Product Description

The first of Asimov's robot novels, chronicling the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together. Detective Elijah Baley invesitgates the murder of an offworlder in Spacetown. In the opinion of the Spacers, the murder is tied up with recent attempts to sabotage the Spacer-sponsored project of converting Earth to an integrated human/robot society on the model of the Outer Worlds. To search for the killer in the City's vast caves of steel, Elijah is assigned a Spacer partner named R. Daneel. That's Robot Daneel. And notwithstanding the celebrated Three Laws of Robotics, which should make such a murder impossible, R. Daneel is soon Elijah's prime suspect.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14669 in Books
• Published on: 1993-10-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Review
'One of the classic presentations of the womb-city, metropolis as mother, which has haunted imaginations ever since... The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun are the best books Isaac Asimov ever wrote' The Guardian

About the Author
Isaac Asimov was the Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America, the founder of robot ethics, the world's most prolific author of fiction and non-fiction. The Good Doctor's fiction has been enjoyed by millions for more than half a century.

Customer Reviews

The best starting point for Asimov's future history
Some of the stories in THE COMPLETE ROBOT indicate the beginning of galactic civilization with the concept of hyperspace, but this novel shows the beginning of Earth's expansion into the galaxy.
However, that is only one of the factors in this science fiction/mystery novel. It works well on both levels. I've seen some criticism of the mystery elements, but with careful reading, the seasoned mystery reader will spot the necessary clues leading to the conclusion.

The basic plot involves New York City detective Elijah Bailey's teaming with R. Daneel Olivaw, a spacer android, to solve the murder of a prominent spacer scientist. Earth's population is, as a whole, fearful of the growing use of robots. There's a combination of distrust of the robots and fear of robots taking over even complex jobs on an overcrowded Earth, and the police detective himself resents having to work with a non-human. Naturally, this changes in time as the two work together to solve the crime and as Bailey learns of the outer worlds' objective of inspiring Earth's participation in colonizing other worlds.

As a whole, the story is well plotted and should encourage those new to Asimov to continue reading the robot series and then the Empire and Foundation books.

Classic introduction to robotics
The leading light in robot technology and design is murdered outside the city of New York. The murderer, it appears, is an Earthman, a human, and the murder is destined to drive an even greater wedge between the human city dwellers and those who live beyond its boundaries in the colony of the Spacers, people who have been born and raised on distant planets. It is the Spacers who advocate the further development and use of robots - to the Earthmen, these are totally alien creatures whose only purpose is to do them out of a job. But the police have to investigate the murder, and that means collaborating with both Spacers and robots.

"Caves of Steel" was written in the early-1950's, so it truly is a vintage work. This is Asimov speculating on the role, function, and morality of the robot, elaborating the rules which will ensure they cannot hurt a human. If the science seems a little quaint by modern standards, this is a future world conceived at the mid-point of the last century. It really is an essay from another world.

What Asimov achieves, however, is an enquiry into how we perceive strangers, how we tolerate, or fail to tolerate, what we find alien. We struggle to hold on to traditional values, but those values were themselves once novel and alien, and often have rather tenuous provenance. There is a timeless quality in his enquiry into intolerance and discrimination.

As a detective story, Asimov twists and turns the plot, but this is hardly a science fiction whodunnit. It is more of an investigation of how we could use artificial intelligence, written at a time when computing was in its infancy. The passage of time does make the science fiction appear quaint, and as a detective story it has severe limitations. However, this is a neatly paced and well written little novel which retains considerable fascination as an early classic of computing and robotics, and is a must read for anyone who considers him/herself a fan of science fiction.

Asimovs first detective story set in the future..
This book introduces an Earth inhabited by billions of city dwellers, frightened to go outside, suckling in the warm continual buzz of the enclosed steel cave which is the city they are born,live and die in. Earth people hate and fear robots who take their jobs. They fear even more the 'Spacers'. Humans who left Earth generations ago to found colonies on 50 other planetary systems. 'Spacers' are tall and noble featured, disease free, live in the open and are totally dependant on their robots. 'Spacers' have the power and it is 'Spacers' who are forcing robots on Earthmen. When a brilliant 'Spacer' roboticist is murdered on Earth, Elijah Bayley, the Earth detective called in to investige is forced to team up with a special 'Spacer' robot R. Daneel Olivaw which looks just like a human. Asimov displays his mastery of the growing relationship between the intuitive, blundering human and the constantly logical robot as they piece together the elements of the crime and capture the murderer. Togther with its sequels, 'the Naked Sun' and 'Robots of Dawn', 'the Caves of Steel' shows Asimov at his best. The reader is drawn inextricably into the world of the future, a thrilling detective story is told and a solid base laid as the first three books in Asimovs 14 book 'history of the future'. One word of warning DON'T TRUST THE COVER PICTURES on any of Asimovs books, they are totally miss leading and seem designed to put you off. All Asimovs books are about real Humans their actions and reactions, especially those which also involve robots.