The Naked Sun (The Robot Series)

Asimov wrote this novel to introduce life with robots and stumbled into a commentary on life when social media is taken to the extreme. And this was written before the internet was on the technology horizon. I have enjoyed everything I have read by this author and found this novel to be particularly compelling.

Gregg Kortman

I learned about Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" from this book. This, and Asimov's other writings, had a huge impact on my life, and I believe it promoted, if not catapulted, several the paradigm-shifts, including that of humanity into an information-centric society.

. . . which is saying something, given the author's stunning productivity. In this novel the veteran human + robot detective team of The Caves of Steel (also highly recommended) travel to Solaris, strangest of the worlds colonized long ago by Earth. Their attempts to discover "whodunit" are confused by a society in which humans are few and far between, compared to their ubiquitous robot servants. How could anyone commit murder when real people almost never meet? More important, is the human race doomed to extinction as each of us retreats into a private heaven? A nice combination of thoughtfulness and characterization.

I'm just getting back into Isaac Asimov's books after a long time. He's so imaginative and skilled. This book is really a pleasure to read, especially since it continues the tale of Lije Bailey and Daneel Olivaw that began in Caves of Steel. Cool plot, complex characters, and strange Outer Worlds.

It's an amazing and very clever story, yet easy to read for a non-native speaker like me. So if you want to have a good time while reading a great science fiction story, don't hesitate anymore and buy this book!

Generic review for Asimov's books because I bought all of them for my collection and am writing ALL of the reviews at once.

I love everyone of his books, and each brings a great story to the table, if you are looking for a good Saga to start reading, check out his Foundation / Robot series. I've read them all the way through several times and each time, loved each book. Each book builds off the one prior and adds a whole new dynamic to the overall universe while still being able to be enjoyed individually. If you are reading this review, Just check out the book, I guarantee it will be worth it.

for the younger generation of scifi readers, you may find this story, with it's lack of sophisticated weaponry and epic space battles and multitudes of alien species, somewhat subdued and too focused on one person, a rumpled, middle-aged police detective of Earth, who is afraid of open spaces, of leaving the crowded, underground mega-city he calls home, and suspicious of the robots that human off-worlders build and deploy as laborers to support their luxuriant lifestyles. This story is about the detective solving a murder on another planet while facing his fears. He must do his work in the spacious and sparsely populated environment of Solaris, a world where robots out-number humans and the humans can't bear being in the same room with each other. And even though there are the three laws of robotics designed to protect people from their positronic creations, this detective knows that any law can be manipulated and broken. As you read this story, you will recognize numerous concepts that you take for granted in modern science fiction books and movies.

What more is there to say? It's Asimov and it's great. I just wish there was more of it. This was the last robot novel he wrote before taking many years off from it and so it still has the feel of the original.

The Naked Sun is the second book in the Caves of Steel/Naked Sun/Robots of Dawn trilogy. The trilogy is really a murder mystery with robots as the theme than a true sci-fi action type story. If you haven't read the Foundation series, I would suggest that over this. However, some elements from this trilogy carry over into the Foundation series later on. So I'd say this book is a fairly good addition to an Asimov fan's collection, but it might help to have read The Caves of Steel first.

Where does he get these totally believable storylines from? "I just make 'em up see". It's sci-fi at it's best. Dealing with the complexities of man as he adjusts to his metallic servants being part of everyday life.

I wish it were possible to give half star ratings -- if that were so then I would give "The Naked Sun" 4.5 out of 5. I thoroughly enjoyed this book as well as it's predecessor "The Caves of Steel". Asimov does a wonderful job of blending science fiction with a murder mystery/detective story. It's remarkable how much of an influence Asimov has been on the Sci-Fi community -- positronic brain ring a bell fellow Star Trek The Next Generation fans?

Not quite the same tone as the first two. Link to foundation is hamfisted. Crosses over into science fantasy. Steals the "good enough for government work" style resolution of the second one. A fair bit of sexual content is there, but nothing super explicit (looking at you Daemon and Cryptonomicon). Still good and thought promoting. If you read the first two, go for it.

It is an Asimov book on robots! What else do you need to know?

Appart from utter fannatism, it is far better written than the first one, Caves of Steel, but it will get better in the last one, The Robots of Dawn. The funniest thing about Asimov's mysteries and thrillers is his ability to hide obvious facts in plain sight just to save it to the final blow!

Not quite the same tone as the first two. Link to foundation is hamfisted. Crosses over into science fantasy. Steals the "good enough for government work" style resolution of the second one. A fair bit of sexual content is there, but nothing super explicit (looking at you Daemon and Cryptonomicon). Still good and thought promoting. If you read the first two, go for it.

It is an Asimov book on robots! What else do you need to know?

Appart from utter fannatism, it is far better written than the first one, Caves of Steel, but it will get better in the last one, The Robots of Dawn. The funniest thing about Asimov's mysteries and thrillers is his ability to hide obvious facts in plain sight just to save it to the final blow!

I'm not the best person to review stuff, but I know what I like. This book was twisty and full of surprises because I can't think as logically as Elijah Baley can. I also like the way he started out (as far back as The Caves of Steel) as a steady, believable conditioning of Baley to being outside. If you want a good read with robots which do more than serve this one is good, and I recommend Robots of Dawn as well.

This is a future Earth, Earthmen existing in domed cities, and Spacers living and trading between distant planets. Relations are deteriorating. Men of Earth need to know more:
'Bring us information. The big flaw in sociological forecasting is our lack of data concerning Spacers. We've had to make assumptions on the basis of the few Spacers they sent out here. We've had to rely on what they choose to tell us of themselves, so it follows we know their strengths and only their strengths. Damn it, they have their robots and their low numbers and their long lives. But do they have weaknesses? Is there some factor or factors which, if we but knew, would alter the sociologic inevitability of destruction; something that could guide our actions and better the chance of Earth's survival?' (p. 12)
A murder on a Spacer planet results in a request for the help of a Terran investigator. Asimov imagines the buildings, clothing, meals and humans that Elijah Baley encounters during his investigation. Baley functions despite deep fears.
The plot is procedural: interview witnesses to establish motive, means and opportunity; then accuse a suspect in front of a group. Not much different from classic English novels. The fact that Baley is working in a foreign land introduces differences, mostly how that society is built on robot labor. Asimov's three laws of robotics appear repeatedly during the investigation.
What you should find amazing is how prescient Asimov was by predicting QR codes (on robots), touch screens, holographic conferencing, Wi-Fi, as well as amniotic testing for infant mutations. He shows us what human existence would be like when each is served by 10,000 robot laborers. For these reasons, I would give it 4 stars.
There could have been no better Scify story in 1956- a combination of spaceflight, robotics and extreme society set in a murder mystery. It is still a fun read, if you are willing to overlook the simplistic spaceships and personal blaster as a sidearm- and the group conference when the criminal is revealed. (Minus one star)
Pick up a copy- you will be entertained. See The Caves of Steel (R. Daneel Olivaw, Book 1).

Enjoyable Asimov. Science fiction detective story with good plot twists. Kept me reading continuously. A bit wordy on the descriptives but I think the author wants to give the reader a full picture emotionally of life on his Earth and other planets. A must read for the series.

Loved it.
Great writer.
First time Asimov reader.
I had friends in high school that read his stuff and loved it!
For Some reason I always thought, wrongly, that he would be difficult to read.
That simply is not the case.

It is more of a "who done it" than it is science fiction, but Isaac still managed to incorporate sic-fi into the story line to make it realistic.

Good writing, good plot with a surprise ending.

This book should make you think about where current society is headed with the increasing isolation caused by people's almost obsession with email, phone, text, tweets etc. opposed to real human contact.

