Helpful Score: 3
This story is the second step in the long friendship between the earthling New York detective Elijah Baley and the robot detective R. Daneel Olivaw.
Situated in a far future Earth, Humankind has divided into Spacers who dwell scattered in fifty worlds (and are the rich and advanced society) and Earthlings that remain in the Mother World, inhabiting overcrowded underground cities. Both groups distrust and despise each other.
A murder occurred in Solaria, an Outer World. Elijah is put in charge of the investigation due to his success in the previous investigation. He will team with R. Daneel, a robot.
Bailey is terrorized to be outside of the caves. From that fact derives the title of the novel as the Naked Sun is almost unbearable to stand for him.
The Solarians avoid direct contact with other humans. They interact thru holographic system and are surrounded and served by robots that do not look like humans. Imagine in this context how a crime is possible. Well that is the task of our heroes.
Situated in a far future Earth, Humankind has divided into Spacers who dwell scattered in fifty worlds (and are the rich and advanced society) and Earthlings that remain in the Mother World, inhabiting overcrowded underground cities. Both groups distrust and despise each other.
A murder occurred in Solaria, an Outer World. Elijah is put in charge of the investigation due to his success in the previous investigation. He will team with R. Daneel, a robot.
Bailey is terrorized to be outside of the caves. From that fact derives the title of the novel as the Naked Sun is almost unbearable to stand for him.
The Solarians avoid direct contact with other humans. They interact thru holographic system and are surrounded and served by robots that do not look like humans. Imagine in this context how a crime is possible. Well that is the task of our heroes.
Helpful Score: 1
Classic SF - good story!
Helpful Score: 1
Early Asimov. 1957. The 3Laws and humans with phobias conditioned by their lack of exposure to 'others' ways. Bailey is from Earth where the fear is of living on the surface. Solaria is ALL surface living. However, it is so under populated, that Solarians fear physical closeness, having so seldom even seen another Solarian face to face. Chores and caretaking of infants are done by their many robots after all. So how could one get close enough to another to bludgeon them to death?
Classic Asimov!
Classic Asimov!
A millennium into the future, two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the Galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. On the beautiful Outer World planet of Solaria, a handful of human colonists lead a hermit-like existence, their every need attended to by their faithful robot servants. To this strange and provocative planet comes Detective Elijah Baley, sent from the streets of New York with his positronic partner, the robot R. Daneel Olivaw, to solve an incredible murder that has rocked Solaria to its foundations. The victim had been so reclusive that he appeared to his associates only through holographic projection. Yet someone had gotten close enough to bludgeon him to death while robots looked on. Now Baley and Olivaw are faced with two clear impossibilities: Either the Solarian was killed by one of his robots--unthinkable under the laws of Robotics--or he was killed by the woman who loved him so much that she never came into his presence! -
One of Asimov's best!
A millennium into the future, two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the Galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. On the beautiful Outer World planet of Solaria, a handful of human colonists lead a hermit-like existence, their every need attended to by their faithful robot servants. To this strange and provocative planet comes Detective Elijah Baley, sent from the streets of New York with his positronic partner, the robot R. Daneel Olivaw, to solve an incredible murder that has rocked Solaria to its foundations. The victim had been so reclusive that he appeared to his associates only through holographic projection. Yet someone had gotten close enough to bludgeon him to death while robots looked on. Now Baley and Olivaw are faced with two clear impossibilities: Either the Solarian was killed by one of his robots--unthinkable under the laws of Robotics--or he was killed by the woman who loved him so much that she never came into his presence!
I took this off my Dad's hands when he finished it.
