| The Caves of Steel (Robot (Tantor)) | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 83 reviews)
Sales Rank: 538408
Category: Book
Author: Isaac Asimov
Publisher: Tantor Media
Studio: Tantor Media
Manufacturer: Tantor Media
Label: Tantor Media
Format: Audiobook, Cd, Mp3 Audio, Unabridged
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: MP3 CD
Edition: MP3 Una
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 1400154219
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781400154210
ASIN: 1400154219
Publication Date: May 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A millennium into the future, two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov's Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 78 more reviews...
 The best place to start reading Asimov December 27, 2008
Its hard for me to imagine anyone NOT having read something by Asimov, he's that important to my individual experience as a reader of science fiction, but if you find yourself just getting into his writing, this is a fantastic place to start. There is little that I can say to praise this book that has not already been said better by other reviews. I will add that CAVES OF STEEL contains foundational concepts that are recurrent in all of Asimov's fiction. These include:
1. The extended consequences of artificial intelligence on society
2. The nature of being; what does it mean to exist? What does it mean to exist as a human once the creation of artificial intelligence. has been achieved?
3. The distopian problems associated with urbanization and technological prowess.
4. The power struggle between those benefited by technology, and those whom it hurts.
Easily among his best, CAVES OF STEEL remains a classic in the science fiction genre, and a must have to any Asimov fan.
 A very good, thoughtful, story December 6, 2008
"Caves of Steel" is Asimov's second robot centered book. On the surface, we have a murder mystery which Elijah Baley is asked to investigate. Robot R. Daneel Olivaw is to accompany and help Baley. This mystery is quite good. I do suggest that reading "I, Robot" might be helpful for the reader's understanding of robot psychology. The resolution of the mystery is, also, good.
There is a second level to this and the following Elijah Baley stories. The 'spacers' have realized that their approach to colonizing the stars has serious problems (partly having to do with the use of robots), just as the 'earthmen' left behind have a nearly reciprocal problem (partly due to the total absence of robots). The spacers are hoping to find a third alternative to humankind's future (possibly androids such as R. Daneel may aid the third alternative) and believe that Baley's investigation(s) and his interaction with R. Daneel will provide some clues as to how to bring that third alternative to reality. This theme is in the background of each story, but is not actively in the foreground plot(s).
Why not rate this very good story even higher? Well, to me, Asimov has a stilted manner of writing and his stories can be somewhat wooden and lack a feeling of fidelity to human realities. His themes are, often, clearer than his story plots. In short, he is/was not as good a storyteller as I wish he were /had been.
I do recommend reading this book. However, it might be better to start with reading "I, Robot"
Enjoyable for a novice sci-fi reader August 6, 2008
This is one of the few science fiction books I've read, and I only decided to do so after it was the selected read for a book group on another Web site. To my surprise, I enjoyed the novel immensely.
In a futuristic, severely over-populated New York City, a rigid class system dictates how and where people may dine and bathe, the city is built-up to such an extent that people never go outside, and humans' relationships with those from other planets ("Spacers") and robots are strained.
Since humans resist robot technology and are seen as inferior by "Spacers," Elijah Baley is presented with a unique set of challenges when he is partnered with robot R. Daneel to solve the murder of a high-ranking "Spacer." Baley's career and the well-being of his family are at stake as he and R. Daneel rush to solve the crime.
As others mentioned, the book does show its age and has some religious undertones that don't always seem to fit into the story. As someone who is new to the genre, however, I enjoyed reading about the world Asimov created, and the mystery kept me guessing. For some reason, I was expecting the book to be dry, but I found it to be a fun read!
Caves of Steel June 12, 2008
I started reading Isaac Asimov when I was eight years old (mostly because my father enjoyed the books). Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun are both books everyone should read. They are Sci Fi , mysteries, and detective stories all rolled into two books. I rate them each as most excellent.
I will continue to re-read these two over the years and with grest enjoyment.
Frances J. Jessup, eclectic reader
 Important for the fictional depiction of robots, but not very well written January 23, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
When Stanislaw Lem famously castigated American SF writers for the very low quality of their books, it could well have been books like this one that he had in mind. This is not to say that there aren't many good SF writers both before and after Lem's attack, but there is a lot of justice to his comments. Far too many SF novels have only half-sketched characters, dialogues that are more like rough drafts than finished products and prose that can often be more than slightly embarrassing. This is true even with a legitimate genius like Philip K. Dick, who because he was writing for the word and not for history, left many of his books only slightly finished. I'm being very generous in giving this three stars and I am doing that because Asimov does deserve credit for helping to bring the robot back into popular imagination during the 1950s. Through his short stories and novels he helped established some ground rules for the writing about robots, most famously his rules of robotics. Asimov was somewhat better off financially than was Dick, but ultimately he also wrote for publication more than for perfection. And publishing books at the rate of around ten a year as an adult meant that taking time to polish and refine them was a luxury he could not afford.
But on literary grounds, this novel is a mess. It is a mixed hybrid, a detective novel masquerading as a SF novel. It is more successful as SF than as a mystery. The model for the detective seems to come far more from Agatha Christie and Ellery Queen than Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. This is too bad, since the latter might have meant a take on things closer to BLADE RUNNER. There is nothing of film noir in this novel. There is just some cop solving a crime. But it isn't a very interesting crime and the mystery isn't very mysterious. And the way the cop Lije Baley keeps jumping forcefully to outrageous conclusions (on two different occasions he leaps to accusing two different people of murder without coming anywhere close to assembling and testing all the evidence).
Much of the dialogue is just impossible to take. Anyone doubting me should just attempt to read any of it out loud. I suspect that Asimov wrote down dialogue only once, not to reread it or rewrite it later. Even if he did look at the draft a second time, he clearly did not lavish much attention on it.
The robot Daneel Olivaw is an interesting early fictional robot. Artificial people had, of course, been seen before. In fact, the book widely considered the first SF novel, Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN, concerns the making of an artificial person. And the first SF film was Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS, with its famous female robot. But despite these examples, only a few fictional robots appeared before Asimov began lavishing his love on them. In general, I think Asimov was better in writing about robots in short form rather than in novels. His best work on robots remains the short stories comprising I, ROBOT. Today it is perhaps hard or impossible to recreate the impact reading a story about a robot who could almost pass for human had for readers at the time. When Karel Capek's R.U.R. (the stage play that introduced the word "robot" to the world) was first shown, theater goers were said to respond with shock at the appearance of actors portraying artificial people. But today, after Gort in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, Robbie (himself a homage to Asimov) in FORBIDDEN PLANET, Roy Blaty in BLADE RUNNER, Data in STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, and Six and Sharon in the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, we are used to respond to a far more sophisticated form of artificial person. Daneel is curious, but coming after all these other creations, not terribly interesting or impressive. I think the most that we can say is that he must have been fascinating for readers at a different time.
I'm not sure whether to recommend this or not. Asimov has not garnered much respect from the literary critical community. The brute fact is that he is not a very good writer. Critics have not embraced him like them have Philip K. Dick or Kim Stanley Robinson or Stanislaw Lem or Ursula LeGuin or J. G. Ballard or Marge Piercy. So, I think I can say that if you approach this book as an experienced reader of great general literature, you will find this book to be a thundering disappointment. If you are exclusively a reader of SF and read little or nothing outside the field, go ahead. It isn't the worst book ever written. And it does have the historical importance of laying out one of the first templates for writing about robots.
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