The Caves of Steel

I found a book that had three Asimov 'Robot' novels in one at the library. I have actually read them all before, but read them all again anyway.

The first was The Caves of Steel. Way in the future, men on Earth live in huge megalopolises that are completely enclosed. They never go outside, hence the title. About 50 worlds have be colonized by 'spacers', who have no disease and live 350 years. Neither earth men or spacers trust each other. On Earth, robots are used, but not really trusted. On the spacer worlds, robots are a virtually unlimited source of free labor.

There is a spacer colony on Earth, sort of like an embassy, only larger. One day, a spacer is murdered. The spacers refuse to believe one of their own did it, so it must be a human. Elija Bailey, plainclothes detective, is brought in to investigate. He is assigned a partner, who is the only (known) completely human-form robot. He is almost indistinguishable from a human being.

There is much talk between the uneasy partners about how and why both sides act how they do, and what is best for humans. Ultimately, they actually become friends, and solve the mystery. It's a pretty fun read, and a good mystery to book.

Bummer

I read a book and now I can't remember what it was called. that's what i get for not posting as often as i should.

In any case, it was a sci-fi book by (i'm pretty sure) a well known author. it takes place on earth about a hundred years from now. the world is WAY overpopulated. people can voluntarily go into suspended animation, on the hope that in the future there will be room and they will be thawed.

What i foud interested was the mix betwee some very progressive ideas, and some very conservative ideas. Abortions were freely available, and were often recommended by abortion counselors. Birth control was also free. Yet at the same time, there were still large racial predjudices. For the first time in U.S. history, a black man was running on a major party ticket for President of the U.S.A.

Someone somehow finds a door to a parallel Earth. The thoughts are that since the new one is not populated (actually, it's sparsely populated but it takes them a while to find out), all the sleeping people can move over there.

It gets weird with the owner of a brothel on a sattelite in space, who is a siamese twin (his twin had died years ago and nobody knows it because it was replaced with a robot) jumps over to the other side and inspires a revolution. it was pretty odd.

Mostly, i found it strange how forward the author was in some areas, yet still backwards in others. the fact that there is CURRENTLY a black man on a major party ticket for President made it kind of more relevant.