A Visionary Genius: Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov

Book Review
The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov

First Published in 1954 by Doubleday

This Edition Published in 1991 by Spectra

Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov, one of the best science-fiction and prolific writers ever, is not one of his best books. Compared with The Foundation Trilogyor The Stars, Like Dustfor example, it lacks the vivid scenery descriptions that really make the reader wonder what the future might look like.

The set of this novel is a futuristic New York City, a city of 20 million a few thousand years from now. The whole city is encased in steel and residents travel by walking on speeding platforms, eat processed food, and are monitored by the police--a scene reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984(one wonders whether Asimov was influenced by the book, published just five years earlier). The problem is that the city is that the population keeps growing but the resources--many of which have to be imported--to sustain them are becoming more and more scarce.

The action begins when a murder is committed in Spacetown, an area adjacent to NYC and the Earth where non-Earthmen live. Earthmen don't like the Spacers because they control their populations forcibly and live amongst robots, many of which are being exported to Earth and replacing human jobs. Spacetown and the Outer Worlds are more powerful than Earth and can presumably enforce economic and military pressure, unless it's proven that the criminal was not an Earthman. Will Elijah Baley, the "copper" in charge of the investigation, be able to solve the riddle?

The story is thus mostly an investigative novel. As with other Asimov novels, the dialogue is superbly constructed: it is smart, intriguing, somewhat technical and yet understandable, and logically persuasive throughout the book. Unlike a regular mystery novel however, this book, even though written in the early 1950s, pertains to current events and makes the reader wonder where the Earth is heading: is population growth sustainable?; does the government have too much control of our lives?; how much do our problems stem from our lack of understanding and harmonization with nature? Viewed through Isaac Asimov's vision, it is not inconceivable that the future may be like the one depicted in Caves of Steel.