One of Asimov's classics, The Naked Sun, the second of his Robot Trilogy, is, along with the other two, a must read. Like the other two of this trilogy, TNS is both a superb SF novel and a good murder mystery.

Create the idea of how the mankind of another World could be, make this book a surreal great thought. It’s a dream of the future, when humans may look at the sun and consider as a naked star. Covered with fears of past, present and future. Read about robots makes you think of the basic human logic, so basic to makes you enjoy even more our present naked sun.

This was written in the pre-digital, pre computer age and the science is off. However the story reads well and the commentary on human nature is excellent. A detective novel, combined with sci-fi and human prejudices. A re-read after many years.

I've just recently read this novel, and I can see how it influenced two later science fiction novels I know of: To the Galactic Rim (John Grimes Saga), by A. Bertram Chandler, and Marooned in Realtime (Peace War),by Vernor Vinge. Given the prestige Asimov still holds in science fiction, his Solarians might show up in other guises in other authors' stories. We might even find an echo of this novel in the 1990's film Demolition Man.

I find it instructive to read these older science fiction novels just to see what writers in the mid 20th Century imagined for "advanced" futuristic civilizations. For example Asimov's depiction of "trimensional" telepresence didn't take a thousand years to arrive; we have that now.

But then why have the Solarians created a society where its citizens show such a strong aversion to physical contact that even married couples avoid sex unless they have to engage in it for breeding purposes? I thought we would live in a free-love utopia in Future World, a common assumption in many other science fiction stories. Perhaps Asimov anticipated the Solarian trend of the Japanese, where reportedly a quarter of Japanese unmarried men in the 30's have had no sexual experience despite Japan's sexual liberalism. Asimov himself had a couple of wives and at least one affair he wrote about in one of his autobiographies, so he didn't project his sexual aversions onto the Solarians from the available evidence.

This novel might have impressed me more as an adolescent. Now it just looks like disposable airport reading while you have to wait to catch your flight.

I recently read CAVES OF STEEL and after being seriously disappointed in it I had hopes that THE NAKED SUN would represent an improvement. In fact, it did represent a somewhat tighter story and the protagonist Elijah Baley acted a lot less stupidly than he had in the first novel, but all in all I found the book to be even less satisfactory than the first.

The problems with this book are numerous. One of the more serious difficulties is that Asimov took what was the most interesting part of the CAVES OF STEEL -- the cooperation between Baley and his robot partner Daneel Olivaw and largely ignored it. Daneel plays a relatively minor role in the book, Baley, who is all in all a pretty dull bird, taking center stage. As in the first novel, Baley isn't much of a detective. His literary predecessors are not the Continental OP, Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, and Lew Archer, but Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. For some bizarre reason Asimov made the decision to follow the example of detective writers whose sleuths operated more by instinct and love to employ the technique of assembling all the key suspects before making his climatic announcement as to whodunit. As detective fiction, it is just horrible. Worst of all, Asimov violates one of the canons of such fiction: he withholds key facts, making it impossible for the reader to solve the crime ahead of time.

In addition to failing in developing his characters and engaging in a literarily inferior form of detective fiction, Asimov's book is flawed by absolutely absurd assumptions about possible forms of human existence. Now, in fairness to Asimov, he wrote at a time when the insane theories of B. F. Skinner (who attempted to raise his own daughter in a box) still held current. So in fact Asimov might just be judged a victim of his time. But even before the publication of THE NAKED SUN Harry Harlow (in a series of rather monstrous experiments involving rhesus monkeys and "monster mothers") proved how profoundly primates yearned for human contact. Asimov imagines what is not merely a different form of human culture, but one that is impossible, since it cuts so deeply at what is most fundamental to human nature, namely that we are deeply social creatures for whom physical and social interaction is crucial. Asimov tries his best to make conceivable a world on which people avoid being physically present to other people, but it simply is too silly. Sure, we could suspend our disbelief, but only at the cost of suspending all critical interaction with the text.

Added on top of all this is the fact that Asimov is simply not a very good writer. His prose is drab at best and in writing about characters he tends to default to extremely trite expressions. Someone says something to Baley and his reaction is to clinch his fists. It not only isn't very gifted writing, it reinforces a sense of superficiality running through the book.

I've now in the past month read the first three novels I've ever read by Isaac Asimov. So far I'm baffled. I know that he is extremely famous and that he was a pioneer in many ways, but while I've found enormous pleasure in many early SF writers like Henry Kuttner, C. L. Moore, Robert Heinlein, Hal Clement, Poul Anderson, Frederick Pohl, and a host of others, I honestly have found virtually nothing of value in Asimov's books. I'm not giving up yet. I'm currently trying to work through all the major books dealing with robots, cyborgs, and other forms of artificial people. I will next finish THE ROBOTS OF DAWN and ROBOTS AND EMPIRE, in addition to finishing the last couple of stories in I, ROBOT. Perhaps my opinion of Asimov will change. But I can state with some confidence that CAVES OF STEEL and THE NAKED SUN are simply not very good books.

I liked this book because it investigates a society wholly different from ours both on Earth and off. There was is good intriguing mystery, even though the ending could be seen coming from a little ways away. It was the process and methodology that keep me reading and how true the story could be kept under the limitations and restrictions it mandated.

The dialogue was consistent and the building of settings was thorough. I'm jaded by our modern computers and the advances in morality and ethics we have achieved in today's age and it was a bit hard to overlook some. Still, there are some philosophical questions that linger and are well presented in this story. Some even more apparent now than when the book was written and just as applicable. For example, the question of isolation when instant communication is readily available and the way that changes base human interactions. Very fascinating in its presentation and how it affects the characters and the plot progression.

I highly recommend this book for people who are familiar with Asimov's previous "robot" stories so there is at least some foundation in Asimov-robot operation and where some of the more ethical questions have already been addressed at in terms of sovereignty and servitude. Surprisingly, I don't believe the first of this series needs to be read for this one to be fully appreciated as the preface mentions that they are unleaded in all but the primary protagonists.

Enjoy the story. It was a fun ride.

The Naked Sun (1957) is Isaac Asimov's follow-up to his 1954 novel The Caves of Steel, where he introduced his buddy cop duo, detective Elijah Baley and robot partner R. Daneel Olivaw. Naked Sun is a much better book, if only because the setting, a planet called Solaria, is so fascinating. It's a world with very few inhabitants who all live in cozy comfort in mansions surrounded by vast tracts of land while having all their needs met by legions of robots.

This is the exact opposite of the Earth of the time, where inhabitants (including Baley and his wife and son) live in crowded megacities under spartan conditions reminiscent of communal life in 1950s Leningrad. A murder—an almost unprecedented crime—brings Baley and Olivaw to Solaria and gives Asimov the chance to take Baley around to interact with the citizens and come into conflict with the culture, which is extremely xenophobic. In fact, Solarians rarely meet each other in person, preferring to interact through a sophisticated holographic communication device that sounds like Facetime on steroids. As a result, compared to Solaria, Puritan New England is the Playboy Mansion.

Meanwhile, Baley brings his own psychological baggage to the party, especially an extreme agoraphobia that is common to Earthmen because of the way they live in underground cities where they never see the open sky. Earthmen are also robot-phobic, or at least bigots when it comes to robots. One nice topical touch is how Baley, an otherwise decent sort of fellow, keeps addressing robots (except for Olivaw, whom he has come to grudgingly respect) as "boy," reminiscent of the patronizing way blacks were addressed by whites in many part of the country at the time. So in addition to being a proto buddy cop movie, Th eNaked Sun can also be seen as an early version of the 1967 Sideney Poitier/Rod Steiger vehicle In the Heat of the Night, which paired an unlikely-for-its-time black-white cop duo in Jim Crow Mississippi.

