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vermidian 's review for:
The Naked Sun
by Isaac Asimov
I actually found this book to be slightly more interesting to it's predecessor. Although still dated and jumping to irrational conclusions, I found the mystery and the discussion regarding androids to be much more in depth and interesting. While I still don't love Lije as a main character, he's grown on me a little bit over the course of The Naked Sun. I was, however, mildly disappointed in the relationship between Lije and Daneel being so limited in this book. In the first book, it was much easier to see how he could be mistaken for a human being. In this one, he was much more clearly a robot. Asimov didn't make as strong an attempt to blend the human and the android aspects in The Naked Sun, which I found slightly disappointing. All in all, I'd give this one 3.5 stars tops.
The culture of the world grated on me a little bit. Obviously Baley isn't the most sensitive person around, but it really wasn't that hard to understand that being seen was an intimate sort of thing. The rest of the culture was equally odd, but not difficult to understand. I still kind of wonder how exactly they managed to extend their lives so dramatically, but then this is the future and science fiction does expect some suspension of belief.
Needless to say, the book being older and more dated was sometimes somewhat frustrating. For instance, the sexism. I can't say I really blame Asimov - he was, as we all are, a product of our times. But really? The only two female characters were an assistant (who was not attractive and hated children) and the murdered man's wife (who held no true profession with which to really benefit society aside from being slightly artsy and was very pretty and often ogled by Baley). I just really was not that thrilled with how he treated his women.
I also thought that the mystery was fairly thin. I love mysteries, but this one could have been way way better than it was. I mean, seriously, the one character who absolutely loathed him from the start is kind of the obvious villain.
If you are looking to read this book, you definitely need to read The Caves of Steel first. This is not really a book where they recap the prior story for you.
The culture of the world grated on me a little bit. Obviously Baley isn't the most sensitive person around, but it really wasn't that hard to understand that being seen was an intimate sort of thing. The rest of the culture was equally odd, but not difficult to understand. I still kind of wonder how exactly they managed to extend their lives so dramatically, but then this is the future and science fiction does expect some suspension of belief.
Needless to say, the book being older and more dated was sometimes somewhat frustrating. For instance, the sexism. I can't say I really blame Asimov - he was, as we all are, a product of our times. But really? The only two female characters were an assistant (who was not attractive and hated children) and the murdered man's wife (who held no true profession with which to really benefit society aside from being slightly artsy and was very pretty and often ogled by Baley). I just really was not that thrilled with how he treated his women.
I also thought that the mystery was fairly thin. I love mysteries, but this one could have been way way better than it was. I mean, seriously, the one character who absolutely loathed him from the start is kind of the obvious villain.
If you are looking to read this book, you definitely need to read The Caves of Steel first. This is not really a book where they recap the prior story for you.