Brief synopsis of story: (1-2 paragraphs). Earth civilization labors under the pressures of overpopulation and all citizens live under vast domes of metal and concrete—the titular caves of steel. Further, robots are making inroads on the human labor market, causing even more distress. On the flipside is Spacetown where ‘Spacers’ live. Spacers are offworld colonists used to low population, relative wealth, and long life spans. They maintain an outpost just outside of the New York City dome, but there is tension between Spacers and their earth brethren kept from boiling over by the narrowest of margins. The book opens just after the Spacetown murder of Spacer ambassador Roj Nemmenuh Sarton. Detective Elijah Bailey is called upon to investigate with the condition that he be given a Spacer partner. That partner, R. Daneel Olivaw, turns out to be a robot. Bailey is initially taken aback and harbors his own anti-robot prejudices, which he must overcome as the case progresses. To further complicate matters, they only have a limited amount of time to figure out what happens before the case turns into a diplomatic disaster.Kind of work defined by basic elements (character, plot, setting, language, theme)—what elements are foregrounded? How do they fit together?: (2-4 paragraphs) From the opening paragraphs, we understand the world is distressed. Elijah examines his tobacco pouch and ponders how far he can stretch it until the ‘next quota day.’ From there, Asimov pulls no punches in illustrating how an over-stretched and under-resourced population might exist. They eat vat grown yeasts and live in vast enclosed infrastructures, travel by stepping onto extensive networks of pedestrian conveyors. The plot itself is fairly basic—the odd couple formula in sci fi. Two disparate investigators are paired together and must overcome their differences in order to solve the mystery at hand. What is unique is that it is a sci fi mystery. These are not genres typically combined.Asimov uses this format and the strictures of his Rules of Robotics to explore the nature of man and the perceived limitations of machines and does so with direct, uncluttered language.Kind of work defined by structure—how is it constructed? (1-2 paragraphs).Asimov smartly grounds the narrative in a 3rd person limited POV—namely Elijah Bailey’s. We see what he sees, understand his prejudices, and see how they work themselves out in his thought process. It also keeps from being too startled at the bleak world Asimov portrays. A life without sun enclosed in domes. To Elijah this is normal, and within this environment he has the same hopes for betterment we all do. It’s just that his version of better is likely much more modest than our own.Beyond that, the book is divided into eighteen episodic chapters, each a centering on small dramatic moments or turns of events. This is in line with other detective fiction I’ve read and the piecemeal revelations maintain tension throughout the novel. Kind of work defined by theme, interests--(1-2 paragraphs). The overt detective story contains within it some interesting premises. The first posits that the most humane solution to an overpopulated earth is colonization. Further, we must perpetually endeavor to overcome our fears as a society (here symbolized by the perpetual agoraphobia the residents of the caves of steel suffer from) in order to advance and better ourselves.The second is our response to the ‘other’—here, robots. The earth population’s reactions to robots are easily recognizable. Job displacement and irrational fear create resentment that can erupt into violence. The possibility of world where the robots and their creators co-exist is explored and mirrors earth’s own struggles with racial and ethnic tensions and our own distress at seeing ourselves replaced by automation.Overall effectiveness of piece—its strengths (1-2 paragraphs). This was a fast read. Asimov explains a great deal without over-lingering on detail. The mystery itself is well-constructed and doesn’t cheat—all of the elements are presented within the plot and we learn how they fit together as we go. Further, the character of Daneel Olivaw is fascinating. He is so close to human, yet Asimov manages to convey that he isn’t quite and is yet in some ways better and more moral.Where would you alter the text, why, how?—its potential weaknesses (1-2 paragraphs). While the story is solid, Asimov’s prose is at times clunky and awkward. And the ending wraps up with too many speeches explaining all of the reasoning behind the deductions that solved the case. While I grant that this sort of thing is necessary at times, in this instance it came across as rushed and unnatural.Finally, your overall analysis of this piece holistically (1 page maximum) This was an effective pulp detective mystery with a sci fi setting. Asimov effectively uses a single point of view to both humanize the story and limit our knowledge of the mystery, thus creating a natural tension. He maintains a brisk narrative pace by keeping summary exposition to a minimum.From this platform, he explores potential problems for humanity (overpopulation, job displacement due to mechanization) and posits potential solutions (colonization, socially integrated robots). Further, within the framework of his Laws of Robotics, he examines human nature and the questions the true substance of morality. Is morality defined by being able to do something but not acting on the impulse? Or being simply incapable of the action to begin with?