As in all previous Asimov tales, character is not a strong point, but the setting and the highly imaginative way Asimov presents and develops it make up for shortcomings in other areas. The murder itself, a kind of locked room mystery, is not a bad one though hardly compelling. It does play in intriguing ways with Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, but basically, the plot exists mainly to give the author a chance to explore the implications of two vastly different lifestyles. I enjoyed it.

There will always be a soft spot in my heart for Asimov's I ROBOT short story collection and his THE REST OF THE ROBOTS short story collection. But this is my favorite Asimov novel; it is also one of my all-time favorite detective novels, SF or non-SF. It is sort of a sequel to an earlier novel of his: The Caves of Steel. But I like this one a lot better. You don't need to read them both, or read them in order; but it is true that the two novels enrich each other in defining a future allegorical world view, and in highlighting the relationship between the two detectives.

If you are one of those people who absolutely must read things in order, I would start with the Positronic Robot short story collections, then take on the novels in order, finishing with the final short story: I ROBOT; THE REST OF THE ROBOTS; THE CAVES OF STEEL; THE NAKED SUN; THE ROBOTS OF DAWN; MIRROR IMAGE. I have not read Mirror Image. I consider The Robots of Dawn the weakest novel in the series. I think Asimov got bored with the series toward the end (while writing Robots of Dawn?) and went on to other projects. When fans wanted more, all he could deliver was a final short story.

A human detective: Elijah. His partner Daneel is a robot so perfectly humanoid that other humans, and other robots, think it is human.

What keeps me coming back to re-read The Naked Sun is the strongly allegorical presentation, the "male bonding" between the human detective and the robot detective, the robots (yes, I'm a robot freak), and the awesome detective "who-done-it" at the center of it all. The detective aspects are not as lyrical as Raymond Chandler nor as breezy as Robert B. Parker, but they are vintage Asimov at the absolute top of his game.

In this series Asimov takes neurotic mental quirks, pushes them to their logical extremes, and elegantly builds a future out of them. Elijah has lived his entire life enclosed in tiny habitation boxes of overcrowded Earth; a mob of people pressing in upon him is comforting, while a free open space cripples him with terror. On Solaria, where the detectives go to solve a murder, humans rarely come into actual physical contact; almost all human intercourse is done by "viewing" which is so "lifelike" that Elijah at first mistakes it for actually being with another person. On Solaria, with each human residing on a separate estate cared for by an army of robots, the idea of actually being in physical proximity with another person is disgusting.

The copyright on this puppy is 1956. Nature versus Nurture. In this future Asimov pushes the limits of Nurture: the people in these novels are the product of their environment. Powerful Spacers versus powerless Earthers. This was state-of-the-art Science Fiction in the Fifties, and it still kicks ass and takes names in 2012. I almost wish another writer would take on this future with a few more "authorized" sequels. If someone paid me to write one, the moment I came up with a default-plot I would jump in, full-tilt boogie! @hg47

Oops!
P.S. - that would be Postscript.
P.R. - that would be Post Review.

On GoodReads I just learned about a 4th novel in this series I was not aware of: Robots and Empire. Asimov's fans demanded, and the dude did deliver. My mistake. @hg47

THE NAKED SUN is a witty little novel that is unmistakably a product of Isaac Asimov. Not just because of the ubiquitous robots, but because of the familiar themes that Asimov explored over the course of his decades-long career. On the surface, the novel is a science-fiction mystery story told in the author's usual enjoyable style. But by the time I reached the end of the book, I realized that Asimov had been doing something a little cleverer than his normal runaround, and upon reaching the conclusion, I immediately flipped back and started revisiting some of the earlier scenes to catch what I had missed the first time around.
THE NAKED SUN starts up where THE CAVES OF STEEL left off, although you certainly do not need to have read the earlier book to enjoy this one. Earthman Detective Elijah Baley is once again teamed up with R. (for Robot) Daneel Olivaw to solve an unexplained murder. The gimmick this time is that the homicide occurred on one of the mysterious Outer Worlds, and Baley must not only act as policeman, but as an unofficial spy for an Earth government curious as to what the culture is like on those advanced, robot-dependent planets.
The mystery is rather clever, although I did figure out what the murder weapon must have been before Baley did. As usual with Asimov's mysteries, I found myself enjoying the investigation more than the occasional plot logic that's thrown to the audience. In the case of this book, the storyline has some solid twists and turns, the only real flaw being that the cast of characters is so small that one could just pick a suspect at random to have a pretty good shot of correctly identifying the killer.
The real star of this story is the universe that Asimov builds. The Earth is still the lagging, suspicious and enclosed world of THE CAVES OF STEEL, but now we turn our attention out to one of the colony worlds, Solaria. I could tell that Asimov was having a blast creating this society, giving us all kinds of details such as this planet's frosty relationship with Earth, its delicate relationship with other Outer Worlds, its population levels, its staggeringly high ratio of robots to people, etc. But he has even more fun giving birth to the inhabitants. He has them still as recognizable humans, but from an extremely skewed perspective. For most of the book, it's the story of these strange people and their odd customs that overpowers what is currently going on in the murder investigation. This definitely makes for an interesting read, as once we get to the end, we find that the detective portions were only secondary to the real point of the book.
Often Asimov would insert little bits of social commentary into his fictions, with varying levels of success. And indeed, the summation at the end, where Baley lets the cat out of the bag and tells us what the novel has been exploring, is a little on the clumsy side. But the real triumph is how the author quietly and cunningly led us down the garden path to the end. When I opened the book to page one and found Elijah Baley nervously flying into a Washington, DC airport (by sheer coincidence I was making the same approach, albeit I started my journey in a different city than Baley had) and wishing to once again be safe indoors, I chucked to myself, recalling passages from Asimov's autobiography that discussed his legendary fear of flying and his mild claustrophilia. While reading all this stuff about people who hate flying, people who have an unnatural fear of face-to-face meetings, and people who yearn for enclosed spaces, I assumed that Asimov was doing nothing more than his usual shtick of inserting his own neuroses into his fictions (there's nothing wrong with this; it can make for very interesting reading, and it's something I particularly enjoy from Asimov). And with that assumption in place, I didn't pay much mind to what the author was actually setting up beneath the surface. So when the end of the novel rolled around and it was suddenly revealed what he had been up to this whole time, I was very pleasantly surprised.
I like pulpy books that work on more than one level, and THE NAKED SUN gives us a very clever look at human fears while also providing an entertaining murder mystery. No, the characters aren't terribly deep, but the plot is a fun one and the extra bit of world building that Asimov engages in raises this book up. I like to read Asimov novels while traveling, because I find them to be a nice relaxing way to pass a few hours. Anytime the good doctor can provide me with something even better and smarter than his usual high standard of amusing, whimsical adventures, I'm a very happy camper indeed.

