The Caves of Steel

Summary

The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov is a science fiction mystery novel set in a distant future where Earth's population lives in sprawling underground cities to protect themselves from environmental challenges.

To me this idea of the underground cities is still one of the most memorable aspects of science fiction writing that I have ever encountered. The descriptions of these "Caves of Steel" are just so vibrant, so alive, and feel so real, as if something like this could really happen to our world in the future. At the same time, these mega cities feel dystopian. Cold and disconnected from the natural world, like Coruscant, the planet that is an entire city from Star Wars. Worlds like these, where there is not a speck of green to be seen anywhere, no more plants, nothing living around, except the sprawling of human activity, are creepy. They seem wrong somehow, as if they have lost something of importance, something beautiful.

Caves of Steel is a detective story, where two detectives: Daneel Olivaw, an advanced robot we know from other works of Asimov like Robots and Empire or the Foundation series and a regular human detective Elijah "Lije" Baley. Together they try to uncover the mysterious murder case of a famous Earth roboticist, Dr. Sarton. In their world, there are political tensions between two different groups of people. Those who still live on Earth, in their overpopulated underground steel cities, where they disapprove of robots and fight for work themselves, and those who have moved into space, and rely heavily on robots and are free and disdain Earthers for their overcrowdedness and shortsightedness in life. The partnership between the two detectives is arranged as a political symbol of cooperation between these two factions, wanting to show that Earthers and Spacers, and Humans and Robots, can collaborate effectively to solve problems.

Over time, as the two follow the case, Elijah grows to trust Daneel Olivaw more and more and starts to overcome his prejudices against robots, which helps to uncover the murder case. The novel suggests that humanity's future depends on embracing change, innovation, and cooperation to overcome challenges like overpopulation.

Overall, the Caves of Steel is a solid sci-fi novel, exploring themes like robotics, socio-political tensions in a more advanced society and ways that humans could live in the future. Like most of Asimov's work it is filled with unique ideas exploring an interesting hypothetical universe.