The Caves of Steel

The Caves of Steel is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov. It is a detective story and illustrates an idea Asimov advocated, that science fiction can be applied to any literary genre, rather than just being a limited genre in itself. The book was first published as a serial in Galaxy magazine, from October to December 1953. A Doubleday hardcover followed in 1954. At the time of writing, Asimov conceived of "The Caves of Steel" as completely distinct from his Foundation Trilogy, published a few years earlier. Much later, however, Asimov linked them, making the time of Caves of Steel a much earlier part of an extensive Future history leading up to the rise of the Galactic Empire, its fall and the rise of two Foundations to replace it – with the Robot R. Daneel Olivaw, introduced in Caves of Steel, turning out to have survived over tens of thousands of years, and played a key role in the periods of both the Empire and the Foundation(s).