The Naked Sun (1957)
The Naked Sun is a 1957 fiction book written by Isaac Asimov.
Solaria has not seen a murder in two centuries. Its people live scattered across enormous estates, each served by thousands of robots and each so used to solitude that meeting another human in the flesh fills them with revulsion. When one of them turns up dead, Earth detective Elijah Baley is sent to a world that is everything his own is not: open, empty, drenched in the light of a sun he was raised to fear. Reunited with the robot Daneel Olivaw, Baley works a culture of untouchable recluses. Asimov turns his own phobias inside out and builds another clean puzzle around them.
Quick answers
What is The Naked Sun about?
Solaria has not seen a murder in two centuries. Its people live scattered across enormous estates, each served by thousands of robots and each so used to solitude that meeting another human in the flesh fills them with revulsion. When one of them turns up dead, Earth detective Elijah Baley is sent to a world that is everything his own is not: open, empty, drenched in the light of a sun he was raised to fear. Reunited with the robot Daneel Olivaw, Baley works a culture of untouchable recluses. Asimov turns his own phobias inside out and builds another clean puzzle around them.
When was The Naked Sun published?
The Naked Sun was published in 1957.
Who made The Naked Sun?
The Naked Sun was written by Isaac Asimov.
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The Naked Sun in our writing
- Companion guide: Foundation: The Complete Guide to Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire
A few thoughts on The Naked Sun
Read it right after The Caves of Steel to follow Baley and Daneel from a crowded Earth to an empty world. Ghost in the Shell carries the same pairing of a human investigator and a synthetic mind into a moody, sealed future. For a matching mood of alienation and estranged bodies, Blade Runner makes a fitting screen companion.
A human investigator whose only reliable partner might be a machine
Elijah Baley works every case in The Naked Sun beside R. Daneel Olivaw, a robot partner he still is not sure he can fully trust. Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, Portal and Portal 2 all pair a human lead with an artificial mind, and let the question of trust do a lot of the work.
Detectives who crack a case that looked impossible from every angle
The murder in The Naked Sun looks impossible on a world where no one touches anyone, until Baley's method of deduction cuts through the impossible part. The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Arkham Asylum, BioShock and 20th Century Boys all reward the same patient piecing-together of clues that a case first seems to refuse.