Ay, Robot!

I didn't realize how long it had been since I read Isaac Asimov's science fiction novel The Naked Sun until I came across a nude scene in the book and I found myself thinking, "I don't remember that." Since I was a teenager when I first read the book, I can't help wondering whether I was just too young to appreciate the scene in question the first time I read the book -- which seems unlikely -- or else it was something I missed because I was reading the Asimov robot stories on the literary equivalent of a forced march.

In any event, the scene in question seems pretty tame by today's standards. Indeed, both of Asimov's first two robot novels--The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun -- seem pretty tame by today's standards though given that the last book was published in 1957, it would be pretty surprising if they weren't. Anyway, the two books revolve around human detective Elijah Baley and his robot partner R. Daneel Olivaw. As you might guess, the "R" in Olivaw's name stands for "robot" and it's one of the more refreshing elements of the two books that though Olivaw often downplays the fact that he is a robot in the course of his investigations, he never acts out of character for a robot except when his job requires him to imitate a human being -- and even then, he never acts contrary to his programming like many fictional robots in more recent works do.

Both novels are set in a future wherein Earth's society is having to adjust to an increasing number of robots -- and the subsequent problems caused by them -- as well as having to adjust to the Spacers, former Earth colonists who have gone out to found an empire in space that is more powerful than the forces of the planet Earth. In both novels, Baley and Olivaw have to solve a difficult murder mystery which could cause dire consequences for the planet Earth -- and of course, for Elijah Baley -- if left unsolved. In the first book, a Spacer diplomat is murdered on Earth, a world of few robots and many humans. In the second, another Spacer is murdered on Solaria, a world of many robots and few humans. Of the two books, the first novel plays the most fair with the reader -- so fair, in fact, that one might easily guess the culprit before any other suspects are introduced. The second book, on the other hand, cheats a bit by deliberately obscuring the identity of the true killer until after a far worse fiend has been exposed by Baley and Olivaw.

Both books are satisfying reads from both a sci-fi and a mystery point-of-view -- though those of you who thought that author Philip K. Dick invented the idea of investigating -- and obscuring -- the differences between robots and humans might be a trifle miffed. For that matter, those feminists who have traditionally given the late Isaac Asimov grief over the characterization of his Susan Calvin character in the "Robots, Inc." short stories aren't likely to be pleased that a key point in The Naked Sun involves proving that a female character wasn't quite clever enough to prove a suitable student for a male murder suspect. Oh, well. Even mighty Homer nods every now and again so it should be no surprise that the more prolific Isaac slips up as well. Then again it would be interesting to see how many novels written today will hold up equally well half a century from now. And given the more laughable stuff that gets depicted in more recent works like the 1987 movie Robocop, the flaws in the Elijah Baley books hardly seem worth mentioning.