Customer Reviews

Caves of Steel

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My expectations of this book :
Considering that it has been written in the early 1950's, lots of science fiction (flying cars and robots) with an "OK" story.

What this book really is:
Plausible science fiction (a lot of amazing ideas) and an incredible private eye novel with unexpected twists and lots of suspense at the end.

I loved it! (In my top 3)

This is a real breakthru work. Written in the mid-fifties, it still stands up well. Very interesting main characters - Elijah and Daneel... it is a quick and fun read... of the hundreds of SciFi books I've read, I'd have to say that this is my favorite. The followup book The Naked Sun, is also top-notch work.

This is my second Asimov novel. I hope this is not his best work because it was somewhat lame as sci-fi and as a mystery. As a mystery, a third grader should be able to figure out "who done it" by the end of the first chapter. I was drawn to the book as sci-fi having no idea what to expect. I was attracted by a futuristic police detective being paired with a robot that looked like the man who was murdered.

You don't have to know much about police work to determine that Asimov knew nothing about police work. Apparently, he was under the impression that a police officer points a gun at someone and barks orders to get what he wants. There is no clear purpose or method to what Lije Baley is investigating. The science of today was clearly beyond Asimov's imagination of the 1950's. He's apocalyptic description of an overpopulated earth of 8 billion people was way off and his predictions of space exploration, colonization, and the state of robotics was way off.

But still, this was a compelling book and a good read. Though some of the logic was fuzzy and I would expect more from a robot, this book was entertaining and I will read the other robot novels.

This was a delightful book and it, along with The Naked Sun, are good reads today, and splendid examples of the beginning of modern science fiction. Asimov is good--the story will ring as true today as it did decades ago when it was written. I bought them not long ago, having read that they were his first Robot novels, and I loved them.

In the future of Asimov's Caves of Steel, human society has been spit in two. On the Outer Worlds, 50 planets that had been colonized by humans, populations are low and humans work hand-in-hand with robots. On Earth, the population has exploded out of control, and the humans live in giant city-hives (the Caves of Steel mentioned in the title), and they never venture into the open air. They live in a tightly controlled socialist system and most humans detest robots as job-stealers. Elijah Baley, a police detective, gets a call from the New York City police commissioner. A Spacer, as the inhabitants of the Outer Worlds are known, has been murdered by an Earthman. If the crime isn't solved, then there will be terrible diplomatic problems for Earth which may even lead to the invasion of Earth by the Spacers. To help him out, he is given a Spacer partner who also happens to be an advanced robot. Can he get along with his partner? Can he avert the destruction of human society on Earth?

This is a very easy read. It's easy to see why Asimov is considered to be one of the best science fiction writers of all times. He keeps the plot twisting and surprises you in the end. Recently, we've been bombarded with the image of robots as out-of-control menaces. It's refreshing to see a robot as a true helper and friend fo mankind. I would like to see more emphasis on this type of robot in the future of science fiction. It give us more to think about when the danger in a story comes from human attitudes rather than from blood-thirsty robots. You really have to think about how you would react if you were placed in a similar situation. I'm really looking forward to reading the next book in this series.

The only reason I've rated this book only four stars is because some of Asimov's later books in the same series, written later in his career (Naked Sun, Robots of Dawn) get even better. However, this is where you need to begin--don't jump ahead. This is a thought-provoking and entertaining read in its own right.

Asimov combines the mystery genre and many of his futurist ideas together in this series. You'll enter a world where people live underground because there isn't enough living space, and where many people have grown resentful of robots that are taking over jobs that humans once held. Not only do you get to experience a great mystery-adventure, but you're also exploring the social consequences of near-human robots and the continued urbanization of the Earth.

Daneel Olivaw, the robot partner to detective Elijah Baley, is one of the most memorable characters in the field of speculative fiction.

This is the best place to start reading Asimov. If you enjoy this, you will absolutely love the sequels. After reading the Robots books, try the Foundation series, which starts slower but gets very good--and ultimately rewards readers of the Robot books by tieing it all together.

"The Caves of Steel" is a wonderful beginning to an awesome science fiction series involving Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw. This is the story of an agoraphobic (afraid of open places) plainclothes cop Elijah Baley, accustomed to living inside the large cities of future Earth, teaming up with technological masterpiece R. Daneel Olivaw to solve a murder in the nearby Spacer community. Daneel, a relatively new creation, learns about human behavior from his robot prejudice partner and restricted in his behavior by what is known as the Laws of Robotics. People of earth, also agoraphobic, will challenge the solution for the case from many angles because of their social limitations. The murder case is exciting to follow especially given the interaction between Elijah and Daneel.

Thank you.

This is, believe it or not better than the Foundation series. It is a much higher quality of writing and a more interesting story. For any real Asimov fans who understand that everything Asimov wrote is connected--this is where the foundation really begins...as an idea in the mind of a robot in the caves of steel.

This book is incredible in that it can be entertaining on so many levels. It delves into a science fiction/murder mystery and still manages to establish two of the most enjoyable characters that asimov ever created. The characxter development is incredible and as it also starts Asimov's Robot mystery series, I recomend this book to all fans of Science fiction, or mysteries.

I'm not a fan of the books about robots, but this excellent futuristic detective novel has made me a fan of Isaac Asimov. There are intrigating riddles, a nice plot and, so common to the writer, a totally surprising end.