Like most people on the over-populated Earth, New York City police detective Elijah Baley has little love for either the arrogant Spacers or their robotic companions. But when a prominent Spacer is murdered under mysterious circumstances, Baley is ordered to help track down the killer. Then he learned that they had assigned him a partner: R. Daneel Olivaw. Worst of all was that the " R" stood for robot.I snagged a review audiobook of this from SFFaudio.I originally read this book when I was a teenager and loved it from the beginning. Isaac Asimov's descriptions of an overpopulated future Earth were de rigueur for science fiction of the time. What gave this story a fresh spin was that it was a bona fide mystery.Many years later, listening to William Dufris' splendid narration, it still holds up. I still remembered the main points of the mystery and detective Lige Bailey's personality. This left me free to fully appreciate the details of Asimov's imagined future society, complete with spacemen and robots to provide tension and interest.I'm not sure if I completely forgot or just never registered the points Asimov was making in this book about technology, adaptation, and the human soul. I was quite surprised to see that Lige Bailey knew his Bible so well that he could quote it in either the King James version or the modern version. And that he used religion as a main point of differentiation (along with art, beauty, and other intangibles) between humans and robots. Atheist Isaac Asimov didn't deny that faith can lift people higher and that is something one rarely, if ever, sees these days in science fiction.I also was really interested in watching the way the germ of an idea took hold and was spread from person to person. It was fascinating to see how many things that idea applied to once it had wormed its way into the person's consciousness.All in all, this short but satisfying mystery is much richer than I recalled. It was greatly enhanced by the audio where William Dufris became a one man theater company in the way he voiced different characters. There was never any fear of my mistaking who was talking in straight exchanges of dialogue. He was simply masterful whether it was world-weary detective Bailey, slightly robotic Daneel Olivaw, jumpy Jessie, or the nervous Commissioner.Highly recommended.INTERESTING SIDE NOTEWikipedia notes:It is a detective story and illustrates an idea Asimov advocated, that science fiction is a flavor that can be applied to any literary genre, rather than a limited genre itself. Specifically, in the book Asimov's Mysteries, he states that he wrote the novel in response to the assertion by editor John W. Campbell that mystery and science fiction were incompatible genres. Campbell had said that the science fiction writer could invent "facts" in his imaginary future that the reader would not know. Asimov countered that there were rules implicit in the art of writing mysteries, and that the clues could be in the plot, even if they were not obvious, or were deliberately obfuscated.All hail opinionated John Campbell and Isaac Asimov's determination to prove him wrong. Today there are a lot of different mash-ups included in the science fiction genre and Asimov led the way with this book.
Do You like book The Caves Of Steel (1980)?
