Caves of Steel - Isaac Asimov | Audiobook

"Caves of Steel" by Isaac Asimov is a science fiction novel that merges a detective story with the futuristic setting of Earth and its sprawling cities encased in domes, known as "caves of steel." The story follows Elijah Baley, a New York City police detective, who is reluctantly partnered with R. Daneel Olivaw, a highly advanced robot from the Outer Worlds. Together, they must navigate the tension between Earth's human population and the technologically superior Spacers to solve a critical murder case.

The voice narrating this book is generated by artificial intelligence.

Chapters:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:17:45 1. Conversation with a Commissioner
00:38:51 2. Round Trip on an Expressway
01:04:30 3. Incident at a Shoe Counter
01:21:13 4. Introduction to a Family
01:47:41 5. Analysis of a Murder
02:10:50 6. Whispers in a Bedroom
02:25:00 7. Excursion into Spacetown
02:51:21 8. Debate Over a Robot
03:14:25 9. Elucidation by a Spacer
03:40:46 10. Afternoon of a Plain-Clothes Man
04:06:22 11. Escape Along the Strips
04:31:12 12. Words from an Expert
04:56:32 13. Shift to the Machine
05:25:36 14. Power of a Name
05:50:25 15. Arrest of a Conspirator
06:11:06 16. Questions Concerning a Motive
06:35:56 17. Conclusion of a Project
06:57:29 18. End of an Investigation

[isaacislaughter]

Fitting to have a robot read this book.

[dogbeachiracing]

Excellent cover illustration. In my twenties (the 80’s) I tore through every Asimov I could.

[jsa-z]

When you’re reading a physical book, the quotation marks tell you who is speaking. When someone is reading the book to you, their tone of voice tells you who is speaking. One single AI voice doesn’t do that, so it’s hard to know who’s speaking. to get around that, people use different AI voices for different characters

[tonygreenfield]

Pretty decent production overall but the pronunciation of the main characters name is jarring. It is being pronounced "lee jay" . The name is Elijah or "lige' for short and which is usually pronounced lyge. It took a few uses before i figured out who Lee Jay was supposed to be.

[Zakumei]

Looking for an audiobook of an Asiimov novel, especially one about robots and automation taking human jobs away, and finding a great plethora of the ones available on youtube are being read by generative artificial intelligence, is an unsettling, novel irony.

[kristapsmuravjovs]

Very good AI voice! Not sure if I'm happy or sad that I listened to The Naked Sun first, but I'm loving it none the less.

[rainey]

I am immensely grateful for your work!

[mariokajin]

Funny, how nowadays you could easily object to the “theory” from the story (ch. 12) of specialized robots. You could argue that (for the car example) for a robotic vehicle you could throw out the steering wheel, steering column, driver’s seat, etc.. and that a single robot is inefficient at multitasking as a human being. You don’t need legs for a robot that welds car chassis on a conveyor belt. But because of the time period when the novel was written it is prophetic.

[DMaterializer]

Please post the name of the AI program that read this.

[IronBlimp]

They should have started that foundation show right here at the beginning. It’s really Daniels story

[rasspilta]

I wish the AI Narroator was not so apathetic with every character and the standard narrator dialoge. But better than I expected.

[astralwerks]

Even 10 years ago we'd have been amazed this AI voice could be as good as it is. It's happening good Dr

[oriolesfan]

This isn't the best but i don't think there aee any other audiobooks on Asimov's robot novels still on YouTube

[KF]

Was this before or after Elijah went to space?
Before, I guess

[swiftmatic]

Chapter 14, foreshadowing the Zeroth Law
Edit: I was a kid, maybe 11 years old, when I read this for the first time; I'm 64 now. At that time, most plastics were of poor optical quality and what materials that there WERE of good optical quality were ridiculously expensive. So almost everyone who wore glasses or contacts back then was wearing actual glass lenses.
@7:22:37, 😂😂😂neither myself or the great Isaac Asimov foresaw plastic corrective lenses in humanity's future😂😂😂

[sharonzenit]

The reader sounds a bit too machine-like. Of course, that's the way the character Detective Elijah Bailey would talk. It's the 'Sam Spade' archetype that Bogart made famous.
Anyway, seems like a productive way for you to produce copy for YouTube.

[Epoch]

If Mr Asimov only knew about the population we have today. And the problems it is causing.

[diaynday]

The audiobook reader on Caves of Steel (Youtube) is human. He breathes, therefore, he is a man. AI isn't programmed to make breath sounds yet. Maybe in the future, but not now. I looked into it. Even so, I appreciate the opportunity to listen to it. Thanks!

[paulgerg]

Am assuming (and hoping) that Robots of Dawn will follow this audiobook? AI voices are still missing the different character voices that good narrators use, when that happens audiobook readers may be out of a job!

[mac]

Asimov was prescient in many things, but one of the most interesting aspects of this book is what he got so far wrong. How could someone so well-informed and insightful have believed that 8 billion people on Earth would be a crushing overpopulation burden? He thought producing food for that many would be so difficult that it would necessitate a global dystopia of ultra-efficient production and consumption... just to keep people alive on yeast! As it turns out, advances in farming technology have more than kept pace with the human population increase over the past 70 years, and our main problem today is not starvation but overabundance and obesity. Why did Asimov believe as he did? How common was his sort of thinking in the 1950s?