The Naked Sun
Ratings182
Average rating4.1
Contains spoilers
I really liked the choice of exploring the other side of the spectrum of the post-robot human culture. It was fascinating and made a good hook for a murder mystery. I see now that, similar to Foundation, these are sociological novels and the robots are only a background/driving element. I enjoyed Lije’s arc of learning to embrace the possibilities of space, though I wish it was more clear that he still loved his wife.
This was pretty enjoyable! This book was less about Human-Robot relations like Caves of Steel. This book is more about Earthman-Alien relations (despite the Solarians being human, their way of life is basically alien. While robots are an important aspect, they are not the focus which I do like. Asimov built an interesting world so I do like that he's exploring other themes instead of just pure Human-Robot relations.
I'm not exactly sure whether this was better or worse than Caves of Steel. They're both equally good I think.
Bel libro, ancora meglio del primo. Asimov è (quasi) sempre una garanzia. Consiglio la lettura agli appassionati del genere.
Story : This is an unique book... whodunit in space. The case is really interesting and I still don't know how Asimov wrote this... so creative! Plot twists, amazing descriptions and a powerfull ending. I kinda knew who was the killer...
Characters : Baley is our detective and he is really likable. I also loved Daneel, but the solarians... so weird (Gladia was cute tho).
Overall : I will continue this series, because it's so fascinating! Can't wait to read Agatha Cristie too...
“El planeta giraba bajo aquel sol desnudo, indefenso ante las hordas de microbios llamadas hombres, que se desparramaban sobre su superficie. El planeta giraba locamente, eternamente..., giraba, giraba...”
Lije Baley es solicitado por el gobierno de Solaria, uno de los cincuenta Mundos Exteriores habitados por los espaciales, para llevar a cabo la investigación sobre el asesinato de Rikaine Delmarre, un ingeniero fetal. Estará acompañado por R. Daneel Olivaw, su co-protagonista en Bóvedas de acero, quien fue enviado en representación del gobierno de Aurora para colaborar en la investigación. Con esto, Lije Baley se convierte en el primer terrícola en pisar uno de los Mundos Exteriores. ¡Todo una leyenda!
Me ha fascinado como jugó Asimov con sus propias Leyes de la Robótica en esta novela. Hecha la ley, hecha la trampa, ¿eh? Con respecto al tema cultural, Lije sí que la tuvo difícil, dejar sus Ciudades subterráneas, sus bóvedas de acero, su familia, para encontrarse en un planeta como Solaria en donde las costumbres son ridiculamente distintas a las de la Tierra. Vaya lío.
Entre esta novela y Los robots del amanecer existe una historia corta llamada Mirror image que tuve la oportunidad de leer en El robot completo, tal vez valga la pena una releída. También está Mother Earth, otra historia corta que ocurre unos mil años antes de la saga de los robots en la época en que los Mundos Exteriores fueron colonizados.
Arte de Michael Whelan:
I didn't enjoy this quite as much as The Caves of Steel, but I liked it. Baley and Daneel travel to Solaria to solve a murder. It's a human-settled world with a culture that is strange to both of them, and fairly strange in itself. It takes Baley a long time to figure out anything about their culture, and his investigation of how things work there makes up the bulk of the novel. He's out of his element, just as in book one.
The Solarians come across as arrogant, but it never seems like they actually should be proud of what they've achieved. Because of the way they live, they don't understand the basics of many concepts, like normal (on Baley's Earth and also in reality) police procedures. The Solarians often expect the force of their personalities or their importance within Solarian society to convince Baley that they're innocent of the murder. It's interesting to consider this planet as a kind of libertarian paradise, especially with the way things are in the US right now. I really like that Baley clearly considers sociology an important science and values the opinions of sociologists.
Unfortunately, Daneel is not in this book much. I like his interactions with Baley and I missed them here. I really don't like the way Baley treats him or other robots. I do think Asimov was alluding to real, historical slavery here, with Baley referring to all the other robots as “boy,” which made me cringe every time. I don't believe I'm supposed to sympathize with the way Baley treats robots. But they still don't really seem humanoid, or not in the way that fictional robots like Data or Bender are humanoid. So I can't really hate Baley for his attitude, because it isn't completely analogous to real human bigotries.
The mystery's solution (major spoiler) was pretty unsatisfying to me. I did predict right away that the robots were somehow guilty but I think that I was meant to come to that conclusion, since a reader doesn't have the characters' mental constraints about whether robots can follow Asimov's laws or not. I thought the robots had been manipulated somehow, which was sort of true, but it's more accurate to say that the murderer used robots to set up a situation in which a human, Gladia, would commit the actual crime. The way Baley acts towards women is always pretty bad, but here, he does not even hold Gladia responsible for her crime. According to him, several men and Solarian society all manipulated Gladia into killing her husband. But she actually did it, and I don't sympathize with Baley protecting her. Every criminal has reasons for their crimes. I understand that Leebig was guilty of a worse crime (working towards galactic domination), but then, the story's conclusion meant that the murder investigation actually did work as the Solarians expected it to work; they all turned against Leebig, because he threatened their way of life. So it was Leebig's loss of his peers' support that brought justice here, not Baley following normal police procedures.