4.5 to 5.0 stars. Just re-read this after having first read it many years ago. Asimov was a superb story-teller and his books are almost always fun, easy to read and full of big ideas. This one is no exception. Set on Earth many millennia before the time when the The Foundation Trilogy takes place, it is a time when humans have been divided into two main groups, the Earthmen and the Spacers. The first are those 8 Billion souls on Earth living in massively croweded "mega cities" (the Caves of Steel) where food and other goods are rationed due to limited supply. In order to allow necessary production efficiencies, Robots are used but are alomost universally hated by Earthmen as they are seen as taking away jobs from real people. The second group, the Spacers, are the decendants of "Earth" first colonists who years before left the Earth to colonize the 50 "Outerworlds." In contrast to the Earth, the Outerworlds have very low populations and live a life of luxury, in part do their embrace of Robots as useful tools to help make life easier. They are also incredibly long-lived due to their scientific advancements. There is a lot of animosity and hate between the two groups which is pivotal part of the story. The story itself is a murder mystery involving a murdered Spacer. An Earth cop, Elijah Bailey, is partnered with a Spacer Robot (the soon to be famous R. Daneel Olivaw) to solve the crime. The real charm of the story is the description of life on Earth, the contrast between that life and that of the Spacers and the Earthmen and the explorations of the various prejudices among the groups. An excellent read and a great introduction to the Robot novels of Asimov. One final note: I listened to the audio version of this read by William Dufris and he does a superb job with this book (and the other robot books as well). Nominee: Hugo (Retro) Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1953)
—Stephen
Now that we hear serious conversations about everything from online medical examinations to robotic barristas, Isaac Asimov’s 1950’s robot novels read, if not as though ripped from today’s headlines, as at least eerily predictive of our very near future. We already hear dire warnings of massive job loss and a general leveling of culture with a scarcity of human-to-human interaction that robotics will bring about.. There are characters in Caves of Steel, known s Medievalists, who dream of an idealized earlier time, like the 20th century. Then life was lived under clear skies, cities were not massive warrens, and the food did not all come from yeast. And there were no robots.Asimov’s novel is a fun read, even if it consists largely of massive info dumps separated by moments of sporadic action. I have not read much Asimov, but judging from Caves of Steel, he knew how to make all that exposition engaging. What doesn’t work so well here is the mystery. Our hero is a police detective and his partner is a new model robot that can pass for human. Their investigation provides us with our entertaining tour of this future world, but the resolution of the mystery is anti-climactic. And it requires the dozen or pages of boring “this is how I figured it out” monolog that is the bane of whodunits since Sherlock Holmes.
—Charles Dee Mitchell
It's been a while since I read this one: despite its age, definitely worth a reread. The Caves of Steel is an SF tale in the form of a detective mystery. Elijah (Lije) Baley is a detective who lives in a future city of New York who is given a controversial murder to resolve. The death of a Spacer is seen as a major incident and something that must be solved in order to avoid potential conflict between the Spacers and the people of Earth who current hold an uneasy, if rather segregated, peace. Most controversially, Lije is given a partner from the spacers to investigate with: a robot, Daneel Olivaw. Robots on Earth are generally seen as an under-race, taking people’s jobs and generally regarded with suspicion or with distaste. Spacers have them integrated into daily life. Daneel is a notch above the robots usually seen on Earth: humanoid and to all intents human-like.So this is a considerable difficulty for Lije, and one which takes some adjusting to, by Lije, his wife Jezebel (Jesse) and his son Bentley, all of whom have to adjust to living with a robot.As the investigation continues, Lije goes from mistrust to respectful admiration of Daneel.A book that tackles issues of race, bigotry and hatred, written before the US race riots of the 1960’s? This still has a narrative drive and the power to shock. Whilst it is a mystery story, what makes it work is the matter of fact placing into a future regulated society where atomic war has led people to live in vast regimented ‘caves of steel’, where food is regulated (and mainly yeast-based), travel is not by car (unless you are emergency services) but by walkway, living space is a premium and jobs are increasingly scarce and under threat of being given to a robot at any time.There are parts that have dated, though the core of the tale still works. The relationship between Lije and Daneel is still charming. There’s the odd info dump and clunky ‘discussion’ – Asimov spends a page or two explaining where the names Elijah and Jezebel come from, and can’t resist giving a history lecture, for example – but on the whole its prose is tight and there is little space given for reflective bloat. The tale is done in less than 200 pages. What was amusing in my teens - Lije's use of 'Jehoshaphat!' as a swear-word - is a little annoying now and the need to end some chapters on a grand reveal ("Your honour, it was the butler that did it!") belies its pulp origins.But in the end, nearly sixty years on, it's still a grand read. Asimov's description of a world under population stress is still interesting and reminded me of Orwell's 1984 in its depiction of dreary existence. In the wider scheme of things, of course, this is Asimov’s version of a Heinleinesque Future History: see The Roads Must Roll, for example. Though not as skilful as Heinlein’s version, nor as opinionated, it is a great read. Still.
—Mark
