Golden Age Sci-Fi 75 (36)
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August 28, 2016
One in a series of 75 posts about the best science fiction novels published during the genre’s so-called Golden Age (from 1934–63, according to HILOBROW’s Josh Glenn’s periodization schema). For the complete Golden Age Sci-Fi 75 list, click here.
Isaac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel (1953; as a book, 1954).
The protagonist of this detective story, set three thousand years in the future, is New York homicide detective Lije Baley, who has been ordered to Spacetown — just outside New York’s dome — to track down the murderer of a prominent Spaceman. He is hampered, in his efforts, by the contempt that Earthmen (who live in the titular caves of steel — i.e., overpopulated megapolises) and Spacers (who lives of comparative luxury) feel for one another. Baley is also prejudiced against robots, whom Earthmen resent because they have taken away jobs from humans. So it comes as an unpleasant surprise when he is partnered with R. Daneel Olivaw — the first “humaniform” robot, who was constructed in the image of the murder victim. Jehoshaphat! A pretty fun mystery, and exercise in world-building, marred only by Asimov’s love of long-winded exposition at the expense of dramatic action.
Fun fact: First serialized in Galaxy, October to December 1953. This is the first outing for Baley and Olivaw, whom Asimov would team up again in The Naked Sun and The Robots of Dawn. Olivaw also appears in the Foundation trilogy’s prequels and sequels.
GOLDEN AGE SCIENCE FICTION at HILOBROW: Golden Age Sci-Fi: 75 Best Novels of 1934–1963 | Robert Heinlein | Karel Capek | William Burroughs | E.E. “Doc” Smith | Clifford D. Simak | H.P. Lovecraft | Olaf Stapledon | Philip K. Dick | Jack Williamson | George Orwell | Boris Vian | Bernard Wolfe | J.G. Ballard | Jorge Luis Borges |Poul Anderson | Walter M. Miller, Jr. | Murray Leinster | Kurt Vonnegut | Stanislaw Lem | Alfred Bester | Isaac Asimov | Ray Bradbury | Madeleine L’Engle | Arthur C. Clarke | PLUS: Jack Kirby’s Golden Age and New Wave science fiction comics.
JOSH GLENN’S *BEST ADVENTURES* LISTS: BEST 250 ADVENTURES OF THE 20TH CENTURY | 100 BEST OUGHTS ADVENTURES | 100 BEST RADIUM AGE (PROTO-)SCI-FI ADVENTURES | 100 BEST TEENS ADVENTURES | 100 BEST TWENTIES ADVENTURES | 100 BEST THIRTIES ADVENTURES | 75 BEST GOLDEN AGE SCI-FI ADVENTURES | 100 BEST FORTIES ADVENTURES | 100 BEST FIFTIES ADVENTURES | 100 BEST SIXTIES ADVENTURES | 75 BEST NEW WAVE SCI FI ADVENTURES | 100 BEST SEVENTIES ADVENTURES | 100 BEST EIGHTIES ADVENTURES | 75 BEST DIAMOND AGE SCI-FI ADVENTURES | 100 BEST NINETIES ADVENTURES (in progress) | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | NOTES ON 21st-CENTURY ADVENTURES.