Apr 16, 2008 02:49 PM
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(Updated Apr 16, 2008 03:49 PM)
Three laws:-
(1) A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
(2) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law.
(3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second law.
Rikaine Delmarre is murdered in the planet of Solaris.
He is brutally hit on the back of his head, till he bled to death.
….And a completely crime-free planet is thrown aback at such an occurrence!
Solarians have no want and live a hermit like life in complete opulence in their individual estates; their population is deliberately contained at 20000 humans and every human has 10000 robots per person catering to the slightest whim conceivable.
These Robots are subservient, unquestioning and follow every single command observing strict protocols and call humans “master”, that the reader feels they are real and very tangible.
Solarians are so evolved that they have no need to see each other and in fact completely abhor the idea of physically seeing one another. Every job which involves contact with another human being is considered gruesome.
Only seeing a Solarian does is of his respective assigned partner, and physical contact only if he is assigned.ugh!.children!
So who would then want to murder Rikaine who is in an unenviable job of a foetal engineer?
A planet which has not witnessed crime over two centuries and has no police force whatsoever is forced to bring Detective Elijah Baley from earth, a disease spreading planet to unravel this mystery against their utmost revulsion towards earthmen.
Earthmen in the dreadful fear of all *Spacers *have taken to living in underground cities, developing morbid fear over unconfined open spaces.
Elijah is no better; he is space-phobic. He has never seen the naked Sun or open places with flora and fauna.
He is now ordered by his superiors to solve the murder mystery and to bring home the much needed information about Solaris….even though he might undergo immense degradation in the Spacers world!
And so Elijah and his positronic Robot, Daneel from the planet Aurora, the strongest planet in the galaxies start painstakingly on the murder.
Rikaine runs the farm which nurtures children efficiently constantly devising better ways to breed completely mutation free Solarians. He is a good Solarian, and like every good Solarian he only views people through holographic images. And sees his wife, Gladia punctually at assigned times.
Gladia is the only person who has access to Rikaine, she discovers Rikaine’s bloodied body one evening and faints away; and the handy Robots call on the doctors and clean the mess around in a jiffy.
There is no murder weapon and no evidence except for one derelict robot, a robot who could only constantly repeat “You are going to kill me”
Nobody besides Gladia could physically come near Rikaine and the forgone conclusion is Gladia is the murderess.
Gladia has no motive to kill Rikaine(or does she?) a Robot cannot harm the master governed by the three robotic laws, any robot that even in inaction allows man to be hurt will be damaged irreversibly…
So how?
Elijah does what he does best and works with very little information unraveling Rikaine’s life through:- Rikaine’s assistant, Klorrisa, Rikaine’s good friend, a robot scientist, Leebig and his chess partner, a socialist, Dr Quemot.
Who could commit a murder in proximity when the very thought of seeing another person is considered vulgar?
What could a Solarian want from another when he has everything?
What is the robot talking about?
Elijah’s ignorance of the Solarian ways, a foreign method of investigating a murder through tri-dimensional images and complete dependence on Robots even to scratch one’s back . leaves him piecing the clues together with acute difficulty. The three trigger points for a murder – Motive, Means and Opportunity and there is absolutely no reasoning for any of them?
The story is extremely racy and the plot is very well designed. The reader does not guess the murderer at all.
Isaac Asimov is indeed a master story-teller and has blended an intricate story in a compelling manner.
