A solid sequel to "Caves of Steel," once again featuring Elijah Bailey cracking the case. What sticks out in this novel is its setting, the planet Solaria, where only 20,000 humans live in more or less total isolation from one another surrounded by hordes of robots to cater to their every need. Although not as brilliant as "Caves of Steel", the mystery is solid and the problems that Asimov reveals with Solarian culture are interesting.

Seguindo essa série Robôs, mais uma aventura do detetive Elijah Baley. Gosto muito de livros sobre investigação e ainda como ficção científica fica ainda melhor. Neste livro se abre um tema de bastante reflexão. Nós humanos mantemos a nossa coletividade, interação e dependência entre si. Hoje vivemos numa prisão domiciliar praticamente, temo que estar atento a nossa segurança e isso nos isola por alguns períodos. Acho pouco provável que no futuro sejamos totalmente servidos por robôs, teríamos que ter nossa mente reprogramada para permitir isso.

This book rocks. When I read the previous novel, Caves of Steel, I felt it was close to being a great sci-fi mystery but just wasn’t quite on the level. This book takes everything that is good about that book and improves on it.

The mystery is strong, and there is a perfect balance between sci fi world building and investigation. There are clues aplenty and the reveal is great. However, I’d probably say if you are reading this for the mystery elements alone you may not enjoy it because that’s only one side of the novel.

The sci fi aspect is fantastic as the reader is placed in a world where no one physically sees each other, but rather, visits each other via a type of hologram. The book delves a little into the psychology of such a society and contrasts nicely with the image of Earth seen in The Caves of Steel. Additionally, it makes for an interesting post covid read thinking about how culture has changed to be a little more isolationist, at least for some.

The only issue I have with this novel is that it’s a little risqué. There’s no sex but there is some nudity. Also, the married protagonist has a semi-flirtatious relationship with a character. Nothing happens but there is still some tension between them. It’s all pretty tame but I just was not expecting it from a story about a detective and his robot partner.

If you are a sci fi fan that enjoys a good mystery now and then (or vice versa) you owe it to yourself to read this. Start with Caves of Steel though. It’s the lesser of the two books but having read it makes this one better.

The exploits of Asimov's Detective Baily and his robot partner of expedience Daniel continue onto a unique planetary colony of Solaria where the population of humans is exponentially less than that of Robots. Given the sheer physical distances between humans on this world and the Three Laws protecting humans from any harm coming from a robot, a murder would be the last crime that could possibly be committed. Nonetheless, one has happened and while the act itself is shocking what Baily and Daniel discover about the outer colonies and space-born humans leads to larger issues that will affect the galaxy. While again the mystery takes a backseat to the Asimov world-building what really comes through as the focus is Baily's 'fish-out-of-water' narrative finding out about the strange isolated Solarian culture. Where 'viewing' people on monitors is far more preferable as the intimate act of physically 'seeing' someone, where geneticists have programmed humans for every job on the planet, and where complete trust is given to the robots. Asimov paints a cautionary tale of a future human society programmed and maintained to within every molecule, or so it seems because within every carefully calculated and curated system there are always unforeseen deviations and loopholes that can't be accounted for.