Not since Detective Virgil
Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) and Police Chief Bill Gillespie (Rod
Steiger) in the movie
In the Heat of the Night has a
detective duo been as well matched as Elijah Baley and R.
Daneel Olivaw. They appear in Caves of Steel, the second
book in Isaac Asimov’s robot series, published in 1953. Just
as in the movie, the subplot is prejudice. Here Asimov uses
a humanlike robot, the R in Daneel’s name stands for robot,
to examine prejudice. He shows the reader how prejudice is
created, manifested, and overcome.
Daneel has been sent from the planet Aurora to Earth as a
partner for Elijah, known as Lije, human detective, to solve
the murder that occurred on Aurora, but was most likely
committed by an Earthman. While conducting the
investigation, Lije has to try to overcome his prejudice
towards robots.
There is a delightful scene that rings true to my experience
of prejudice. The main mode of public transportation is
moving passenger conveyor belts, which go from one
destination to another. There are seats, but only those with
a certain rank are allowed to fill them. Most people must
stand. Lije, because of his rank as a detective has this
privilege. He assumes that Daneel does not. However, Daneel
has the same rank with the same privileges. Lije just
assumed that a robot could not be his equal just as the
police chief in In the Heat of the Night assumes that a
black detective could not be his equal.
Asimov creates two consistent universes with specific rules
that point the way to the murderer. Robots, for instance,
are programmed not to harm humans. Therefore, a robot
could not be the murderer. However, Earthmen are no
longer comfortable going outside the confines of their domed
city. So how could an earthman have walked on the outside
for many miles to reach the destination to commit the
murder?
On the way to the solution to the crime, the relationship
between the two detectives grows. Lije gradually, and with
difficulty, changes from an intolerant bigot and reluctant
partner to Daneel to a person who sees his partner not only
as his equal but also as his friend.
Caves of Steel is a fine novel that does, as Asimov boasted,
work both as a detective novel and a science-fiction novel.
Pay close attention to the rules of the two universes here
and you just might come up with the name of the murderer
before the detectives do.