The Naked Sun

The Naked Sun

File:The-naked-sun-doubleday-cover.jpg Dust-jacket of the first edition
Author	Isaac Asimov
Cover artist	Ruth Ray
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Robot series
Genre	Science fiction, Mystery novel
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	January 1957
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	187 pp
Preceded by	The Caves of Steel
Followed by	The Robots of Dawn, "Mirror Image"'

The Naked Sun is an English language science fiction novel, the second in Isaac Asimov's Robot series. Like its famous predecessor, The Caves of Steel, this is a whodunit story. The book was first published in 1957 after being serialized in Astounding Science Fiction and Fact between October and December 1956.

Plot

The story arises from the murder of Rikaine Delmarre, a prominent "fetologist" (fetal scientist, responsible for the operation of the planetary birthing center reminiscent of those described in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World) of Solaria, a planet politically hostile to Earth, whose death Elijah Baley is called to investigate, at the request of the Solarian government. He is again partnered with the humaniform robot R. Daneel Olivaw, and asked by Earth's government to assess the Solarian society for weaknesses.

The book focuses on the unusual traditions and culture of Solarian society: the planet has a rigidly controlled population of twenty thousand, and robots outnumber humans ten thousand to one, whereas people are strictly taught from birth to despise personal contact, and live on huge estates, either alone or with their spouse only. Communication is done via holographic telepresence (called viewing, as opposed to in-person seeing).

Ultimately, it is revealed that Delmarre's neighbor and fellow roboticist Jothan Leebig was working on a way of subverting the robots' inability to kill humans, on the premise that a robot cannot knowingly kill a human or knowingly allow a human to come to harm, but can do either in ignorance. Leebig kills himself before his arrest, in Solarian fear of human contact. Although Delmarre's wife Gladia was an unwitting accomplice (she was on bad terms with her husband, in part due to sexual frustration, and Leebig engineered a robot to be present and detach an arm during an argument, which she dazedly used to smash his head, but does not remember), Baley conceals her role on grounds that her emotional breakdown was under the pressure of the Solarian way of life. She decides to emigrate to the Spacer planet of Aurora. Thereafter Baley returns to Earth a hero. A more thorough description of the aftereffects can be found in the sequel The Robots of Dawn (according to Baley's boss in the sequel, Earth benefited through a revision in the terms of certain trade treaties). We also discover the remote end-point of Solaria's development in Foundation and Earth.

The Foundation series and the Spacer/Robot series seem originally to have been separate, though with some overlap of ideas; they are more closely united in Foundation's Edge.

Reception

Galaxy reviewer Floyd C. Gale praised the novel as "an interesting exercise in scientific detection ... Asimov appears to be laying the groundwork for a new category of science fiction, the S-F detective story".

Adaptations

The novel was adapted for television as an episode of the British anthology series Out of the Unknown, with Baley being portrayed by Paul Maxwell and Daneel by David Collings. Broadcast on BBC2 on 18 February 1969, the story was dramatised by Robert Muller and directed by Rudolph Cartier and the music and sound effects were created by Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

Cast of BBC2 Adaptation:

• Paul Maxwell as Elijah Baley
• David Collings as R Daneel Olivaw
• Sheila Burrell as Under-Secretary Minnim
• Neil Hallett as Hannis Gruer
• Erik Chitty as Dr Altim Thool
• Ronald Leigh-Hunt as Corwin Attlebish
• John Robinson as Dr Anselmo Quemot
• Frederick Jaeger as Jothan Leebig
• Trisha Noble as Gladia Delmarre
• Paul Stassino as Rikaine Delmarre
• John Hicks as Bik
• David Cargill as Robot
• Raymond Hardy as Robot
• Roy Patrick as Robot
• John Scott Martin as Robot
• Gerald Taylor as Robot

The Naked Sun was one of six Asimov stories dramatised for the Out of the Unknown series. The others were The Dead Past, Sucker Bait, Satisfaction Guaranteed, Reason (as The Prophet) and Liar!

Although the episode was wiped by the BBC and no copy is known to exist, three of Delia Derbyshire's sound sequences were published on a BBC record of sound effects Out of This World, renamed as "Heat Haze", "Frozen Waste" and Icy Peak".

In 1978, the novel was adapted in the Soviet Union under the name "The Last Alternative" (Последняя альтернатива)

External links

• The Naked Sun title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• The Naked Sun at Goodreads