Isaac Asimov returned to his "Robot" tales for "The Naked Sun," a taut murder mystery wrapped in a heavy sci-fi cloak. If anything, "Naked Sun" is more imaginative and tightly-written than the previous novel, "Caves of Steel," with its unconventional detecting and seemingly unsolvable crime.
Cop Elijah Baley isn't too fond of robots. Or Spacers. So he's less than pleased when he is sent to Solaria, a sparsely populated world where robots do all the work, and humans "toil not, neither do they spin." He's there to investigate a strange murder -- a scientist named Delmarre was murdered, and his widow Gladia is the only possible suspect. But she seems too ditzy and fluttery to crush a person's skull.
When an official is poisoned right in front of Baley, his suspicions are confirmed -- somebody is still murdering, and it may be linked to some touchy political subjects that Delmarre was working on. No human was close enough to kill either man, and no robot was capable of murder. With the assistance of his robot sidekick R. Daneel Olivaw, Lije Baley starts to unravel a mystery that seems to have no suspects...
Does a world full of languid, long-lived people waited on by robots sound like paradise? It won't after "Naked Sun," where such a civilization is enough to drive you nuts with boredom. Asimov did an excellent job with the Solarian civilization, where actually being in the same room as another person is considered an unspeakable intimacy and the world "children" is almost obscene.
Since this is all completely foreign to Lije Bailey (who comes from overcrowded Earth), it comes across as alien to the readers as well. It also adds an enticingly weird dimension to his detective work: Bailey has to solve a mystery entirely through communication equipment, and robots keep clearing away evidence. Add some agoraphobia and solid social commentary, and you have a story that is reminiscent of Agatha Christie writing Star Wars.
Bailey and Daneel make an excellent team -- there's Bailey's human gut feelings and intuitions into the human mind, coupled with Daneel's cool calm robot logic, and his lack of prejudices. The supporting characters are also nicely done, particularly the mildly neurotic Gladia and the nervous Gruer.
Asimov's "Naked Sun" is a tighter, tauter mystery than "Caves of Steel," with a bizarre civilization and a mystery that seems impossible to figure out. Immensely enjoyable and thought-provoking.

The Naked Sun is a sequel to The Caves of Steel featuring Elijah Bailey and his robot partner R. Daneel Olivaw.

A murder has taken place on the planet Solaria and it's up to Elijah and Daneel to solve it. However, Solaria is not like Earth. In the future the major cities on Earth are covered by huge metal domes and Earth is greatly over-populated. Humans don't look too kindly at robots. Most humans, including Elijah, are agoraphobic (fear open spaces). On Solaria the human population is very small, everyone lives on massive estates and there are thousands of robots for each human. Humans are bred to fear direct human contact so in order to 'view' each other they use complex holographic technology. Robots cater to every human need. This is pretty much Hell for somebody like Elijah but alas he is called into action.

I actually liked the plotting in The Naked Sun a bit more than The Caves of Steel. Because the people on Soliaria are the polar opposite of the people on Earth some interesting situations arise. For example, Earth humans are looked at as dirty animals and the thought of even being in the same room as an Earthman is sickening to a Solarian. Elijah, who craves direct human interaction, is forced to live by himself in a massive estate and he quickly becomes fed up with all of the robots trying to cater to every need of his. Elijah also does some 'growing up' in this novel.

One of my minor complaints with Caves of Steel is that some plot elements are a bit too convenient, only to keep the mystery alive. There is still a little bit of that in the Naked Sun, but to a lesser degree.

I strongly recommend this book, but read Caves of Steel first if you haven't already.

A lot of people don't realize that as famous as Isaac Asimov was as a science fiction writer, he took great pride in writing mysteries, often of short story length. He has several volumes of fascinating short story mysteries.

Here, we get a full length mystery, once again staffed by the interesting and entertaining investigative duo of Elijah Bailey and R. Daneel Olivaw, his humaniform robot partner. This time, the murder occurs away from Earth on a "Spacer world". This particular Spacer world is extreme in that the residents have a phobia for human contact, which provides an odd sort of balance for Bailey's phobia of the great outdoors. The murder is a classic locked door mystery, and the solution is impossible on its face.

Since Elijah had so recently solved a Spacer's murder on Earth, and since there are no such investigative skills in a society where murder is unheard of, the Spacers request Elijah as the man to solve this one. Asimov provides us with an interesting look at a society that has gone in completely the opposite direction of his over-crowded Earth cities ... a world where robots do virtually everything for the human residents, while on Earth any robots outside of routine automation are looked upon with threat and suspicion.

Asimov took great pride in the internal logic of his mysteries, and this is a good example. "The Naked Sun" is an entertaining read for fans of both science fiction and mysteries. Although it is not absolutely necessary, I would recommend that you have read "The Caves of Steel" before tackling this book.

The Naked Sun is the second book in Asimov's robot series and probably my favorite but all are worth reading. This book continues the futuristic Sherlockian adventure of Elijah Bailey and his straight-man robot sidekick Daneel Olivaw. This time they journey to the planet of Solaria to solve a murder that has political implications across the galaxy.

Asimov creates and socially interesting world in Solaria where people avoid human contact, live miles apart from each other and dependent upon robots to automate their society and keep their standard of living of high. Asimov deftly ties the intricacies of the Solarians into the mystery of the murder and ongoing multi book arc or robot progression. The whole thing is executed with Asimov's straightforward style and the character interaction and relationship between the two main characters is excellent as well.

I highly recommend this series to any science fiction fan as this is really top shelf sci-fi writing from the best. The series should be read in order though and one should start with the I, Robot short story collection before proceeding to The Caves of Steel (which is the predecessor to this novel). Also this series is entirely appropriate for any one of at least high school age.

Bottom Line: This series was revolutionary when it came out in the 50's. It's still one of the best ones out there.

Isaac Asimov returned to his "Robot" tales for "The Naked Sun," a taut murder mystery wrapped in a heavy sci-fi cloak. If anything, "Naked Sun" is more imaginative and tightly-written than the previous novel, "Caves of Steel," with its unconventional detecting and seemingly unsolvable crime.
Cop Elijah Baley isn't too fond of robots. Or Spacers. So he's less than pleased when he is sent to Solaria, a sparsely populated world where robots do all the work, and humans "toil not, neither do they spin." He's there to investigate a strange murder -- a scientist named Delmarre was murdered, and his widow Gladia is the only possible suspect. But she seems too ditzy and fluttery to crush a person's skull.
When an official is poisoned right in front of Baley, his suspicions are confirmed -- somebody is still murdering, and it may be linked to some touchy political subjects that Delmarre was working on. No human was close enough to kill either man, and no robot was capable of murder. With the assistance of his robot sidekick R. Daneel Olivaw, Lije Baley starts to unravel a mystery that seems to have no suspects...
Does a world full of languid, long-lived people waited on by robots sound like paradise? It won't after "Naked Sun," where such a civilization is enough to drive you nuts with boredom. Asimov did an excellent job with the Solarian civilization, where actually being in the same room as another person is considered an unspeakable intimacy and the world "children" is almost obscene.
Since this is all completely foreign to Lije Bailey (who comes from overcrowded Earth), it comes across as alien to the readers as well. It also adds an enticingly weird dimension to his detective work: Bailey has to solve a mystery entirely through communication equipment, and robots keep clearing away evidence. Add some agoraphobia and solid social commentary, and you have a story that is reminiscent of Agatha Christie writing Star Wars.
Bailey and Daneel make an excellent team -- there's Bailey's human gut feelings and intuitions into the human mind, coupled with Daneel's cool calm robot logic, and his lack of prejudices. The supporting characters are also nicely done, particularly the mildly neurotic Gladia and the nervous Gruer.
Asimov's "Naked Sun" is a tighter, tauter mystery than "Caves of Steel," with a bizarre civilization and a mystery that seems impossible to figure out. Immensely enjoyable and thought-provoking.

