The Naked Sun review

This novel continues to explore the sociological consequences of robots and humans in a mixed society. Like The Caves of Steel, it follows a traditional detective story formula, ending with the protagonist facing down a room full of potential perpetrators. True to form, he works through motive, opportunity, and means (after stating explicitly that he will do so) with respect to eachh suspect until springing the surprise deduction of the true culprit on the assembled. I don't point this out to find fault. Mostly, I'm surprised by how this novel reads to me in middle-age, compared to what I noticed about it when I was a teenager. Then, plot was the only thing I cared about. Now, with far more reading under my belt, I can evaluate it on its other merits and characteristics.

I did not enjoy this novel as much as Caves of Steel, perhaps because I found the extreme sociological characteristics of the Solarians to be a bit of a stretch. Certainly one of the roles of science fiction is to present a "what if" scenario for consideration, but the best of the genre succeeds in finding a balance between something radically new and something plausible as an extrapolation or extension of what already exists. As presented by Asimov, the Solarians were a bit too extreme. This is a minor flaw, though.

Although the timeline of the novels I included in my previous post note the original publication date of each work, it didn't fully occur to me until mid-way through The Naked Sun that it was written AFTER the first two Foundation novels. I was marveling at the way these two early Robot Novels seemed to pre-figure the Foundation series when I realized that this was not an instance of incredible foresight or extensive planning, but instead an effort to go back and lay the groundwork for what was already published. I imagine that, for a reader with no prior knowledge of the Foundation universe, reading the books in publication order would have certain advantages over reading them as I am. Given that I've read most of the works at least once, I don't think I can render an opinion as to a preferred approach.

On to The Robots of Dawn!