The Caves of Steel

by Isaac Asimov

A Review

Classic Early Asimov, this is an example of the early genius which Asimov displayed in his novels, demonstrating his ability to create believable worlds and characters in his novels.

This book gives us an Earth inhabited by billions of city dwellers, afraid to go outside, suckling in the warm continual buzz of the enclosed steel cave which is the city they are born, live, love and die in. The story successfully merges the detective and science fiction genres to make a fascinating read.

In Asimov's future world the human race has split into two factions: the Spacers, humans who have settled on other worlds and the humans descended from those who remained behind. 'Spacers' are tall, handsome, disease free, live in the open and are totally dependant on their robots. Earth bound humans hate and fear robots. They hate the Spacers even more as they try to force the robots into Earth's culture.

When a 'Spacer' roboticist is murdered on Earth, Elijah Bayley, the Earth detective called in to investigate and is forced to team up with a special 'Spacer' robot R. Daneel Olivaw which looks just like a human.

Asimov uses the novel to expand on the idea of his famous "three laws of robotics" which makes for a very interesting and thought provoking read. As ever the future he created is believable and the whole thing is good enough to be reread, even if you do know the out come.

Asimov was a master storyteller and this is one of his best works.

You do the math!