27. Caves of Steel

The Caves of Steel. Isaac Asimov. 1953. 270 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Lije Baley had just reached his desk when he became aware of R. Sammy watching him expectantly.

Premise/plot: The Caves of Steel is BOTH a classic science fiction novel and a classic mystery. Lije Baley is a New York City detective tasked with solving a murder. Of course, this is futuristic New York City and Lije Baley's new partner for the case is, well, a robot. 

[Humans still have a phobia about robots; and perhaps rightly so. Most robots are filling jobs previously filled by human beings. But the Spacers (who live in their own settlement and NOT in the (overpopulated) cities) feel differently. Robots and humans work and live (or should I say "live") side by side.]

Lije brings home his new partner, R. Daneel Olivaw, and, it doesn't exactly go as well as he hoped. His wife, Jessie [aka Jezebel], is suspicious that Daneel is a ROBOT. And she fears that if the public finds out that there is a humanoid robot "passing" as human in the city... and living in their apartment, well, it could lead to a riot. 

So Lije has to balance solving the case and following the clues with pacifying his wife. 

My thoughts: I do have thoughts! It was interesting to read a book that is attempting to be both science fiction and mystery. It has elements of both. There is a murder case. There are suspects. There are red herrings. There are actual clues. There are moments of brainstorming. But the setting is all sci-fi. The world needs a lot of info-dumping. And these info-dumps come through dialogue.

I was not at all expecting Asimov to bring up the Bible, Bible characters, and Bible stories. Elijah (our hero) and Jezebel (Jessie) his wife. When they meet there is a long discussion (in the scheme of things, long) about how they both happen to have names from the Bible. They talk about their Bible character counterparts. Jessie takes pride in being named Jezebel and wants to live up to that name--be as "special" and "memorable" perhaps. He talks his wife out of her need to be Jezebel 2.0. But he does it in an odd way saying that Jezebel is misunderstood. She wasn't wicked, bad, evil. She was faithful and loyal to the old ways; committed to protecting the "old ways" from those demanding "newcomers" the Hebrews. She was the portrait of a good and faithful wife who stood up for what she believed in. Jessie settles down--literally and figuratively--but they decide not to name their own child after a character in the Bible.

I was expecting this to be premise-driven and not character-driven. I wasn't wrong. The characters come across a bit clumsy in terms of development. In my opinion. There are characters that "represent" ideas and concepts. The dialogue is very un-clumsy--polished--when it comes to building up philosophies and world views and establishing the world. But when the book is not "selling" the future: explorations of new planets and worlds, new settlements with robots and humans living together in harmony, discarding the problems of earth and forging ahead with new ways of doing things...well, it can be a bit awkward and clumsy. 

The book is fascinating and charming in its own way. I did get attached to the robot Daneel. I liked the developing relationship between Lije and Daneel. It was interesting to see this story unfold. Together they solved the case. It wasn't a smooth, easy case. There were a lot of fumbles and stumbles. But the process of solving the case...well...it proved that humans and robots don't have to be enemies.

While I definitely liked it, there were so many red herrings. In my opinion. I have been binge-watching House lately, and it reminded me of that. I knew there was no way that the detective had solved the case when the book wasn't even at the halfway point. 

© 2022 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews