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The Sheep Look Up
Food and crops, water and scarce resources—all are undergoing major stresses due to human incompetence and greed. In The Sheep Look Up, Brunner describes the lives of the people in the midst of ecological catastrophe and their attempts to come to terms with their environment. This is the first limited edition of The Sheep Look Up ever published. This edition features an in...more
Hardcover, 464 pages
Published
June 1st 2010
by Centipede Press
(first published 1972)
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Adam
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Recommends it for:
Human beings alive in 2009. Every one of them.
Stop you’re killing me!
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David ”The Postman” Brin says in the intro that John Brunner scared the crap out of people in the 60’s , well he scares the crap out of me today. The label “Science Fiction” could be safely removed from this book as it is sadly becoming a realistic portrait of our very own moment in history. A primal scream treatment for anyone who survived the dread and anxiety of the Bush years (written 30 years before it occurred) and a dreadful prophecy of the envir...more
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David ”The Postman” Brin says in the intro that John Brunner scared the crap out of people in the 60’s , well he scares the crap out of me today. The label “Science Fiction” could be safely removed from this book as it is sadly becoming a realistic portrait of our very own moment in history. A primal scream treatment for anyone who survived the dread and anxiety of the Bush years (written 30 years before it occurred) and a dreadful prophecy of the envir...more
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The Sheep Look Up is a prime example of Science Fiction at its scariestly prescient (like that word, "scariestly"?:-). John Brunner portrays a world where the United States is run by a president who is eerily reminscent of George W. Bush -- a complete idiot, a figurehead run by his cabinet and given to fighting many small wars. The world is in the middle of an ecodisaster brought about by inexorable population pressure and the systematic abuse of chemicals. Antibiotic resistant dise...more
This novel is scary.
Rarely has a novel actually made me concerned about what is happening in our society.
In the book, the world is basically going to shit, people cannot breathe the air, basic infections are rampant, old pollutions are killing people but the government/corporations are covering it up. The only people who can live healthily are the rich.
The story has is ominously correct on topics such as organic farmer, vegetables making individuals sick, corporat...more
Rarely has a novel actually made me concerned about what is happening in our society.
In the book, the world is basically going to shit, people cannot breathe the air, basic infections are rampant, old pollutions are killing people but the government/corporations are covering it up. The only people who can live healthily are the rich.
The story has is ominously correct on topics such as organic farmer, vegetables making individuals sick, corporat...more
Thus far, a brilliant, harrowing read. Brunner's 1972 novel portrays a dystopia in which pollution is almost certainly pitching an oblivious humanity towards extinction. Filter masks are ubiquitous for those who brave the outdoors. "Do Not Drink Days" discourage the use of tapwater. Crop shortages caused by pesticide-immune pests threaten global famine. Superbugs tear through the population, resistant to every antibiotic thrown at them.
For every single "prediction...more
For every single "prediction...more
Doug L
rated it
·
review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who can read depressing stuff without blowing their brains out
Shelves:
books-i-ve-read
Was written in 1972, but reads like everything that scares you about 2007 -- from pointless U.S. wars in far-off countries to poisoned air and water to overpriced "health" food -- right down to the increasingly authoritarian U.S government with a smirking dimbulb for a President. I'm only halfway through it and it's already giving me nightmares.
John Brunner's The Sheep Look Up was released in 1972, and is the story of a near-future humanity sleepwalking into ecological collapse. You can see where I'm going with this, can't you? And yet, if the only problem with his Stand on Zanzibar was that its dystopian vision of circa now was actually too optimistic*, then here he's a little too far the other way. Yes, we can all recognise this world:
"The government couldn't go on forever bailing out mismanaged giant corporations , even th...more
"The government couldn't go on forever bailing out mismanaged giant corporations , even th...more
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This is a very fine novel which features a dystopian ecological view of the world in the near future. Brunner's projection is of an earth where the seas are so filled with trash and pollution that they are covered with a thin sheet of dirty plastic substance, the air quality is so bad that filter masks are required, and everyone suffers from various ailments and allergic reactions tied to the ecological nightmare. The structure of the book is a bit unwieldy, however this allows one to skim...more
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Brunner is not a great writer, but he had a big and very prescient imagination. Three or four decades before climate change and global warming were the general public's mental maps, Brunner grimly fantasized a grossly polluted, resource-exhausted world that is not only killing the earth but whatever's left of humanity's soul as well. Would that this book had been read massively and influentially as a wake-up call when it was first published. Is it too late now?
This has to be one of the most frightening books I have ever read. My favorite science fiction author is Phillip K. Dick, whose sense of extrapolation was amazing. However the extrapolations that Brunner has made in this book leaves most PKD novels in the dust, and that's one of the reasons this books is so unsettling.
While I was reading I couldn't resist to urge to write down some of the speculations that Brunner made in this novel that are uncomfortably like the world we see righ...more
While I was reading I couldn't resist to urge to write down some of the speculations that Brunner made in this novel that are uncomfortably like the world we see righ...more
This was actually closer to a 3.75 but definitely not a 3, so I gave it a four. The writing itself isn't all that great. The sentences are awkward at times and some bits of British English creep in to what supposed to be American characters. I actually enjoyed the dated 70s language (cat, fuzz) I also didn't care for the flat characters. There is the rich, pompous business mogul, the radical youth trying to change the world, the female investigative journalist, the now-I-see-the-light charac...more
Jerome
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
disaster junkies and the eco-conscious
Shelves:
library
I always get a grim sort of joy out of reading apocalypse novels. //The Sheep Look Up// is neither of the Divine, zombie, or nasty-unwanted-thing-from-outer-space variety, but rather, an apocalypse brought about by humanity's inability to keep from "soiling his own nest." Although originally published in the early 70s, the novel feels eerily current. The novel takes place in the "near future" United States, where there is ever-increasing industrialization and consumption unch...more
In the past few years, this book has come to my mind more often than not. The destruction we have slowly, and more and more quickly, have brought to this planet and our blind acceptance of it and the results of our neglect are all written here. Too true to be fiction.
