The caves of steel.

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Isaac Asimov: The caves of steel. (1997, HarperCollins)

206 pages

English language

Published Nov. 8, 1997 by HarperCollins.

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4 stars (2 reviews)

"A Del Rey book."

It was bad enough when Lije Baley, a simple plainclothes cop, was ordered to solve a totally baffling mystery - the murder of a prominent Spacer. It was worse when he found that the smug, self-satisfied Spacers were behind the pressure to provide an impossibly quick solution.

But then Lije discovered the worst of all bad news. The Spacers, distrusting all Earthmen, insisted he must work with an investigator of their choice. And that investigator turned out to be R. Daneel Olivaw. R stood for robot--and Lije hated and feared robots deeply, bitterly and pathologically.

Issac Asimov's The Naked Sun and The Caves of Steel are two of the most famous science-fiction novels ever. They are set long after mankind - aided by the positronic robot - has colonized the worlds of other suns. This is a time of growing concern between Earthmen and Spacers. Lije …

45 editions

Different to what I thought it would be

4 stars

I should have anticipated this really, given that this was a novel set in Asimov's Robot universe; it's more of a murder mystery (with robots) rather than a Robot story. That being said, it still plays with themes of ballooning populations, limited resources, fear of superior technology that could replace you, and interplanetary civilisation; which are all very Asimovian themes, and definitely make me keen to see where he takes this series in the next book. So I guess I'll need to get that next book now.

Review of 'Bóvedas de Acero' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Una pena que no hay ni un personaje femenino excepto el tropo misógino de mujer mala, pero es lo que hay siendo Asimov y de los 50. La pena es que la parte de la novela detectivesca es muy plana y avanza a trompicones, sin dejar al lector ir hilando en su cabeza su propia conclusión, en este sentido no ha envejecido bien al notarse esa influencia de partida de la sociedad y tecnología de los 50. Pero la parte de c.f. es muy buena y realmente se integra con la trama detectivesca y la trama general del universo de ficción que crea.