The Caves of Steel

Welcome to the future. Yes it is Asimov and he takes us on a journey to a near future at the wake of C/Fe civilization i.e., the human-robot civilization, the brainchild of the Spacers who had migrated from the Earth to form a world of healthy beings. Yes, the ethical part kept aside, the Spacers, humans from Earth formed a colony of their own by selecting the healthiest of the human race right from birth itself. Thus the nobility of the future, so formed, had, at once, been both the subject of fascination and hatred to the Earthmen. Infact, the human civilization too had undergone a radical change by the construction of steel caves that they named Cities which covered the entire human organization. Ambience, inside these caves, were controlled to suit the need of development and work and thus it was not surprising when we find the household kitchen being replaced by a community dining hall where all the city dwellers timely consumed their daily ration. This automatically gave birth to a sect, appropriately categorized as Mediavalists, that functioned illegally in a hope to bring back the past and crushing anything modern. That they would be against robots was natural but some of them, in course of time, modified their views when they found these choice was automatic and gradually started to cope up with the change. One of these was police officer, Elijah Lije Bailey, whose practical approach seemed to be the apparent reason for his recommendation by his friend and boss, Commissioner Enderby, to investigate the murder of one Dr. Sarton, a specialist in humanoid robots at Spacetown. Lije would have tolerated this not so encouraging task but for the ordeal of being accompanied by a detective robot Daneel Olivaw that seemed too much for him.

A gripping story follows with elaborate paragraphs detailing, for the sake of the readers, the future world in the author’s vision, that increases both in pace and mystery till the very climax. Lije seemed to be bent on accusing the Spacers of the crime but Daneel in each step refuted his views with solid counter proofs. The delicate situation of unmasking the criminal while preventing an impending riot seemed to slip of Lije’s hand at each occassion but the turn of events, each time, seemed to send him back to the right track. The sinister evil lurking behind the crime was finally unveiled by Lije and the readers will thoroughly enjoy the story though a certain amount of concentration is required if its true flavour is to be savoured.