing any further migrations from earth; and of course there were robots banned on earth, but widely employed by the starmen. Then there was a Murder on one of these new worlds, and the Starmen once again required help from the home world.

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

This author is up there with the greats with his writing style. It is amazing that even though I'm re-reading this book for the nth time I don't feel bored by it.

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!