The Naked Sun is a great sequel to Asimov's Caves of Steel. There, we were introduced to Elijah and Daneel as well as the Earth in the 3rd millenium, with its industrialisation, soullessness, pathological confinement in enclosed spaces and a dictatorial intrusion of the bureaucratic machine into every aspect of life imaginable.
In this book, a murder occurs in a Spacer world and Elijah is specifically requested for. The murder, they say, is a logical imposibility, as it could only have been done by one person and even that person could not possibly have done it. Reluctantly, Elijah travels to the world of Solaria, where the murder occured and, reunited with Daneel, attempts to solve it in his already well-known style.
Considering the contempt of Spaces for all earthlings, his visit to the outer world of Solaria is unprecedented and he has no idea to expect from a culture which diverged from earth's 300 years ago. The result is staggering - a huge planet with only 20,000 inhabitants and several thousand robots per person means unprecedented luxury. Everyone has huge estates, isolated from everyone and life is automated and mechanised to the nth degree. This reflects in the social aspect of life, where *seeing* a person (in the flesh) has become a social taboo, to be avoided as much as humanly possible. Instead, social contact is done through the impersonal, though extremely sophisticated machinery and is called *viewing*. Even a husband and wife (allocated roles in Solaria) rarely see each other, most of the contact done by viewing.
And so, without giving away the details of the mystery, Bailey is essentially faced with a thematic connundrum. On the one hand, the Solarians don't have the almost psychotic fear of open spaces and nature that Bailey and other earthlings possess due to existing all their lives in boxes within boxes. But Solarians have lost the other essential aspect of humanity, as Bailey sees what a pathetically isolated, lolly-pop world Solaria is, where most of what we consider meaningful (real interactions, children, family) are either taboo or nonexistent.
The book represents a step up from the Caves of Steel which outlined the way people live on earth. For the first time, we can see Asimov's robot-filled universe and the consequences on technology. On Earth, the crowding has ensured that social contact has remained but people have lost their communion with nature and the universe itself. On Solaria, the reverse is true, with plenty of sun and open spaces but no humanity. I really enjoyed this whole take on the world (especially as Bailey learns to see his fear of open spaces for what it is - an arbitrary, unnecessary hinderance).
The only problem is that Asimov hammers this thematic point with the subtlety of a Britney Spears outfit. Still, it's interesting. The mystery itself is what has been criticised in otehr reviews and I don't consider it as satisfactory/"perfect" as Caves of Steel, but it's relatively interesting and it just shows that the action was a vehicle towards what Asimov really wanted to say.
So, overall, a great book despite its flaws as it'll actually make you think about the values of our society and the direction we *might* be going - unlike many other sci-fi works (including some by Asimov), this one's both entertaining *and* meaningful.

THE CAVES OF STEEL was, in my humble opinion, an all-time science fiction classic. THE NAKED SUN is the direct sequel and is extremely satisfying, thought be many to be better than the original. Personally, I feel it failed a bit, especially as a mystery. This is still superlative science-fiction writing.
This time, Elijah needs to travel to another world, a traumatic challenge to one who's never been outside Earth's "caves of steel". He is venturesome enough though to want to actually experience the open air and "naked sun" of another planet and this causes some conflict with android partner, R. Daneel Olivaw, who following the three laws of robots needs to protect the detective from harm.
Again, the mystery part of the story owes to the classic "locked room mystery" subgenre in that the murder is one which appears to be an "impossible" one. Since the murder occured, though, there is only one apparant person who could possibly have committed it.
The Solarians have through their history and their reliance on robots developed a physical aversion to each other, husbands and wives being the only ones who tolerate contact with each other, and Solarian science is working to develop artificial insemination so that even that contact will no longer be necessary.
As the detective conducts his investigation, he becomes more involved with his belief that Earth must participate in colonization of other habitable worlds, and so this novel while telling its own story also develops the thread that eventually leads to the author's Empire and Foundation series. I am not sure whether or not Isaac Asimov, at the time that he wrote this novel, had any idea of developing R. Daneel Olivaw into such a pivotal factor as he eventually becomes, but it seems to me that there are slight hints here of the robot's leaning more on his reasoning ability, in spite of the fact that robots are not supposed to have any reasoning ability.
Again, after reading this book, I believe one will very much want to continue into Asimov's future history.

Anyone who has read Isaac Asimov's classic science fiction masterpiece The Caves of Steel was undoubtedly clamoring for a sequel at the end of the book. The Naked Sun (Asimov would go on to write two more sequels) fulfills the task sufficiently. Although I think that, on the whole, the plot and murder mystery in this book - with less plot twists and turns, false leads, and dead ends - is not as interesting as the one in The Caves of Steel was, it is still thoroughly enjoyable, nonetheless. Granted, the concept of the murder mystery is one of the oldest scenarios in all literature - and was perfected by Conan Doyle, at that - and is, thus, rarely fresh or inventive - indeed, is usually quite stale. This is the real strength of The Naked Sun. This has what is, as far as one could conceivably allow in a murder mystery, a totally original plot. It is strange and intriguing in that the protagonist - and, indeed, the reader - knows nothing, absolutely NOTHING, about the murder. Detectives invariably start out with few clues, but in this he has absolutely none. Another interesting aspect of the book - and the highlight of it, for me - is the world, Solaria, and its inhabitants that Asimov herein describes. They have a truly different and remarkable way of life than that which we may find customary, and Asimov manages to make it believable and highly interesting. These factors combine to make the book interesting and fun to read. It is written in the style of its prequel: fast-paced, exciting, and hard to put down. This is certainly worth reading, if you liked the first one, and I highly reccommend it. For all of this praise, however, I do not find this book to be, on the whole, as good as The Caves of Steel. The Naked Sun, while being an extremely entertaining and fulfilling adventure romp, fails to convey the profundity of the original - indeed, this may stem from the fact that Asimov wrote this book out of incessant demand for a sequel (both from his publisher and his fans) instead of having it arise from pure inspiration. Alas, this is a highly entertaining book that I heartily reccommend to fans of the aforementioned masterpiece.

Elijah Baley solves another case with his logical yet unreasonable partner, R Daneel Olivaw. This time it is not within the steel caves of New York City, but in the open plains of the sparsely populated Solaria. A world that has reached the epitome of technological paradise.

Though, the book is not necessarily well written as a detective piece. The murderer is somewhat obvious, and the investigation can at times be dull. What is interesting is this new world Asimov created. A world so wrapped up with the companionship of their advanced robots, that people shudder at the thought of seeing another person in the flesh. Some people will faint at the sight. Some people will stay a good twenty feet away from a man. Some people will do worse. They are enslaved to the robots for their livelihood, their protection, and they are even mothered by the robots after birth.

It turns out that Earth is exactly the same in many ways. But instead of being isolated from individuals, Earth is isolated by other cities, other planets, other ventures. Baley can barely last five minutes in the Solarian sun without fainting himself. Whereas Solaria's wealthy estates ran only by robots cause people to fear anyone one person, Earth's primitively walled in cities cause people to fear manifest destiny.

PS: There was a certian individual who claimed that the nudity exhibited in this novel should have been cesnored. I am in complete disagreement in the first case because I do not believe in censorship. Despite this, I do not believe that there is anything in this book to censor. The only line that makes desciption of the female form is as followed, "Gladia looked down at her nudity in surprise and said, 'Well of course'" (61). Not a single word is used to illustrate a nude body other than the word "nudity" itself. Everything is left to the imagination and is very tasteful. I would say the taboo of nudity in this novel, though it is not portrayed in explicit detail, is what makes this book intriguing as oppose to revolting.

This book is a quick but satisfying read. One of the things I really appreciate about this book is how Isaac Asimov created a world, Solaria, that has a society that is completely different from our own, yet remains consistent in his portrayal of Solarian society throughout the novel. Another thing I really appreciate about this novel is how Isaac Asimov describes Earth detective Elijah Baley's reactions to life on Solaria, as well as how Baley himself experiences real change by the end of the story.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mystery, science fiction, or a combination of the two. This is indeed a very well-written book.

I read this book, because I believe Asimov to be an original in tales about and involving robots. His ability to expound both the benefits and pitfalls of robotics while weaving a good mystery makes me think of our own world, our youth, and the increasing separation I see due to dependence on social media. Are we becoming like the Solarians? Probably not, but technology seems to be dragging us further and further from each other. Great read.

