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    Cover of The Naked Sun

    The Naked Sun

    Isaac Asimov · 1954

    On the remote planet Solaria the first murder for two hundred years has been committed. The Solarians are Spacers with a civilisation based on robots instead of slaves - and some pretty weird taboos and phobias. Into this strange set-up comes Terran detective Elijah Baley, assigned to find the murderer and act as an investigator for his government. But as an Earthman, Baley finds aspects of life on Solaria difficult, even terrifying, to cope with. (Men on Earth live deep underground in their vast caves of steel and are terrified of anything outside.) From the moment of his arrival on Solaria, Baley's investigation becomes an ordeal of nerves under the pitiless glare of the naked sun...

    Science FictionFiction & Literature
    Open LibraryAmazon
    Stats for nerds
    8recommend
    45mentions
    44people
    2008–2026years
    18% recommend82% neutral

    Mentions per year

    2008201020122014201620182020202220242026

    What Hacker News says

    1. tatrajimJan 2022
      Read _The Naked Sun_ by Asimov for a proximate answer. Glorious isolation as a solution to all the ills of messy civilization.
      thread
    2. bjpirtNov 2018
      I love threads like this as I always end up discovering a new gem. I'm just going to post some of the things I've read recently in case you haven't - it doesn't really matter if a book is recent if you haven't read it I guess.

      This definitely doesn't fit the category of recent, but I've been really enjoying working my way through some Asimov classics. If you haven't read Asimov I'd highly recommend him.

      Give the Elijah Baley series a try first: - Caves of Steel - Naked Sun - Robots of Dawn

      and then move right on to the Foundation series.

      I'd second the other recommendation for Three Body Problem, though the third book went a little crazy at the end for me :-)

      I've also been really enjoying reading some Verner Vinge novels: - A fire upon the deep - A deepness in the sky - The Children of the Sky

      thread
    3. teh_klevJul 2016
      No, most (non-pedantic) Asimov fans refer to the first three books (F, F&E, SF - which yes are technically collections of short stories glued together as one) as "the Foundation Trilogy". I do recommend reading the Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth, they're worthy sequels to the "trilogy".

      The Robot novels are also a top read and tie in with the later Foundation books in a satisfying way:

      - The Caves of Steel

      - The Naked Sun

      - The Robots of Dawn

      - Robots and Empire

      thread
    4. squeaky-cleanApr 2015
      I just finished "How to Fly a Horse" by Kevin Ashton. It was a fun and inspiring read on the history of creativity and innovation. The book continually makes the point that creation is the product of effort and persistence, rather than random flashes of genius or inspiration. Though I mostly bought it for the historical anecdotes and stories within it, I love those sorts of things. The author posted this excerpt on HN before it was released, and this is what made me buy the book. [0]

      [0] http://www.howtoflyahorse.com/what-coke-contains/

      Now I'm starting "The Naked Sun" by Isaac Asimov, having read "Caves of Steel" a few months ago. I don't know why I've never read Asimov before, but wow, the worlds and characters he creates are amazing.

      As far as technical books go, I'm working on "Build Your Own AngularJS" by Tero Parviainen. I'm only a few chapters in, but enjoying it.

      thread
    5. kallethApr 2014
      It's not the "I, Robot" books, it's the quadrilogy sometimes called the "Robot" series (confusing, I know). "The Caves of Steel", "The Naked Sun", "Robots of Dawn", "Robots and Empire".

      These are without a doubt my favourite of Asimov's books :)

      Earth has evolved to a point where the population lives in Cities (capitalisation is important!) -- massive, hundreds of square miles completely enclosed with no outside areas at all. They might as well be space stations.

      Transit within these cities takes place on 'strips' for local transport -- think of them as 'lanes' on a freeway. The first strip you step on to is an acceleration strip (onramp), which gets you up to speed to then step onto faster strips.

      There's also an "Expressway", which is basically a metro, which you step onto from the fastest strip (I think there is an acceleration strip too) which takes over when you want to go longer distances.

      Then for even longer distances you have aircars (planes!).

      It's a really good system, but only for highly, highly urbanised areas. I think there's only 2 or 3 cities on the planet at the moment truly dense enough. New York, and perhaps central London.

      thread
    6. pyrocatMar 2014
      Also the Robot series by Asimov, particularly Caves of Steel / The Naked Sun / The Robots of Dawn. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_series_%28Asimov%29
      thread

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