The second installment in the mystery tales of Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw takes the reader to one of the Outer Colonies, Solaria. In this underpopulated human colony, social distancing is the norm and their society is based entirely on robots, eugenics, and strict population control. Unlike the overpopulated Earth with its vast Cities, where a fear of the open dominates, the people of Solaria fear the personal presence of others. When an inexplicable murder occurs, Baley and Olivaw are called in to investigate a mystery with Galactic implications.
The ultimate message of this rather short novel appears to be a call for the embrace of the "naked sun" in order to grow or advance as a society, with the "sun" standing in for that which can limit a society or individual. As in the Foundation series, sociology as a discipline occupies a prominent place for understanding different human societies and weaknesses. As in The Caves of Steel, Baley is even more convinced of the need for Earthmen to become like the Spacers (at least with regards to colonization), and manages to question the Three Laws of Robotics in the process.
However, this novel separates Olivaw and Baley for too much of the narrative, depriving us of their collaborative process. Due to the nature of the hidden threat to humanity posed in the novel, one can see why Baley sought to keep a certain distance from Daneel, but much of the strength of their first murder investigation relied on their pairing. Nonetheless, Asimov's second murder mystery still delivers, in spite of the different nature of this case. It is also more anthropological and sociological, showing us both quantitative and qualitative aspects of a future discipline of sociology.
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