The Caves of Steel
In the future you will walk down the crowded streets of New York City not knowing if the bodies brushing past you are humans or androids. With tensions already mounting between humans and robots, the murder of a Spacer must be handled in a politically-correct fashion so Detective Elijah Baley is assigned a robot partner. Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw become like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle s Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Law & Order s Detectives Lennie Brisco and Ed Green, and Training Day s Detective Alonzo Harris and Officer Jake Hoyt disparate partners who must work together to solve a crime. The only problem is, Baley doesn't trust anyone not his boss, not his wife, and certainly not his robot partner.
Themes & atmosphere
Also by Isaac Asimov
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What you might want to know about The Caves of Steel
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
First in the Robot novels. New York Police detective Elijah Baley is paired with the humanoid robot R. Daneel Olivaw to solve the murder of a roboticist in the Spacer enclave outside the domed city.
The Caves of Steel (1954) is the first novel in Isaac Asimov's Elijah Baley Robot series. It is followed by The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn, and Robots and Empire. The Robot stories also connect to Asimov's broader Foundation universe.
Largely. The Caves of Steel works as a standalone detective novel, though the broader series rewards readers who continue. It introduces the human-robot detective duo of Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw.
The Caves of Steel was written by Isaac Asimov, published in 1954 by Del Rey.
The Caves of Steel is 259 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Caves of Steel takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
The Caves of Steel is a standalone novel by Isaac Asimov, not part of a series.
The Caves of Steel is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.