At one point, Baley spends a few hours with a woman he considers ugly. She's no more or less likable or three-dimensional than any of the other side characters in the book. Afterward, Baley longs to see the beautiful Gladia, to cleanse his mind of the first woman's ugliness. Yikes. I am not sure if these views are meant to be Baley's or if it's just because this book was written in the 1950s. I guess it was probably progressive at the time that female characters had plotlines at all. I strongly dislike the misogyny in these books. So although I'm very curious to find out what happens to Baley and Daneel on Aurora, I'll probably take a break before continuing with this series.
Very similar to Caves of Steel, this is the 3rd book in Asimovs Robot series. Fun detective novel in a space setting. I was a bit disappointed by some of the answers, but overall it was satisfying.
Very similar to Caves of Steel, this is the 3rd book in Asimovs Robot series. Fun detective novel in a space setting. I was a bit disappointed by some of the answers, but overall it was satisfying.
This is the sequel to [b:The Caves of Steel 11097712 The Caves of Steel (Robot, #1) Isaac Asimov https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328328744l/11097712.SY75.jpg 140376], and Asimov considered it to be better than the first book. Perhaps it is better constructed in a technical sense; I'm not sure. But this one has somewhat less appeal to me, I think because it's mostly set on Solaria.In the far future of these stories, Earth and Solaria are social opposites: Earth is overcrowded, while Solaria is so underpopulated that its people don't normally meet each other in the flesh, and have a phobia about doing so. Both societies are unattractive from our point of view, but the overcrowded Earth has more life to it than the dry and sterile society of Solaria.The hero of both books, Elijah Baley, is sent to Solaria to investigate a murder that has (most unusually) been committed there. And the murder is ingeniously conceived, as indeed was the murder in the first book; although they're both so ingenious as to seem somewhat contrived.This story was first published in 1956. Although it's set in the 47th century (approximately), the attitudes of the 1950s remain in it. At one point Baley is startled to discover that the murdered man's assistant (who then takes over his job) is a woman; he had expected a man, because a normal man of the 1950s would expect most jobs to be done by men.
I couldn't wait to read this book after its predecessor. I was happy to see that Elijah Bailey, and his robot partner R. Daneel were the protagonists again.
This time the plot happens in one of the 49 other planets. Again Asimov was able to reproduce a possible branch of evolution to our society. One where people live alone at big houses and are fearful of personal contact. They interact with each other only by a sort of “visual phone”.
Where on Earth there are nearly any robots, in Solaria there is 10.000 robots per human, and 20.000 humans.
The homicide Elijah was tasked to solve was very interesting as well, like the first book was too. He was also more fun of Deneel.
Isaac Asimov, per me indiscusso maestro della fantascienza, le sue opere sono considerate una pietra miliare sia nel campo della fantascienza che della divulgazione scientifica, che rende le sue opere di sci-fi ancora migliori. È autore di una vastissima e variegata produzione, stimata intorno ai 500 volumi pubblicati.
Qui ci troviamo al secondo capitolo del “Ciclo dei Robot” composto rispettivamente da: Abissi d'acciaio - Il sole nudo - I robot dell'alba - I robot e l'Impero.
In questo romanzo tornano il detective “umano” Lije Baley e quello “positronico” R. Daneel Olivaw, una delle coppie di investigatori più riuscite della narrativa fantascientifica. Questa volta essi sono alle prese con il primo delitto mai avvenuto sul pianeta Solaria, un mondo considerato perfetto dove convivono uomini e robot. Il terribile dubbio è che l'assassino possa non essere un uomo di carne e sangue ma di metallo, arrivando a mettere in discussione la prima legge dei robot.
Quello che indubbiamente affascina in questo libro è la descrizione immaginata di questa colonia terrestre di Solaria in cui, in cui i pochissimi abitanti elitari vivono in enormi tenute a chilometri di distanza l'una dall'altra, si parlano solo tramite una sorta un videotelefono senza peraltro mai incontrarsi di persona e sono serviti da migliaia di robot.
Ci troviamo di fronte ad una ottima storia, una variante fantascientifica del “giallo a camera chiusa”, con un ritmo serratissimo, una trama solida e tante interessanti riflessioni sulla natura umana e sul suo rapporto con l'intellegenza artificiale. Suspense, ottima narrazione e finale mai scontato sono gli ingredienti di questo secondo capitolo del mondo dei robot immaginato da Asimov.
Davvero intrigante. Più che ogni altra cosa, l'ambientazione del mondo di Solaria. Un altro indimenticabile capitolo della fantascienza.
Imperdibile.
Senso di solitudine per una vita lunghissima in un paese con pochissimi abitanti. 9