Asimov wrote The Naked Sun in 1956 and as others have pointed out here, it is a sequel but a completely independent story from his previous novel, Caves of Steel. For me, one of the most compelling things about this novel was how prescient Asimov was about how communication technology and technology in general, could isolate society. There is a passage in which the hero, Elijah Baley, interviews a woman who is a murder suspect on the distant "Spacer" planet. He is interviewing her by trimensional viewer - the equivalent of what we would consider a high quality, 3-dimensional webcam projection. Interestingly, she has no qualms about nudity being viewed in this way. Yet, like most of the "Spacers" and particularly those of Solaria, she is strongly abhorrent to actual physical contact and would, of course, never appear in a state of undress in the actual presence of a man like Baley. In her own words, the fact that Baley is "viewing her" over the projection and not "seeing" her in actual proximity makes "all the difference there is." Asimov's thesis here is that having robots to do all the manual labor and having the ability to communicate remotely with so much intimacy that it rivals being in the same room, people are now so remote from one another physically that it takes tremendous effort for them to be in the same house with someone, let alone the same room. You can see some parallels with how people today communicate with chat, e-mail and webcams across vast distances with a degree of intimacy and familiarity that would not have been possible until recently. Long-distance relationships can actually be quite intimate, even sexual, due to the improvements in communications technology. Asimov was visualizing the future of what we are now experiencing some 50 years ago. I re-read this book now and then with amazement at how well he understood the impact our technology was going to have on our social and political futures.

Perhaps the best of this wonderful series, in which New York detective Elijah Baley must travel off earth to a spacer world. (The spacers -- humans whose ancestors abandoned earth to form a galactic empire -- have become much more powerful than the crowded millions who remain on Earth). Off earth, he must cooperate with the robot detective, R. Daneel Olivaw, with the very strange society of the spacers, and with the gorgeous Gladia. I loved this book fifty years ago, and I still do.

Reading it now, it's interesting to note that Asimov saw most of humanity remaining on earth, and living in subterranean inverted apartment buildings with communal kitchens, etc. The few whose ancestors had reached the stars live on vast estates, rarely seeing other humans -- the ultimate gated community.

The follow-up to The Caves of Steel and the second of Asimov's robot mystery novels. Like its predecessor, it's a blend of genres, a pure murder mystery wrapped in the garb of a science fiction book. It is as you'd expect. A tight, sometimes clever mystery focused on how one might manipulate the Three Laws of Robotics, solved by our reluctant human hero and his surprising capable robot partner. Solid but not essential, read this if you enjoy Asimov's work or like the idea of science fiction mystery stories, but don't worry that you're missing an essential SF title if you give it a pass.

This book was actually adapted by the BBC in 1969 for a program called Out of the Unknown. In its infinite wisdom (sarcasm!), the BBC erased the episode. No copies are known to exist.

Having successfully solved the murder of a Spacer on Earth, and thus prevented a disastrous punitive war, Elijah Baley is once again called upon for his investigative prowess. Another Spacer has been murdered, but not on Earth this time, on the newest colonized Spacer world, Solaria. Solaria is the antithesis of Earth, having a VERY lopsided robot to human ratio, while on Earth, robots are still despised and distrusted. Teaming again with R. Daneel Olivew, his investigative partner from Caves of Steel, Baley must deal with not only his own aversion to the vast robot presence, but the frequent travels through the outdoors, which his agoraphobic mind can scarcely tolerate. In addition is the nature of the Solarians, who have become so isolated from each other as to consider obscene the actual presence of humans. Meeting resistance constantly, from the Solarians and from his own partner, Baley begins to see that the Solarian way is just as bad as the Earth way, where the people are not isolated from each other, but from the galaxy. Eventually, after pursuing several wrong leads, Baley hits upon the truth, but it's not quite as one might expect. I highly recommend this as another great Asimov novel; as part of the Robot-Empire-Foundation storyline, it's a very good part.

Naked Sun Is a murder mystery science fiction. This story is set on a secluded world of isolation. A murder of Rikaine Delmarre occurs "an eminent scientist". This is the first such case on this world a world of isolation because of this fact Solaria "a world with tenuous links to Earth" requests Baley to investigate. Before leaving he is asked to evaluate possible weakness in Solaria by the Earth government.
Earth of this book is very different to the Solaria world overpopulation has led to vast cities being constructed. The people of those cities have become afraid of open air sky's and the Naked Sun as they live overpopulated cities connected by underground networks
Solaria is a highly regulated world and the main focus of the story. where population levels are controlled to insure the standards of life on that world remain the same. people are taught from a young age to fear personal interaction in the flesh. The people live in great Estates said to so great that neighbours need never fear meeting one another. The people of Solaria communicate via Holographic Telepresence called viewing to make up this weakness.

I just got done reading The Naked Sun in record time - over the course of a few measly days - and that, I suppose, is testament to just how compelling a writer Asimov was. Can you put it down once you stop? No. Would you be inclined to do so? Not likely. Having written hundreds of books, Asimov had honed his craft down to a tee. There are no lengthy expositions, superfluous descriptions, esoteric metaphors, similes, or other unnecessary literary devices in an Asimov book; simply, there are characters, plot, world-building, and ideas, lots of ideas. If you've read, The Caves of Steel, or any other fiction by Asimov, and liked it, your sure to enjoy this book. as the second book in a trilogy, it felt slightly weaker than Caves, but held its own. Plainclothesman Elijah Baley develops in this book far more than in the previous installment. one thing this tale lacks that the first one had is a sense of urgency and/or danger. Asimov seems to have dialed down the action a bit well cranking up the mystery. But hey - what, exactly, is wrong with that?

A policeman from Earth, where the population all lives underground in close quarters, is called in to investigate a murder on a distant world. This world is populated by very few humans, rarely if ever, coming into physical proximity of each other. Instead the people "View" each other with holographic images. The mystery is, "How does a murder occur in a world where people can't stand to be in the presence of one another and robots can do no harm?" (Remember this is an Asimov book with his rules for robots firmly in place.) Asimov's variation on the "locked door" mystery is intriguing and adds in a sociological element that creates an interesting interpretation of what the future may hold in the relationship between man and machine is not carefully balanced. While the dated references that all older SF novels suffer from are to be found throughout the novel, this one does work as a good mystery. Even as the killer is exposed, you will be gratified to know that Asimov does not leave any loose threads by the time the book is finished.

The only reason I've rated this book only four stars is because some of Asimov's later books in the same series, written later in his career (e.g., Robots of Dawn) get even better. I found that there was a linear improvement in Asimov's writing through all of the robot novels.
Not only do you get to experience a great mystery-adventure, but you're also exploring the social consequences of near-human robots and the continued urbanization of the Earth along with man's push into space.
Daneel Olivaw, the robot partner to detective Elijah Baley, is one of the most memorable characters in the field of speculative fiction.
This is the best place to start reading Asimov; however, you should begin by reading the first novel in the series, Caves of Steel. If you enjoy these two, you will absolutely love the sequels. After reading the Robots books, try the Foundation series, which starts slower but gets very good--and ultimately rewards readers of the Robot books by tieing it all together.

A couple of admissions first - This is my first review. This was the first Asimov book I've read. I enjoy older (50's/60's) science fiction - no profanity, good character development, fairly predictable, but with interesting ideas and ways of looking at human life.

That said, I picked up The Naked Sun at a used bookstore not knowing that it was part of a series. I read a couple reviews that complained that the first 50 pages were used to get the new reader up to speed and decided I'd take the risk and read it anyway. I am so glad that I did. I couldn't put it down and finished it in less than a day and a half of intermittent reading. It's basically a classic 1950s style crime novel. Yes, it was a little predictable, but so what. I really enjoyed the interplay of the characters and way Asimov made the idiosyncrasies of the Solarians equal those of the earthmen.

Not groundbreaking, but a fantastic quick read. I highly recommend it.

