The Caves of Steel (Robot, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Aug 05, 2023 Karen rated it really liked it

Shelves: buddy-reads-decades-challenge

Foundation will always be the book that I read as a teen that ignited my love of Science Fiction, as well as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Dune. To this day, I claim that George Lucas borrowed his idea for Star Wars from Asimov.

I have finally read this book. It has one of my favorite Science Fiction tropes: A murder mystery. My favorite parts of the book were discussions of the role of robots in society. ...more

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Nov 20, 2017 Nadine in NY Jones rated it really liked it

Shelves: detective-mystery, mystery, dick-lit, fantasy-and-sci-fi, classic

I've decided to re-read Asimov's complete Robot/Empire/Foundation series, in order. I should've started with I,Robot, but I started here. I had already read some books in the Robot series, and I thought I had read this, but I realize now that I had not. Well, I have now!

It's been a long time since I've read Asimov, and I'd forgotten his spare, straightforward, unadorned style. He satisfyingly toys with current (well, current at the time, some still current today) issues of: environment, food & e I've decided to re-read Asimov's complete Robot/Empire/Foundation series, in order. I should've started with I,Robot, but I started here. I had already read some books in the Robot series, and I thought I had read this, but I realize now that I had not. Well, I have now!

It's been a long time since I've read Asimov, and I'd forgotten his spare, straightforward, unadorned style. He satisfyingly toys with current (well, current at the time, some still current today) issues of: environment, food & energy supply, over-populatin, and how societies might subtly change over time in different circumstances.

This is a murder mystery, with R. Daneel Olivaw and Elijah Baley investigating. I knew all along who had done it (this was one of Asimov's earliest novels, after all, and perhaps he was less sophisticated as a writer), but I could not figure out how or why. (All the clues are there for the reader to solve it, however.) The conclusion is highly satisfying.

Olivaw is precise, unemotional, and rather passive, as you would expect from a robot. Baley is, to my surprise, at times a bumbling fool! He is intuitive and intelligent and persistent, but sometimes he's the worst investigator ever! He refuses to examine the scene or photos of the scene, he fixates on one or two suspects and completely ignores blindingly obvious clues solely because he does not like the conclusions he might draw. He's charmingly repulsed by robots and spacers and the outdoors, and each time the investigation leads in one of those directions, his mind reels and throws closes the fire doors. Olivaw, of course, never gets annoyed with him. And, of course, Baley ultimately gets his man.

Reading sci fi that was written in the mid-20th century, but set in the far future, is ... charming, in a way. You end up with little quasi-anachronisms like:

A closely coded tape reeled out of the merc-pool’s vitals as the small instrument searched and analyzed its “memory” for the desired information stored in the tiny vibration pattern of the gleaming mercury surface within.

and:

Efficiency had been forced on Earth with increasing population. Two billion people, three billion, even five billion could be supported by the planet by progressive lowering of the standard of living. When the population reaches eight billion, however, semistarvation becomes too much like the real thing.

(I looked it up: global population was approximately 2.3 billion in 1940, 2.6 billion in 1950, and 7.6 billion now in 2017.)

And, since this was first published in 1954, there are certain less-charming anachronisms that Asimov was perhaps completely unaware of. For example, all the men work and the married women stay home. He SHOULD have been aware of this, though. Even in 1954, I know both of my grandmothers worked, as a secretary and a store clerk. When Baley's wife becomes agitated, it reminded me (unpleasantly) of how all the women in Fahrenheit 451 were shrewd or shrill harridans or fools. Happily, Asimov was much more broad-minded, and Jessie's breakdown is temporary.

Words I had to look up:
tetany - a condition of intermittent muscular spasms ...more

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