The Sheep Look Up

A great book I came across, it's however a deep read and not for just anyone.

Here's a bit about this novel, which has a chilling side that delves into the world of War and the Future.

The Sheep Look Up is a science fiction novel by British author John Brunner, first published in 1972. The novel's setting is decidedly dystopian; the book deals with the deterioration of the environment in the United States. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1972 and is celebrated in a 1988 essay by John Skipp in Horror: 100 Best Books.

With the rise of a corporation-sponsored government, pollution in big cities has reached extreme levels and most (if not all) people's health has been affected in some way.
The character of Austin Train in The Sheep Look Up serves a similar purpose to Xavier Conroy in The Jagged Orbit or to Chad Mulligan in Stand on Zanzibar: He is an academic who, despite predicting and interpreting social change, has become disillusioned by the failure of society to listen. This character is used both to drive the plot and to explain back-story to the reader.

By the end of the book, rioting and civil unrest sweep the United States, due to a combination of poor health, poor sanitation, lack of food, lack of services, ineffectiveness of services (medical, policing), disillusionment with government/companies, oppressive government, high incidence of birth defects (pollution-induced), and other factors; all services (military, government, private, infrastructure) break down.

Publication Notes:

Despite being nominated for a Nebula Award, the book fell out of print, only later being republished. The new edition contains a foreword by David Brin and an afterword by environmentalist and social change theorist James John Bell. Brin places the book in the context of Brunner's time and other writings.

In the afterword, Bell treats the book almost as prophecy, drawing parallels between events in the book and subsequent real world developments: "His words have a kind of Gnostic power embedded in them that gives his characters passage into our world". He notes that "Brunner's puppet of a president, affectionately called Prexy, is a dead ringer for our Dubya".

Environmental protest sabotage done by the Earth Liberation Front is pulled directly from the pages of the novel. Writer William Gibson made a similar remark in a 2007 interview:

"No one except possibly the late John Brunner, in his brilliant novel The Sheep Look Up, has ever described anything in science fiction that is remotely like the reality of 2007 as we know it."[1]

a reply to: JesusXst

Sounds like an interesting read. I love books that have an apocalyptic or dystopian theme to them. I loved Stephen King's The Stand for that reason. It really focused (at least in the early chapters) on how quickly society can break down during a crisis.

a reply to: annoyedpharmacist

Indeed, then you'll definately like this book. It's eerily futuristic.

Steven Kings books are also really good reads.

a reply to: JesusXst

I see it was published in 1972, and was wondering what is the time frame portrayed in the book? How far in the future does the story take place?

a reply to: annoyedpharmacist

I have the book different cover though. I haven't actually read it all yet, but I will give a brieing on it later when i'm through 1/3 of it. From what I remember, it's the future but written in the past.

It's incredibly futuristic, of what atleast one time line could end up as. I think we've managed to circumvent that one though.