The Caves of Steel

''The Caves of Steel'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov. It is a detective story and illustrates an idea Asimov advocated, that science fiction can be applied to any literary genre, rather than just being a limited genre in itself.

The book was first published as a serial in ''Galaxy'' magazine, from October to December 1953. A Doubleday hardcover followed in 1954.

At the time of writing, Asimov conceived of ''The Caves of Steel'' as completely distinct from his Foundation Trilogy, published a few years earlier. Decades later, however, Asimov linked them, making the time of ''Caves of Steel'' a much earlier part of an extensive future history leading up to the rise of the Galactic Empire, its fall and the rise of two Foundations to replace it – with the Robot R. Daneel Olivaw, introduced in ''Caves of Steel'', turning out to have survived over tens of thousands of years and have played a key role in the eras of both the Empire and the Foundation(s).

Setup

Isaac Asimov introduces Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw, later his favorite protagonists. They live roughly three millennia in Earth's future, a time when hyperspace travel has been discovered and a few worlds relatively close to Earth have been colonized – fifty planets known as the "Spacer worlds". The Spacer worlds are rich, have low population density (average population of one hundred million each), and use robot labor heavily. Meanwhile, Earth is overpopulated with eight billion people, three times that of Asimov's 1950s, with strict rules against robots. In ''The Caves of Steel'' and its sequels (the first of which is ''The Naked Sun''), Asimov paints a grim situation of an Earth dealing with an extremely large population and of luxury-seeking Spacers, who limit birth to permit great wealth and privacy.

Asimov was a claustrophile: "I wrote a novel in 1953 which pictured a world in which everyone lived in underground cities, comfortably enclosed away from the open air. People would say, 'How could you imagine such a nightmarish situation?' And I would answer in astonishment, 'What nightmarish situation? The "caves of steel" are vast city complexes covered by huge metallic domes, capable of supporting tens of millions each: the New York City of that era (wherein much of the story is set) encompasses present-day New York City as well as large tracts of New Jersey. Asimov imagines the present day underground transit connected to malls and apartment blocks, until no one ever exits the domes and most of the population suffer from extreme fear of leaving them. (Even though the ''Robot'' and ''Foundation'' series were not made part of the same fictional universe until much later, the "caves of steel" resemble the planet Trantor.)

The novel's central plot device is a murder, which takes place before it opens. (This is an Asimov trademark, which he attributed to his squeamishness plus John Campbell's advice to begin as late in the story as possible.) The victim is Roj Nemmenuh Sarton, a Spacer Ambassador who lives in Spacetown, the Spacer outpost just outside New York City. For some time, he has tried to convince the Earth government to loosen its anti-robot restrictions. One morning, he is discovered outside his home, his chest imploded by an energy blaster. The New York police commissioner charges Elijah with finding the murderer, in cooperation with a highly advanced robot named R. Daneel Olivaw who is visually identical to a human and is equipped with a scanner that is able to detect human emotions through their encephalographic waves.

Plot

A faction of Spacers have come to the realization that Spacer culture is effete, stagnating due to negative population growth and excessive longevity. Their solution is to encourage further space exploration and colonization by Earthmen in concert with robots. However, Earthmen would first need to overcome their irrational antagonism toward robots. To this end, the faction have established habitations on Earth through which they hope to introduce humanoid robots to Earth.

New York City Police Commissioner Julius Enderby is secretly a member of the Medievalists, a subversive anti-robot group which pines for the 'olden days' where men did not live in the 'caves of steel'. He uses his position to engineer meetings with Spacer Dr. Sarton under the guise of further cooperation, but he actually intends to destroy R. Daneel - who lives with and resembles Dr. Sarton. Enderby orders R. Sammy to bring a blaster through the unmonitored 'open air' (something that no Earthman could countenance), but in the heat of the moment Enderby drops his glasses and fails to distinguish between the human and robot, accidentally shooting the human. Knowing that Baley's wife is also a Medievalist, he assigns Baley to the case, working with R. Daneel who represents the Spacers, and spreads a rumour about humanoid robots amongst the subversives to throw suspicion on Baley when Enderby later destroys R. Sammy with radiation. Daneel rules out Enderby as the murderer as his brain patterns show him incapable of deliberately killing.

The novel follows Baley and Olivaw as Baley begins to suspect Olivaw but is proved wrong twice. Olivaw gradually learns more about Earth humans and starts to display curiosity about aspects of human behaviour and Earth technology. As part of the investigation, Baley makes a visit to Spacetown where he meets with Dr. Fastolfe, who injects him with a mildly suggestive drug while speaking about the relative merits and shortcomings of Earth and Spacer society. Baley is converted to the cause of spreading humanity throughout the galaxy. Although the Spacers deem Baley inadequate to convert enough Earthmen, they find their target when Baley arrests Clousarr on suspicion of inciting a riot and Olivaw provides him with suggestive statements. Their job accomplished, the Spacers make plans to leave Earth as their continued presence would be to the detriment of their cause; they accept Dr. Sarton's unsolved death as a necessary sacrifice. This leaves Baley with ninety minutes to find the killer, which he is convinced will also clear him of the destruction of R. Sammy.

Baley has a flash of inspiration when he connects Enderby's emotional highs and lows to how close or far away Baley was to solving the murder. Obtaining a recording of the crime scene, he manages to demonstrate that fragments of Enderby's glasses remain in situ. Given that the Spacers have already accepted that Sarton's death is unsolved, they are willing to not prosecute Enderby for the accident if he agrees to work with them to promote colonization of other worlds amongst the Medievalists.

Another recurring theme is the tension between Baley's wife as "Jessie" or "Jezebel", and her resentment at Baley for explaining that the Biblical Jezebel story was misinterpreted, stifling her fantasy.

Characters

In order of appearance, described:

* Elijah "Lije" Baley, a plain-clothes police officer who works on Earth. He is called to solve the murder.
* Vince Barrett, a young man whose job was taken over by R. Sammy.
* R. Sammy, a robot assigned to the Police Department
* Julius Enderby, New York City's Commissioner of Police, who assigns Baley to the murder case.
* Jezebel "Jessie" Navodny Baley, Baley's wife
* Roj Nemennuh Sarton, a spacer roboticist murdered with a blaster. Baley is assigned to investigate his death.
* R. Daneel Olivaw, Baley's partner, a humaniform robot created in Sarton's likeness
* Bentley Baley, Baley's son
* Han Fastolfe, a roboticist from Aurora, a Spacer world, who believes Spacers and Earth dwellers must work together to colonize the galaxy and survive in the future.
* Dr. Anthony Gerrigel, a roboticist at Washington whom Baley calls
* Francis Clousarr, a New Yorker who was arrested for inciting a riot against robots two years ago. Daneel identifies him as being present at two incidents.

Reception

Reviewer Groff Conklin praised the novel for the way Asimov "combines his interest in robotics with his consuming preoccupation with the sociology of a technology-mad, bureaucratically tethered world of tomorrow." Boucher and McComas praised ''The Caves of Steel'' as "Asimov's best long work to date", saying that it was "the most successful attempt yet to combine" the detective and science fiction novel. P. Schuyler Miller called it "as honest a combination of science fiction and detection as we've seen." Villiers Gerson of ''The New York Times'' wrote: "Here is an unusually exciting and engrossing detective story set in a science fictional background convincingly worked out."

In 2004 ''The Caves of Steel'' was nominated for a retroactive Hugo Award for Best Novel for 1954.

Adaptations

The novel was adapted for television by the BBC
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