"The Naked Sun" takes detective Elijah Baley to the outer settlements of the spacers to solve a mystery.

Once again, robot R. Daneel Olivaw joins the investigation.

The biggest difference between this and the normal life of Elijah Baley on Earth is that most of the investigation is under wide-open sky. Baley is not comfortable, he would rather be back in his city's steel caves. Meanwhile, we learn much more of the problems of the spacers.

But, Baley produces an interesting solution to the mystery.

I enjoyed reading this book. However, it is a little bit too light a vehicle and does not get far enough into the spacer's problems or how Baley fits into that arena of the overall plot.

Try it. It is entertaining.

"The Naked Sun" is the second in a magnificent continuation to an awesome science fiction series involving Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw. The Solarian's, descendants of Earth, ask the agoraphobic (afraid of open places) plainclothes cop Elijah Baley, since he solved a previous Spacer murder, to unravel a crime committed on their planet. With little choice, he embarks across space to face not only a foreign environment but also a robot-infested society. The robot intolerance Elijah is partnered with technological masterpiece Daneel to break the case before it is too late. Daneel continues to learn about human behavior from Elijah and is restricted in his behavior by what is known as the Law of Robotics. The story moves at a good tempo with an astonishing conclusion.
Thank you.

Asimov is best when working with a fresh set of characters and I think that is what is so appealing with the Foundation series: The characters were constantly changing through the course of the books timeline. In Naked Sun we see the return of detective Bailey and his Robot sidekick and must endure 50 or so pages of getting the audience up to speed. Of course I hunger to learn more of the developments that occured in Caves of Steel, but obviously for those who have not read the book those character developments would reveal too much of the plot and ruin it for the new reader. Therefore we are left hanging on some plot threads as Bailey heads out to Solaris in search of another plot to solve.
The second half of the book is quite appealing as Asimov makes great social commentary about America and its need for privacy and automation of life. I found myself engulfed in lives that appeared wonderful but at the same time quite strange and flawed.
The book was completely engrossing until the very end where Asimov pulls out all the cliche's including the "get everyone in the room to reveal the crime" senario. Agatha Christie this is not, and too bad Asimov ended the book with that tired old senario. On top of that, suddenly everyone in that room is a bunch of quirky characters with the crime solved by Baily who appears extrodinarily competent as compared to the first book which made him far more human and fallible. On top of that Bailey acts as judge, jury and executioner and this is completely out of line for his character despite his newfound character development that Asimov weaves into this story to justify his ridiculous actions. Finally, the didactic speech at the end of the story from Baily was disappointing. I felt Asimov was just blowing off steam to end the book rather than finding his usual clever means of making social commentary.
Caves of Steel was brilliant because of its social commentary and the fresh originality brought into the detective story. Naked sun feel stiff and a bit tired but it is still, despite my problems with the book, a decent read, but it is NO Caves of Steel.

Planet Solaria is rich. Its inhabitants
have every conceivable luxury. They enjoy long
lifespans and their every whim is attended to
by an army of robots.
But it is a society of isolated individuals,
who has lost the human tribe, the cooperation
between humans. And some of the Solarians doesn't seem
all that happy after all.
Detective Elijah Baley from NYC, womb-city Earth,
is send out to investigate a murder on this planet.
And while Elijah Baley investigates a murder -
we, the readers, investigates various different
futures for humanity.
As always, brilliant classic stuff from Asimov.
-Simon

Although this novel was written in the 50's it still is a great read today for sci-fi and mystery fans. It's premise of a world in which humans have become so disconnected that they communicate only via holographic viewing has been made even more prophetic with 21st technology. Asimov was ahead of his time, any may yet be ahead of ours even today. A must read after Caves of Steel!

The unique thing about this book is that, beside evrything that has been said about this book (robot psychology, tight thriller etc.), I found it to be a beautiful love story, in a very differnt emotional set up, with the least physical interaction between the protagonists. Asimov's insight into human character is brilliant and this understanding is best brought out in his extrapolation of human reactions in situations so difficult to envisage by our perceptions, modelled by our social and emotional environment. if you have any interest in reading books, don't miss this one, and the Foundation trilogy (I won't put the late sequels and prequels in the same category).

Although faded a bit at the edges, Asimov being better I think at predicting the social future than the technological, it is still a classic work of science fiction blended with the hard boiled detective novel. No easy feat. The male dominated narrative is the most dated and where Asimov clearly missed the mark by a mile. But the rest of the book is so well written and plotted that I still found much to enjoy.

Asimov writes a enjoyable blend of science-fiction and mystery. The pace is leisurely, and the novel might seem almost simplistic by today's sci-fi standards. Once you consider that it was published in 1957, the novel takes on an added dimension (and explains some anachronisms like the frequently exclaimed "Jehosaphat"). You can see Asimov's very creative mind at work (the crime itself could only be accomplished through science-fiction) and how shows like "Star Trek" borrow liberally from his work. Be forewarned that Asimov likes to ponder science-fiction concepts a few pages here and there.

It may be a flight of fancy, but it seems that you can see Asimov as a scientist when you read his novels. Unlike other speculative writers, there is a clear sense of details that ring true to the present day. For instance, the trouble with getting robots to respond to a question reminds me of some of the more comical experiments with intelligent agents.

Although the allegorical nature of the Solarians gives the book a somewhat dated feel, it still has that Asimov magic-- combining study of human nature with speculative fiction. A first class author, as always.

I read The Naked Sun (book two of the robot series) first. Then I went back to The Caves of Steel (book one). It is the excellence of book two that kept me in the series. The main characters Elijah and Daneel are great. Their adventures through Asimov's futuristic universe show that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Keep in mind, you will find some annoyances while reading this book. Especially if you compare it to the modern technological world. But they are so insignificant that the story blows by them. Read this book sci fi fans!

Not Shakespeare or Dickens but a classic "who done it" and some sci-fi thrown in for good measure.
Interesting to see Asimov's (60 year old) vision for robotics, in vitro fertilization, and the human condition in a few hundred years.

Asimov, like a lot of SF authors, was like a prophet, predicting not only the future but also the implications of possible technologies of the future. The Naked Sun shows the beginning of the true exploration of the world by humans in a way that's believable. Nothing too fantastic to believe even decades after being written, when technology is about to catch up, it's still believable and still fascinating. That is still the genius of Asimov.

The Naked Sun, continuing the exploits of Elijah Bailey and R. Daneel Olivaw, sees the two investigating a murder on the Spacer world of Solaria, where it is obscene to be in the physical presence of other human beings, and robots are everywhere, attending to every need. The contrast between Earth and Solaria is stark and made purposely so. Only Asimov and a few others have such a talent for making worlds into characters. He conveys the feeling and the emotions as if you were actually there.

i havent read robots of dawn or robots and empire but this book was fonominale just like the two before it. In this book Elijah baley and r, deaneel are faced with an astonishing murder mystery on a planet that there has never been crime or murder and the only person who could have done the crime couldnt have done it either. this book was trully asimov at his best and i never read a dull moment i couldnt put it down. This book is a must read for all who like science fiction

Not Shakespeare or Dickens but a classic "who done it" and some sci-fi thrown in for good measure.
Interesting to see Asimov's (60 year old) vision for robotics, in vitro fertilization, and the human condition in a few hundred years.

Asimov, like a lot of SF authors, was like a prophet, predicting not only the future but also the implications of possible technologies of the future. The Naked Sun shows the beginning of the true exploration of the world by humans in a way that's believable. Nothing too fantastic to believe even decades after being written, when technology is about to catch up, it's still believable and still fascinating. That is still the genius of Asimov.

