The Naked Sun (1957)

Author: Isaac Asimov | Page Count: 208

'Perhaps it was annoyance that caused him to forget.  It was Daneel who annoyed him, he thought, with his unemotional approach to problems.  Or perhaps it was himself, with his emotional approach.'

The sequel to Asimov's The Caves of Steel (1954) is the second full length novel in his Robot Series. It once again pairs up the Earth-born Detective Elijah Baley (now a C- 6) with the Spacer Robot Danell Olivaw.

It begins with a brief journey to help the reader recall what happened one year before. It doesn't recount all the events of the previous novel, it just helps set the scene and reminds us of the working relationship between the two men.

Elijah, who's spent his entire life in the vast underground cities of Earth, has to venture to one of the Outer Worlds, Solaria, to investigate a murder. Why do the usually self-sufficient and technologically superior Spacers need terrestrial assistance to investigate a murder on their private soil? No human has set foot on Solaria in over a thousand years. And why did they choose him, speicifically?

In the previous novel it was Danell who was the outsider; now it's Elijah, and he's way out of his comfort zone. He's forced to use his talents to uncover the murderer, while simultaneously struggling with fears about the environment.

The difference between the two cultures seems staggering at first, and any hope of finding the killer impossible, but Lije knows there's more at stake than just his own reputation: he's a representative of Earth, and he's determined to show the arrogant Spacers that Earthmen aren't as stunted as they seem to think, even if that means pushing a few angry buttons.

The story moves along at a steady pace, in a typical mystery novel way. The ending makes it clear that everything up to that point was merely to facilitate what Asimov wanted to say from the beginning, but by using the unique characteristics of Bailey and R. Daneel he was able to better achieve that goal, and in true sci-fi style he manages to both look to the future while referencing the present and the past.

3½ long-distance relationships out of 5

The Caves of Steel (1954)

Author: Isaac Asimov | Page Count: 224

"Even as a youngster, though, I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented danger, the solution was ignorance."

The Caves of Steel was the first full novel in what would come to be known as Asimov's Robot Series. Some people include I, Robot (1950) in the series despite the contradictions between the two works. I adore I, Robot, but the bridge narrative structure keeps it from being perfect. The Caves of Steel has no such handicap, nor does it rely so heavily on direct speech for exposition, meaning it flows much more organically. The pace is also improved.

The caves of the title are huge interconnected steel domes that house an ever-expanding human population. In contrast, the outer planets are populated by Spacers, people descended from colonists that left Earth centuries before. Whilst the Spacers embraced robots, the Earth people didn't. Resentment of Spacers runs deep, even in those whose job dictates that they should remain impartial.

When a Spacer is killed, Detective Lije Baley is tasked with finding the killer. Baley is an Earth-man. When he’s partnered with a Spacer, the Robot Danell Olivaw, more than one of his prejudices get put to the ultimate test. I'm guessing that Asimov must've really liked R. Danell, evidenced by his using the character in subsequent novels much more frequently than any of his other returning characters.

The world in Caves of Steel is beautifully fleshed out, with consequences that are far reaching. There are of course sci-fi concepts, but if you strip them away you'll find another of those puzzles that Asimov was so very good at. He doesn't use wild technology as a crutch, meaning resolution isn't reliant on some impossible science. Beneath the sheen it's a fully developed and deeply compelling detective novel that just happens to be set in the future.

5 diplomatic incidents out of 5

I, Robot (1950)

Author: Isaac Asimov | Page Count: 256

"People say 'It's as plain as the nose on your face.' But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless someone holds a mirror up to you?"

I, Robot is one of Isaac Asimov's most famous works. If you were to poll a number of dedicated book readers, you'd likely find that a fair percentage of them have heard of it even if they haven't actually read it - especially if they happen to be science-fiction fans also. It's a collection of nine short stories written over a ten year period that are loosely tied together by a frame narrative. It introduced Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, which were designed to be unbreakable:

1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Making them unbreakable didn't stop him spending the rest of his career bending them, or finding new ways to interpret them. That's where Dr. Susan Calvin comes in. Susan is a robopsychologist. When something goes wrong with a robot that can't be attributed to mechanical error, it's her job to figure out why. Was the order given in conflict with the Three Laws? Or was it open to misinterpretation by the robot? They are thinking machines after all, they need to be able to function autonomously, but are they given too much free will?

The prose style is simple and direct, which is an asset to the story as it lets you engage fully with the concepts without losing the narrative thread.

Albert Einstein reportedly said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." Even though Asimov's technology is fictional, he understands it completely. He explains complicated scenarios in simple terms, without it ever feeling diluted. Mostly they're puzzles that need to be figured out, sometimes by connecting the dots, and sometimes by creating the dots from scratch. Once the puzzle is solved, there's an abrupt ending each time.

4 positronic brains out of 5