nicanical
Isaac Asimov's The Caves of Steel is a detective story fused with sci-fi. New York City detective Elijah Baley is paired with R. Daneel Olivaw (R. meaning robot) to investigate a murder in Spacetown—a delegation of Spacers just outside New York City, Spacers being the descendants of settlers from Earth's extrasolar colonies.
The murder investigation is sloppy. It's fine because it's really a frame for Baley and R. Daneel to discuss humanity's future: the paths leading to man thriving or declining. Asimov will use a similar conceit in The End of Eternity, published three years later.
Asimov's execution drags in the middle. There are awkward injections of religion, awkward because the payoff only arrives at the end of the story in one line. Baley also incorrectly fingers R. Daneel as the killer twice; justification is provided for these but Baley still emerges looking inept.
The reveal at the end is nicely-crafted, a good twist, but it is rushed. Baley even has a time limit.
Isaac Asimov's The Caves of Steel is a detective story fused with sci-fi. New York City detective Elijah Baley is paired with R. Daneel Olivaw (R. meaning robot) to investigate a murder in Spacetown—a delegation of Spacers just outside New York City, Spacers being the descendants of settlers from Earth's extrasolar colonies.
The murder investigation is sloppy. It's fine because it's really a frame for Baley and R. Daneel to discuss humanity's future: the paths leading to man thriving or declining. Asimov will use a similar conceit in The End of Eternity, published three years later.
Asimov's execution drags in the middle. There are awkward injections of religion, awkward because the payoff only arrives at the end of the story in one line. Baley also incorrectly fingers R. Daneel as the killer twice; justification is provided for these but Baley still emerges looking inept.
The reveal at the end is nicely-crafted, a good twist, but it is rushed. Baley even has a time limit.