The Naked Sun, continuing the exploits of Elijah Bailey and R. Daneel Olivaw, sees the two investigating a murder on the Spacer world of Solaria, where it is obscene to be in the physical presence of other human beings, and robots are everywhere, attending to every need. The contrast between Earth and Solaria is stark and made purposely so. Only Asimov and a few others have such a talent for making worlds into characters. He conveys the feeling and the emotions as if you were actually there.

i havent read robots of dawn or robots and empire but this book was fonominale just like the two before it. In this book Elijah baley and r, deaneel are faced with an astonishing murder mystery on a planet that there has never been crime or murder and the only person who could have done the crime couldnt have done it either. this book was trully asimov at his best and i never read a dull moment i couldnt put it down. This book is a must read for all who like science fiction

Although this may seem like an early 20th century detective novel set in space, as there are so many cowboy movies re-set in space, it is interesting as a development of Asimov's ideas of artificial intelligence.

I also enjoy it as part of the much larger picture of robots and empire. His imagination is impressive.

I read this in high school, and always remembered the story of the Solarians. I just finished reading it again - the first time in several decades. With our increasing isolation through technology, this story is even more pertinent. Asimov is amazing! I've reread other old favorites (not Asimov) and have been surprised at how dated some of them seemed. This story holds up.

I read this book even before i read the other Robot detective books and i found this book fascinating! Baley's work in this book is quite great and i loved the story as well as the logic shown. After reading this i bought the other robot books and after reading the Caves of Steel I could understand Baley's queer behavior in this book(jush as agrophobia). So I would recommened to read those books in order. the Caves of Steel, the Naked Sun, and the Robots in the Dawn. However the order doesn't really matter. You can enjoy this book without great knowledge about the other Robot books.

As should be anyone even slightly fascinated by sci-fi and space opera. And very few people can deliver like Asimov, with the exception of Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein. I would urge all sci-fi addicts to get this book as well as: "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Puppet Masters", "2001", "2010", "Rendezvous with Rama", "Ringworld", all the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" books, "Advent of the Corps" and others.

Like all of Asimov's best works, this novel is a tight exploration into how humans operate. He contrasts humans both with robots and with aliens in the work, and though humans have the lower hand here, he offers hope for the future. The book happens to be a well-crafted mystery as well, just as it happens to be science fiction. Good science fiction posits humans in exotic locales doing ultimately familiar things. The fear of Elijah Bailey is a bit odd, since it is of open spaces and sunlight, but we all fear things, and Asimov gets to the heart of what fear is and how it can--and in the humans' situation in the novel--must be overcome. It is an extremely satisfying book, as most mystery novels are not.

While "The Caves of Steel" gets my vote as "The Best Asimov Book of All-Time", this one comes in a close second place. I sure would have liked for Asimov to expand a bit more on the world from "The Caves of Steel", but he does a great job here as well, in presenting the different culture found on the Spacer world... someone HAS to make a movie out of the Robot Murder books.

This is the second book in the Baley-Daneel duo. And it's better than the first one, The Caves of Steel. The Science Fiction aspect is more creative--the Solarians are unlike any race I'm seen or read. The mystery is even tougher. Looking at the two books, The Naked Sun is almost the opposite of The Caves of Steel. The latter takes place in a confined Earth, with few robots. The former is on Solaria, a world with many robots and open spaces. Baley's reaction to the expierence rings true to his character--especially when dealing with the open spaces. To sum up, this is sequel will hook you and make you crave more. How fortunate there is a book called The Robots of Dawn!

It was written in a time when computers were not the big thing. But yet it speaks of a time which we may encounter in the future. Based on his book it will be interesting to see which way mankind goes

This was my first Asimov book. I thought it was very well written. I wasn't sure what to expect going in because I have heard so much about Isaac Asimov. Naked Sun was very entertaining. I must admit that I was sucked into the whodunnit of the book, however. I was intrigued also by the difference in cultures between the eartman and the spacers. It was interesting to see how they reacted to each other. A book like this parallels todays world in which every city has someone who was not born there, who is a sort of outsider and must adjust to the norms of that society or not adhere and pave a path for him or herself. Naked Sun will definately make me read more of Asimov.

I found the story to be a fascinasting account of how one person overcame his fears(personal and those imposed by his society and its customs) to logically solve a very perplexing crime which had galactic ramifications Also a must read is the Robots of Dawn and The Caves of Steel. exceedingly well written!.

Amazing story, I love this plot, I can't put 5 stars because 5 stars is the Fundation saga. This book, is the best, from the Robots stories I have read. (I am reading this serie in order, I only read: I Robot, Caves of Steel and this one). If you like SF, this is a "must!"

The story was a little in depth and the only problem I had with it was the amount of time it took to provide a background for the planet's culture. If you aren't able to understand the lifestyle that these people have enforced on themselves you will find it hard to understand anything else in the story. Despite this it is well written story and full of imagination. A very easy read.

I think it was proven long before this book was written that Asimov is an expert storyteller and one of the leaders in science fiction. This is just further proof. I was enthralled throughout the mystery and I can't wait to start on the next installment!

I absolutely love this book. The mystery was a good one, but the moral of the story was far bigger then the story itself. I have read the foundation series and I love the way this book tied into the foundation series (specially to the last foundation book) I have ready many a mythological, fantasy books and Asimov has to be one of the great minds of all time.

Love the message of the book.

The Naked Sun was definately worth reading as it contained some very intriguing and relevant ideas. Unfortunately, the book was typically early-Asimov in that it lacked much action. While this is important to some, this book didn't really need it to still be captivating.

This book is great for those of you looking to escape this sometimes dull planet and time. If you have a passion for science fiction mystery or just science fiction in general this book is for you. Those of you who have seen the movies like I,ROBOT, Blade Runner, or Metropolis will find yourselves wrapped up in this enticing view of not only our planets future but also the future of life in this galaxy. The obviousness of this whodunnit is very subtle throughout the story and you will find yourself smacking your forehead when you realize what actually happened in the end.

This book is worth all the money you've got. This story basically revolves around the murder of a young man on the planet Solaria to wher a plainclothes detective of e5 level is sent to investigate accompanied by a robot whom he hates so much. This story has much resemblence to the near future, human greed, etc. But anyway a person need not be a scifi lover to read this.

I thought this book was wonderful. It had all the qualities of a science fiction novel. The mystery of robots and death is the most interesting part of this book. R. Daneel Olivaw is one of the most important characters.

I had to read this book for and MA workshop I was attending and as someone who does not read science fiction I was pleasently surprised. The analogy I drew was that the two societies, earthmen and spacers were the Northern States and the Southern States at the time of the Civil War and in this case the Southern States had managed to successfully secede. The robots are of course the Negro slaves.

As you may gather I am a student of 19th Century American History.

Alan Lowe.

I just finished reading this. I had previously read The Caves of Steel, a marvelous book in its own right. This one, however, is superior to its predecessor. The culture of Solaria is so fascinating that I could just not put it down. The mystery is, I feel, secondary to the science-fiction element in this story. The Solarian culture is so convincing that I always wanted to know more. It is a great fusion of mystery story and sci-fi yarn. Highly recommended.

I have read many of the thousands of words on this book. Most people seem to have read and enjoyed it, as they should. So I won't add too many more - that ain't necessary. All I will say is that, overlooking the relative thinness of the characterizations, after reading the book (and its predecessor) you might very well go back to the J. Watson / R. Sherlock Holmes stories with an enhanced perception.

Yet again, Asimov proves that he is indeed THE Science Fiction mastermind. "The Naked Sun" sends detective Elijah Baley into his most challenging case yet. He must lead a successful offworld investigation against impossible odds, which leaves you intrigued every step of the way. The bold R. Daneel, and the sexy Gladia Delmarre add more spice to Lije's ordeal. A true MUST read to all sci-fi fans out there!!!!!