The foundational robot series exploring the Three Laws of Robotics through linked short stories and novels, from I, Robot's edge cases to the Robot novels' detective stories featuring Elijah Baley and robot partner R. Daneel Olivaw. The series examines what it means for machines to follow ethical rules, eventually connecting to Asimov's Foundation universe in a grand unifying vision of humanity's future.
In a future New York where Earth's billions live in vast enclosed city-complexes and resent the robot-dependent Spacers who live in luxury off-world, detective Elijah Baley is assigned to investigate a murder alongside a humanoid robot partner he deeply mistrusts. The novel is a tightly plotted science fiction mystery that uses its genre framework to examine human prejudice, fear of change, and the nature of humanity. A clever and propulsive genre hybrid.