Following up on The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov changes the setting completely, to throw his detective into a difficult situation. If you have ever visited a country that you didn't know at all, I'm sure you'll find the description of the detective's experience most familiar.

Besides the mystery that is interesting on its own right, this book also opens the discussion to what is the direction humanity is changing? What are the disadvantages of certain changes. If The Caves of Steel show's one face of Earth future, The Naked Sun explores an alternative almost diagonal to that. It is indeed an utopia, not just a puzzle. Asimov does pass a judgement through his characters, but does not claim that there is one truth, but more that everyone (including the reader) have to make up their own minds about the right way "we" are going. He also says, I feel, that people should dare to dissent, and that personal preferences differ, people should strive to find their right place but don't impose their opinions on others.