True to form, Asimov wrote a book that actually fits another genre better but takes place in a futuristic setting. This is detective murder mystery novel set set in New York several thousand years hence. Humanity has spread to the starts, yet the people that have remained on earth have turned suspicious of their celestial brethren, seeing them as haughty and elitist. Earthlings generally stay on earth and the one Spacer town, located right next to New York, is called called "Space Town". Yep.. just Space Town. Way to stretch for that one, Isaac.
There has been a Murder in Space Town and New York police detective Elijah Bailey is tasked to solve it with the help of an unusually human looking robot partner R. Daniel Olivaw. The problem is Earthlings not only dislike Spacers, they fear and distrust (but still use) robots. The suspect couldn't possibly be a spacer because they are above such silly things like murder, but humans almost never venture outside of their completely encapsulated giant cave like cities. ..so whodunit?
It's a good book, but nothing terribly moving. I think that's been my reaction to all of Asimov's works. If I give it just a B+ grade is that a sacrilege? Will I be cursed by the Sci-Fi gods forever? Would the Sci-Fi gods see the irony in using such a Fantasy device as a curse? We'll see, I guess..
Introduction
Even as a youngster, though, I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented a danger, the solution was ignorance. To me, it always seemed that the solution has to be wisdom.
p21
The government called it growing pains. It shook it's collective head sorrowfully and assured everyone that after a necessary period of adjustment, a new and better life would exist for all.
P133
"Because the human form is the most successful generalized forem in all of nature. We are not a specialized animal, Ms. Bailey, except for our nervous system and a few odd items. If you want a design capable of doing a great many widely various things, , all fairly well, you can do no better then to imitate the human form. Besides that, our entire technology is based on the human form...
It is easier to have robots imitate the human shape than to redesign radically the very philosophy of our tools."
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