Following his landmark story collection I, Robot, Isaac Asimov continued exploring the relationship of humans and robots in a series of intriguing and influential science fiction mystery novels starring detective Elijah Baley and his near-human partner R. Daneel Olivaw.

In a far-future Earth, humans live under vast steel domes and artificial intelligence is strictly controlled; in the distant Outer Worlds, robots live side by side with human colonists, the Spacers. When a Spacer ambassador is found dead in New York, detective Elijah Baley is assigned to find the killer. But with relations between the two cultures in the balance, the Spacers insist that he work with a robot partner of their choosing. Baley has never seen a robot like R. Daneel Olivaw before—all but indistinguishable from a human—and soon, though the Three Laws of Robotics should render the crime impossible, Baley's new partner becomes his prime suspect.