The Caves of Steel
A detective novel set in an overpopulated, domed Earth future.
Asimov described himself as a claustrophile and was astonished that others found his imagined underground world nightmarish.[1]
Quick Facts
- Author
- Isaac Asimov
- Cover artist
- Ruth Ray
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Series
- Robot series
- Genre
- Mystery Science fiction
- Publisher
- Doubleday
- Released
- 1953 (magazine), 4 February 1954 (book)
Facts from the source article.
Making and release
The novel was first published in 1954.[2] It is the first book in Asimov's Robot series.[2] A BBC television adaptation was broadcast on BBC2 on 5 June 1964 as part of the Story Parade anthology.[3] The television adaptation was developed by story editor Irene Shubik, who was a science fiction enthusiast.[3]
Only a few short excerpts of the 1964 broadcast still exist.[4] In June 1989, Bert Coules adapted the novel as a BBC radio play starring Ed Bishop and Sam Dastor.[4] Sources indicated Ridley's film may also draw from the sequels The Naked Sun and The Robots of Dawn.[2] In the BBC television adaptation broadcast on 5 June 1964, the roles of Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw were performed by Peter Cushing and John Carson respectively.[3]
What the cited sources add
A 1954 review by Groff Conklin praised Asimov's combination of robotics interest with sociology of a technology-mad world.[5] Boucher and McComas called it "Asimov's best long work to date" and "the most successful attempt yet to combine" detective and science fiction.[5] P. Schuyler Miller described it as "as honest a combination of science fiction and detection as we've seen."[6] Villiers Gerson of The New York Times wrote it was "an unusually exciting and engrossing detective story" with a convincingly worked-out science fictional background.[6]
The novel was voted 30th Best All-Time Novel in the 1975 Locus Poll and 33rd Best All-Time SF Novel in the 1987 Locus Poll.[7][8][9] The novel received a nomination for the 1954 Retrospective Hugo Award for Best Novel, which was presented in 2004 at Noreascon 4 in Boston.[7][10]
References
- Wikipedia, "The Caves of Steel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Asimov, "Nightfall, and other stories", Doubleday, 1969, p. 244 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- John Ridley Developing ‘Caves Of Steel’ Film Based On Isaac Asimov Sci-Fi Novel For 20th Century Studios. facts only, no text reused. deadline.com
- Wikipedia, "The Caves of Steel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cutler 1999 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "The Caves of Steel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Akiva Goldsman Writing ‘Caves of Steel’ Sci-Fi Movie for Fox (EXCLUSIVE); John Ridley Developing ‘Caves Of Steel’ Film Based On Isaac Asimov Sci-Fi Novel For 20th Century Studios (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "The Caves of Steel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, July 1954, p. 98; "Recommended Reading," F&SF, May 1954, p. 88. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "The Caves of Steel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Reference Library", Astounding Science Fiction, November 1954, p. 150; Gerson, "Spacers", The New York Times, 7 March 1954, p. Section 7, p. 16 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "The Caves of Steel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Locus Poll Best All-time Novel Results: 1975, novels", Locus; "Locus Poll Best All-time Novel Results: 1987, sf novels", Locus; 1954 Retro-Hugo Awards at thehugoawards.org (retrieved 24 April 2016). (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "Locus Poll Best All-time Novel Results: 1975, novels", Locus. facts only, no text reused. locusmag.com
- "Locus Poll Best All-time Novel Results: 1987, sf novels", Locus. facts only, no text reused. locusmag.com
- 1954 Retro-Hugo Awards at thehugoawards.org (retrieved 24 April 2016).. facts only, no text reused. thehugoawards.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article The Caves of Steel (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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