IDSG Bonus 46: The Caves of Steel, by Isaac Asimov

In this episode Jack and I begin a maybe-series in which we're going to read some classic science fiction novels. I grew up with Asimov and have a lot of background knowledge, so a lot of this discussion is me geeking out a bit. Sorry.

Of course we are both aware of Asimov's well-earned reputation as what would have been called then "a groper of young women" and more accurately today "actively sexually abusive towards women around him." There are two pieces from a couple of years ago that I'd recommend that get into the details of this, and we do discuss some of this and how it relates to The Caves of Steel in the episode.

"What To Make of Asimov, Sci-Fi Giant and Dirty Old Man?" https://lithub.com/what-to-make-of-isaac-asimov-sci-fi-giant-and-dirty-old-man/

"Asimov's Empire, Asimov's Wall" https://lithub.com/what-to-make-of-isaac-asimov-sci-fi-giant-and-dirty-old-man/

You can find the full text of the novel on the Internet Archive (no need to give the Asimov Estate any money): https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/EB/A/Asimov%20-%20The%20Caves%20of%20Steel.pdf

The full cast BBC Radio version from 1989 (which I think is quite good, and improves on the original text in important ways) can be found here: https://archive.org/details/isaac-asimov-the-caves-of-steel

The next book we're looking at doing (mentioned while we were recording but I don't recall if it got left in the edit) is Player Piano, by Kurt Vonnegut.

Enjoy!