Review of The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
If you like science fiction and you like detective stories, reading this book could be the beginning of a great adventure. In this book we are familiarized for the first time with detective Elijah Baley and his wonderful partner, the humanoid robot Daneel Olivaw. The earth is one huge city made of caves of steel where tens of billions of people live a pretty dark and hopeless life. In other planetary systems very few people live a rich and prosperous but cold and emotionless lives. Death is rare, life is long and precious and when a murder takes place, they call in the dirty earth boy to save the day. A few years earlier Asimov started writing another series of books that seemed unrelated to this one - the Foundation series.
This is the story of Harry Seldon who invented the science of Phsycho History which predicted the future history of the human race for centuries to come. Mostly it`s the story of the generations that came after him and lived by his predictions. Those two series of books converge in a trilogy which starts with the book “Robots of Dawn”. These series, nine books all toghether, make up one of the geatest creations of the science fiction world.
This may sound a little weird, but there is something refreshing about reading science fiction books from the nineteen fifties and sixties. They imagined a future free of all the new technology that we now take for granted. There is no web, no smart phones, it`s something completely different. A crowded and apocalyptic earth, a rich and perhaps apocalyptic none the less planet Aurora (where the murder in 'The Cave of Steel' took place) are really places worth a visit. If you like science fiction and havent read it yet, dont miss it!
Other reviews by Hovav you may want to read:
- Review of Dubai - The Story of the World's Fastest City by Jim Krane >>
- Review of The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo >>
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