The Caves of Steel (Robot, #1)
Isaac Asimov
A millennium into the future two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov's Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together. Like most people left behind on an over-populated Earth, New York City police detective Elijah Baley had little love for either the arrogant Spacers or their robotic companions. But when a prominent Spacer is murdered under mysterious circumstances, Baley is ordered to the Outer Worlds to help track down the killer. The relationship between Life and his Spacer superiors, who distrusted all Earthmen, was strained from the start. Then he learned that they had assigned him a partner: R. Daneel Olivaw. Worst of all was that the "R" stood for robot--and his positronic partner was made in the image and likeness of the murder victim!
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0I lapped up Asimov's books as a teenager and I wondered if 20 years on this robot series would have the same impact on me.
Well I needn't have worried. The elements I liked as a teenager are still there, an imaginative and well defined world, a tight plot and a sympathetic, worthy leading man with great chemistry between him and his robot partner.
Added to that are the underlying themes that went over my head at the time but now seem to have even more resonance than they did then and probably more than they had when the book was first published in the 50s.
The central mystery is relatively slight compared to your modern day murder mysteries, but this isn't crime fiction it's a vision of an all too believable future and a study of the politics and culture that future would bring. Here it is that Asimov excels. He does an incredible job of world building here in a relatively short book. You immediately get a real feel for the claustrophobic conditions as well as the political and social repercussions of a world with diminishing resources and an ever growing population.
The spacer/earthman dynamic of course seems to have even more connection to the world of today as inequality moves ever upward on our own global agenda. The spacer fear of the populous, germ filled masses of earth is palpably reflected in today's society. You only have to look at the western world reaction to the ebola outbreak to see Asimov was scarily accurate in his vision.
The only real criticism is the lack of female character Asimov includes in the story. BEaring in mind this was written in the 50s, it's not unexpected, but it felt jarring when the only female character is portrayed as a silly housewife in over her head in a conspiracy. In a novel that generally nails the 21st century's key issues it feels like that's the one area the author dropped the ball on. Of course he remedied this issue in his writing as time moved on, but it is an issue here.
It really has been a blast returning to this book after 20 years and I'm looking forward to revisiting the other books in this series this year.
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