The Caves of Steel
by Isaac Asimov · first published 1953
33% recommend67% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Easy, enjoyable sci-fi detective story set in a far-future underground New York, with a human detective and robot partner, a Foundation-style twist, and a good start to Asimov's Robot series.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In the future you will walk down the crowded streets of New York City not knowing if the bodies brushing past you are humans or androids. With tensions already mounting between humans and robots, the murder of a Spacer must be handled in a politically-correct fashion so Detective Elijah Baley is assigned a robot partner. Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw become like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle s Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Law & Order s Detectives Lennie Brisco and Ed Green, and Training Day s Detective Alonzo Harris and Officer Jake Hoyt disparate partners who must work together to solve a crime.
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…the possibility of somebody actually walking backwards.) > "Or maybe multi-lane, variable speed walking escalators, but I guess those are sci-fi... " I've badly wanted to try that ever since I read Caves of Steel. It sounds terrifying but exhilarating.
on “Tokyo Wants People to Stand on Both Sides of the Escalator” ↗It's not the "I, Robot" books, it's the quadrilogy sometimes called the "Robot" series (confusing, I know). "The Caves of Steel", "The Naked Sun", "Robots of Dawn", "Robots and Empire". These are without a doubt my favourite of Asimov's books :) Earth has evolved to a point where the population lives in Cities (capitalisation…
on “The Longest Conveyor Belt” ↗…1969, but Asimov's typewriter just kept going. He eventually published a two-volume autobiography (about 1500 pages!), and then a condensed version called I, Asimov. He also published SF mystery novels (Caves of Steel, et al.), and straight-up mystery short stories (collected in the Black Widowers stories), which are quite enjoyable.
on “Isaac Asimov: Man of 7,560,000 Words (1969)” ↗Asimov in "The Caves of Steel"; Earth has a huge population that lives in huge cities, therefore it needs powerful computers as it has to track/police its massive population. Asimov guessed in 1953 that computers are a surveillance…
on “Ask HN: Favorite technology predictions in science fiction?” ↗…intelligence? Give Philip K Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" a whirl if you're interested in the implications. Isaac Asimov also spent a lot of time writing about robotic intelligence. Hit up Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun and Robots of Dawn if this floats your boat.
on “Anyone know who is behind perfect-woman.com?” ↗…because they are indeed short, and while not all of them are good, a number of them fill me with the same sort of wonder I get from reading the first Foundation book. If you're on an Asimov kick, The Caves of Steel is also pretty good, and has a Foundation-style twist at the end.
on “Ask HN: What should I read next?” ↗Isaac Asimov's robot series (start with "I, Robot" and "The Caves of Steel") is good, as is his Foundation series. Ender's Game is also good; I've heard other people complain about the other novels in that universe (Speaker for the Dead and sequels, Ender's Shadow and sequels),…
on “Ask HN: What literature do you read?” ↗Also the Robot series by Asimov, particularly Caves of Steel / The Naked Sun / The Robots of Dawn. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_series_%28Asimov%29
on “Drone Flies Into an Active Volcano [video]” ↗Isaac Asimov is a must read for people who love Sci-Fi. Some of his books I loved: The Robot Series (The Caves of Steel, The Robots of Dawn etc.), The Foundation Series, Nemesis, the list goes on ...
on “Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?” ↗…excerpt on HN before it was released, and this is what made me buy the book. [0] [0] http://www.howtoflyahorse.com/what-coke-contains/ Now I'm starting "The Naked Sun" by Isaac Asimov, having read "Caves of Steel" a few months ago. I don't know why I've never read Asimov before, but wow, the worlds and characters he creates are amazing. As far as technical books go, I'm working on "Build Your Own AngularJS" by…
on “Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?” ↗…fit the category of recent, but I've been really enjoying working my way through some Asimov classics. If you haven't read Asimov I'd highly recommend him. Give the Elijah Baley series a try first: - Caves of Steel - Naked Sun - Robots of Dawn and then move right on to the Foundation series. I'd second the other recommendation for Three Body Problem, though the third book went a little crazy at the end for me…
on “Ask HN: Recent sci-fi recommendations” ↗…involve space. But if you're just asking about SF in general... Spin, which I mentioned above, takes place entirely on Earth. But it's definitely at least somewhat "space-related" in terms of its plot. Caves of Steel by Asimov is a certified classic who-dunnit in a far-future underground New York City. If you're interested in golden age scifi at all, this is a great one to check out. Anathem by Neal Stephenson is…
on “Liu Cixin's War of the Worlds (2019)” ↗Caves of steel by Asimov my favorite recently. Super easy and enjoyable read.
on “ABC yanks Jimmy Kimmel’s show ‘indefinitely’ after threat from FCC chair” ↗…inaction allow humanity to come to harm. Every other law gets an unless this interferes with the zeroth law. suffix. I encourage anyone to read the robots series, specifically( in that order ): The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun and The Robots of Dawn, where the three laws are used in the story, and even the zeroth law is implied in the third book.
on “Zuckerberg, Musk Invest in Artificial-Intelligence Company Vicarious ” ↗Many people (including me) think it’s best to start with the Foundation core set - Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. Then you can move to the Robots Series - Caves of Steel, Naked Sun, and Robots of Dawn. Then circle back to the Foundation sequels, which ties them together a bit. It's important not to read Robots and Empire until you read the Foundation series.
on “Apple confirms TV series order of Asimov’s Foundation” ↗