The Caves of Steel (1954)

I know I read this when I was quite young -- ten or so -- but I found I remembered very, very little of it. I used to read Isaac Asimov obsessively, at that age: the library wouldn't let me take the books out myself, so my mother did it. I racked up an amazing fine for her by keeping The Positronic Man for months.

Anyway, so it's partially nostalgia that makes me love The Caves of Steel so much. And partially my new appreciation for crime novels. Asimov's short mystery stories were very easy to guess; The Caves of Steel, not so much. I had a feeling about the culprit, after a while, but mostly because his innocence kept going unquestioned.

I'm really quite fond of Elijah and Daneel. There's enough of characterisation and personal investment there for that, and for me to be eager to read more of their adventures. I got quite embarrassed for Elijah when he kept getting things wrong -- but it led to the eventual conclusion, so that was nice. Asimov's pretty good at pulling everything together like that. ( )

Go, and sin no more

Asimov ha scritto moltissimo, e quasi tutti lo ricordano per il ciclo delle Fondazioni (che è stupendo, eh.).
Per me il meglio di Asimov è invece il ciclo dei Robot, di cui questo è il primo romanzo.
Questo ciclo mi piace perchè parla ancora della Terra, dove gli esseri umani, confinati in "caves of steel",
città gigantesche organizzate come formicai, hanno perso la capacità di affrontare gli spazi aperti.
Come contrapposto ai terrestri ci sono gli abitanti dei mondi esterni, che vivono in pianeti con tassi
di natalità controllati e aspettative di vita elevatissime.
E poi ci sono i Robot: più o meno umanoidi, ma anche più o meno umani, come dimostra R. Daneel Olivav.
Il romanzo nasce come giallo ma parla anche del rapporto tra due società basate su fondamenti opposti;
la lettura dei romanzi successivi è più che consigliata per vedere l'evoluzione dell'atteggiamento di
Elijah Baley e del suo rapporto con Daneel. ( )

I was skeptical when my book club selected this book. I don't consider myself a huge fan of science fiction, but I like to consider myself an open-minded reader, so I checked out a copy. With the meeting scheduled for next Tuesday, I finally cracked the cover a couple of days ago. And almost immediately I was hooked. This is a science-fiction mystery. An editor that Asimov frequently worked with once suggested that a science-fiction mystery was a contradiction in terms. He was afraid that technoloy would be exploited to solve the mystery too easily. But Asimov took on the challenge.

The result is an extremely well-developed future world in which Earth's population of 8 billion people are clustered in domed cities and are dangerously close to using up the planet's resources. Spacers (people from outer space) have figured out how to interact peacefully with robots, but the people of Earth are scared that robots will take their jobs. In fact, many of Earth's residents are Medievalists, people who want to leave the cities and return to old ways of life. The details of this future world alone make this book worth reading.

But in this setting, Asimov places a murder. Plainclothes policeman Lije Bailey is assigned to work with R. Daneel Olivaw, a robot, to solve the mystery. The plot is well-developed, with several twists and turns and a satisfying ending. This book is the first of a trilogy, and the other two are definitely on my TBR list. ( )

Rereading an Asimov book is like catching up with an old friend. This book (his first "novel") is actually pretty incredible. In it he invented a new society, enlarged his notion of the 3 laws of Robotics (first delineated in a short story), and set into place a universe he would go on to populate with a better, yet still cohesive, history of the future. Wow, now isn't that a catchy phrase?

Is it the best book ever? No, but good enough to read again, and again. I wonder how many times I have read it? At any rate, now I own it on my kindle app, so I fully intend to read it again in the next decade! ( )

One of my early favorites. A great story involving Asimov's extraordinary robots. ( )