The caves of steel

TITLE The caves of steel

AUTHOR                              Isaac Asimov

PUBLISHER                        Cambridge University Press

DATE OF PUBLICATION 1978

FIRST EDITION                

LEVEL 5 (1800 words)

GENRE          detective story

SETTING

We were in the distant future, when space travel was easy and men lived on many planets. On the Outer Worlds lived the Spacers. They enjoyed a superior way of life, with robots as their servants. However life on Earth was very different. Here people lived, worked and died in huge Cities shut off from the sky by massive caves of steel, while robots run the farms on the Earth's surface.

In the cities people lived in large barracks or in an apartment. They had always a seat on public transport. People had their classification by birth, job or marriage. Robots could do a lot of jobs and people without jobs lost their classification.

CHARACTERS

Elijah Baley was a earthly policeman. He was 42 years old. He was a very good detective and he had to discover the murderer for the Earth's safety. He didn't love the robots but after this investigation with his partner R. Daneel Olivaw, he learnt to love them. He had a wife, Jessie. Her full name was Jezebel. They had a son Bentley Baley. He was sixteen.

R. Daneel Olivaw was the Elijah's partner. He was a spacer sophisticated robot. He was like a man but he couldn't reason like them. However at the end of investigation he began to reason like a man.

Julius Enderby was the commissioner of the police city of New York. He was the Elijah's boss and also the murderer. He didn't want kill Doctor Sarton, doctor of robotics. He wanted destroy R. Daneel. Enderby was a Medievalist's man. He liked wearing glasses because his eyes were sensitive and couldn't take the usual contact lenses and because the glasses made him look interesting.

MAIN EVENTS

In the distant future a Spacer was killed. The Earth was in a very dangerous situation because the Speacers suspected the Earthmen. In fact the Earthmen hated robots and the victim was a doctor of robotics. Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw discovered the murderer: the commissioner Julius Enderby. He didn't want to kill Sarton, but he wanted destroy R. Daneel. In the middle of the investigation a robots was murder. He was the Enderby's partner and his name was R Sammy. The commissioner killed him because his glasses were broken. He wanted to murder R. Daneel and R. Sammy was like him.

MEANING

This story shows how much is dangerous the progress. This danger is visible now too. In fact the nature begins to become ruined.

Another thing: we often say the relation with the other persons will to change. But in this book I can see that more things will not change. Robberies, murders, disasters, crashes, hate. Year after year, it will the same.

PERSONAL COMMENT

I don't like this book very much because I don't like detective stories. I've read this book because it was the only I could read. I live in the country and if I want a book I have to go to the city. And in the Christmas's holiday I couldn't go to the city. So Michela gave this book to my father and I've read it.

Although I don't like detective stories, I like this book because it teaches me that the progress is a good thing for the humanity. But it teaches me that the progress is a danger for the humanity and especially for the nature. I don't should like live in a city enclosed in a cave of steel, without sun or fresh air!