- Isaac Asimov

The Caves of Steel

By Isaac Asimov

The first of Asimov’s robot novels, chronicling the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together.

Detective Elijah Baley invesitgates the murder of an offworlder in Spacetown. In the opinion of the Spacers, the murder is tied up with recent attempts to sabotage the Spacer-sponsored project of converting Earth to an integrated human/robot society on the model of the Outer Worlds.

To search for the killer in the City’s vast caves of steel, Elijah is assigned a Spacer partner named R. Daneel. That’s Robot Daneel. And notwithstanding the celebrated Three Laws of Robotics, which should make such a murder impossible, R. Daneel is soon Elijah’s prime suspect.

Author: Isaac Asimov
Format: Paperback (A Format)
Release Date: 25 Oct 1993
Pages: 208
ISBN: 978-0-586-00835-5
Isaac Asimov was born in 1920 in Russia and was brought to the USA by his parents three years later. He grew up in Brooklyn and attended Columbia University. After a short spell in the army, he gained a doctorate and worked in academia and chemical research.Asimov’s career as a science fiction writer began in 1939 with the short story ‘Marooned Off Vesta’. Thereafter he became a regular contributor to the leading SF magazines of the day. Asimov wrote hundreds of short stories and novels, including the iconic I, Robot and Foundation. He won the Hugo Award four times and the Nebula Award once.Apart from his world-famous science fiction, Asimov also wrote highly successful detective mystery stories, a four-volume History of North America, a two-volume Guide to the Bible, a biographical dictionary, encyclopaedias, and textbooks, as well as two volumes of autobiography.Asimov died in 1992 at the age of 72.

‘One of the classic presentations of the womb-city, metropolis as mother, which has haunted imaginations ever since… The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun are the best books Isaac Asimov ever wrote’The Guardian -

‘Isaac Asimov was one of the great explainers of the age…It will never be known how many practicing scientists today, in how many countries, owe their initial inspiration to a book, article, or short story by Isaac Asimov’Carl Sagan -

‘Asimov displayed one of the most dynamic imaginations in science fiction’Daily Telegraph -

‘Asimov’s career was one of the most formidable in science fiction’The Times -