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1954 novel by Isaac Asimov

The Caves of Steel is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov. It is a detective story and illustrates an idea Asimov advocated, that science fiction can be applied to any literary genre, rather than just being a limited genre in itself. The book was first published as a serial in Galaxy magazine, from October to December 1953. A Doubleday hardcover followed in 1954. At the time of writing, Asimov conceived of The Caves of Steel as completely distinct from his Foundation Trilogy, published a few years earlier. Decades later, however, Asimov linked them, making the time of Caves of Steel a much earlier part of an extensive future history leading up to the rise of the Galactic Empire, its fall and the rise of two Foundations to replace it – with the Robot R. Daneel Olivaw, introduced in Caves of Steel, turning out to have survived over tens of thousands of years and have played a key role in the eras of both the Empire and the Foundation(s).

Isaac Asimov introduces Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw, later his favorite protagonists. They live roughly three millennia in Earth's future, a time when hyperspace travel has been discovered and a few worlds relatively close to Earth have been colonized – fifty planets known as the "Spacer worlds". The Spacer worlds are rich, have low population density (average population of one hundred million each), and use robot labor heavily. Meanwhile, Earth is overpopulated with eight billion people, three times that of Asimov's 1950s, with strict rules against robots. In The Caves of Steel and its sequels (the first of which is The Naked Sun), Asimov paints a grim situation of an Earth dealing with an extremely large population and of luxury seeking Spacers, who limit birth to permit great wealth and privacy. Asimov was a claustrophile: "I wrote a novel in 1953 which pictured a world in which everyone lived in underground cities, comfortably enclosed away from the open air. People would say, 'How could you imagine such a nightmarish situation?' And I would answer in astonishment, 'What nightmarish situation? The "caves of steel" are vast city complexes covered by huge metallic domes, capable of supporting tens of millions each: the New York City of that era (wherein much of the story is set) encompasses present day New York City as well as large tracts of New Jersey. Asimov imagines the present day underground transit connected to malls and apartment blocks, until no one ever exits the domes and most of the population suffer from extreme fear of leaving them. (Even though the Robot and Foundation series were not made part of the same fictional universe until much later, the "caves of steel" resemble the planet Trantor.) The novel's central plot device is a murder, which takes place before it opens. (This is an Asimov trademark, which he attributed to his squeamishness plus John Campbell's advice to begin as late in the story as possible.) The victim is Roj Nemmenuh Sarton, a Spacer Ambassador who lives in Spacetown, the Spacer outpost just outside New York City. For some time, he has tried to convince the Earth government to loosen its anti robot restrictions. One morning, he is discovered outside his home, his chest imploded by an energy blaster. The New York police commissioner charges Elijah with finding the murderer, in cooperation with a highly advanced robot named R. Daneel Olivaw who is visually identical to a human and is equipped with a scanner that is able to detect human emotions through their encephalographic waves.

A faction of Spacers have come to the realization that Spacer culture is effete, stagnating due to negative population growth and excessive longevity. Their solution is to encourage further space exploration and colonization by Earthmen in concert with robots. However, Earthmen would first need to overcome their irrational antagonism toward robots. To this end, the faction have established habitations on Earth through which they hope to introduce humanoid robots to Earth. Officer Elijah Baley starts working with R. (robot) Olivaw, whom he distrusts on the basis of being an android. Olivaw gradually learns more about Earth humans and displays curiosity about aspects local behaviour and technology. While investigating the murder of Spacer Dr. Sarton, Baley makes a visit to Spacetown and meets with Dr. Fastolfe, who injects him with a suggestive drug while speaking about the relative merits and shortcomings of Earth and Spacer society. Baley is converted to the cause of spreading humanity throughout the galaxy. Although the Spacers deem Baley inadequate to convert enough Earthmen, they find their target when Baley arrests Clousarr on suspicion of inciting a riot and Olivaw provides him with suggestive statements. Their job accomplished, the Spacers make plans to leave Earth as their continued presence would be to the detriment of their cause; they accept Sarton's unsolved death as a necessary sacrifice. This leaves Baley with ninety minutes to find the killer, which he is convinced will also clear him of the destruction of R. Sammy. Meanwhile, the New York Police Commissioner, Julius Enderby, who is Baley's friend from college, now his boss, and the head of the investigation on Earth, has been acting suspicious. Baley eventually deduces Enderby is secretly a member of the Medievalists, a subversive anti robot group which pines for the 'olden days' where men did not live in the 'caves of steel'. He used his position of power in order to set up meetings with Sarton, under the guise of further cooperation, while actually plotting to kill R. Daneel, who was living with Sarton prior to the murder. The murder required the knowledge and skills of one human – Enderby – and one robot – R. Sammy. Enderby ordered R. Sammy to carry a blaster weapon from the City to Spacetown through the "country", an area outside the domes that make up the caves of steel, an area with little to no monitoring by police, but where few if any Earthmen would dare go. In Spacetown, Enderby took the weapon from R. Sammy. And after being done, he gave the blaster back, so the investigators in Spacetown would never find the murder weapon. At no point did he need to tell R. Sammy why he wanted a weapon, so the plan did not break the First Law. In Enderby's nervousness about committing a crime, he compulsively cleaned the lenses of his eyeglasses and accidentally dropped them, breaking them. Because of this, he could not tell the difference between Sarton and R. Daneel (who Sarton designed and built to look as much like himself as a robot can). When he tried to kill R. Daneel, he killed Sarton instead. As a confirmation of his hypothesis, Baley plays a video recording of the crime scene investigation. It shows the room where Sarton was killed, Sarton's body, and pieces of glass which can be tested to see whether they came from Enderby's eyeglasses. Having already accepted that Sarton's death is unsolved, the Spacers are willing to not prosecute Enderby for the accident if he agrees to work with them to promote colonization of other worlds amongst the Medievalists.

Reviewer Groff Conklin praised the novel for the way Asimov "combines his interest in robotics with his consuming preoccupation with the sociology of a technology mad, bureaucratically tethered world of tomorrow." Boucher and McComas praised The Caves of Steel as "Asimov's best long work to date", saying that it was "the most successful attempt yet to combine" the detective and science fiction novel. P. Schuyler Miller called it "as honest a combination of science fiction and detection as we've seen." Villiers Gerson of The New York Times wrote: "Here is an unusually exciting and engrossing detective story set in a science fictional background convincingly worked out." In 2004 The Caves of Steel was nominated for a retroactive Hugo Award for Best Novel for 1954.

The novel was adapted for television by the BBC and shown in 1964: only a few short excerpts still exist. In June 1989, the book was adapted by Bert Coules as a radio play for the BBC, with Ed Bishop as Elijah Baley and Sam Dastor as R. Daneel Olivaw. In 2016, Akiva Goldsman had been hired to produce a movie.