The Caves of Steel

The Caves of Steel is a science fiction novel by the American writer Isaac Asimov, first published as a serial in Galaxy magazine from October to December 1953 and later in book form. The Panther paperback followed in 1969.

The book is a detective story that happens to be set in the future. New York has grown into a city sealed under domes, its inhabitants fed from communal kitchens and assigned shared bathrooms, and contact with the open air is something most people find frightening rather than pleasant. Beyond the city live the Spacers, descendants of the first colonists, whose worlds are underpopulated and who have brought robots with them. When one of them is killed outside the city, the police have to pair Elijah Baley with R. Daneel Olivaw, a robot built to be indistinguishable from a man, and the two of them work the case together while the city's prejudices press in on them.

Asimov said he wrote the book to show that a science fiction setting can carry any kind of story, and the mystery is solved by ordinary police work: interviews, physical evidence and a suspect list. It is the second of his robot novels and the first to pair Baley with Daneel.