What a depressing book. Have you ever read a book where everyone's life is just so horrible that you hope everybody dies? This is one of those books.
That being said, the story starts getting better when people do start dying. There are a lot of characters because a lot of people need to die in a lot of ways.
But the book is important. Its predictions for the environment, the green movement, healthcare issues, and politics are eerily close to how things are going in the real wo...more
That being said, the story starts getting better when people do start dying. There are a lot of characters because a lot of people need to die in a lot of ways.
But the book is important. Its predictions for the environment, the green movement, healthcare issues, and politics are eerily close to how things are going in the real wo...more
Brunner somehow manages rising and falling tension while simultaneously denying even a moment of relief for the characters from their nightmare existence. He uses clipped but descriptive snapshots to reveal a not particularly distant future that is a living hell, of our own making. Brunner's world is devastated by pollution and waste, white supremacist imperialism, homophobia and sexism.
Loved the book, my main complaint is his portrayal of women (ie: describing their hyper-sexualiz...more
Loved the book, my main complaint is his portrayal of women (ie: describing their hyper-sexualiz...more
Brunner's bleak look at a future that never happened is a curio. Set in America but obviously written by a Brit, its quaint attempts at tough American talk are completely undercut by the writer's native tongue. So many things are wrong with this book, so much is dated (and was the day it was published in 1972) that sometimes it's hard to see what's right about it. The results of indifferent pollution are well done, but basically this is just a setup for his lectures on what we've done to the pla...more
The biggest advice I can give for anyone attempting to read John Brunner's "The Sheep Look Up" is to stick through it. It's not big doorstopper book, but it is heavy and thick. It's dense in characters and is written in a style that may at first be confusing but in a bit, everything does tie in together. It's frighteningly prescient in it's portrayal of the future of our ecology and response to that future. Published in 1972, the world is dyeing from the tortures that man has inflicte...more
Filled with trademark John Brunner spooky stuff that makes you wonder if he had a crystal ball: 1-page rant on corporate irresponsibility that could have come out of any op-ed piece or blog during the current financial crisis, a depressingly familiar "thinks with his gut" president, and Whole Foods. (Okay, "Puritan." Same diff.)
The only trick he missed, really, is greenhouse gasses.
It was hard to keep track of all the characters as they were marche...more
The only trick he missed, really, is greenhouse gasses.
It was hard to keep track of all the characters as they were marche...more
Fantastic and horrifying portrayal of the not so distant future. A chilling portrayal of what human life and conditions will become if we as a society dont make a conscious decision to ammend what we put in our food and how we treat our environment.
There is no drinking water from the sink, there are oxygen masks for charge on the street, people in cities are forced to wear breathmasks while outside, all of our food has been sprayed with so many chemicals it is all virtually inedible....more
There is no drinking water from the sink, there are oxygen masks for charge on the street, people in cities are forced to wear breathmasks while outside, all of our food has been sprayed with so many chemicals it is all virtually inedible....more
I've been on an apocalyptical sci-fi kick lately, and this ranks right up there alongside some of the better ones Ive read!
Brunner picks up at a time when the world is literally falling apart. People cannot walk outside without wearing a filtermask, windows in homes are locked up tight, water is undrinkable, everyday food has now become "gourmet", crops are failing, rain is dirty and people are dying from every contagious illness out there because the diseases are immune to...more
Brunner picks up at a time when the world is literally falling apart. People cannot walk outside without wearing a filtermask, windows in homes are locked up tight, water is undrinkable, everyday food has now become "gourmet", crops are failing, rain is dirty and people are dying from every contagious illness out there because the diseases are immune to...more
Livro terrível sobre a deterioração do planeta, sob a acção da poluição e catástrofes ambientais de diversas ordens. "The Sheep Look Up" é impressionante e é uma ficção para adultos: madura, pesada e sem alívios cómicos para tornar digerível o horror. A sequência em que uma mulher grávida perde o feto, porque este é cozinhado pelas emissões de um forno microondas de manufactura defeituosa é de antologia.
One of my Dad's favorites
Thought it would make a good follow up to Michael Pollan
But.... I'm not sure I'm going to make it through this book. Even written in the '60's the prophetic parallels are pretty depressing - its not a fun world for me to visit or immerse myself in.
I can chip away at it until it goes back to the library
*******
Well, this one finally had to go back and I was probably only half way through, I think it was just starting t...more
Thought it would make a good follow up to Michael Pollan
But.... I'm not sure I'm going to make it through this book. Even written in the '60's the prophetic parallels are pretty depressing - its not a fun world for me to visit or immerse myself in.
I can chip away at it until it goes back to the library
*******
Well, this one finally had to go back and I was probably only half way through, I think it was just starting t...more
somewhat frightening apocalyptic chemical saturated future USA. A much exaggerated vision of what our society could be headed for as population increases and toxics and wastes continue to build up in our closed system biosphere. Good character development, though the format was a bit confusing with many abrupt storyline jumps. Overall, imaginative, thought provoking and real.
As with many other books I reviewed, I read this a long time ago (80's) and so it may have aged. Startling prophetic picture of how we are ruining the planet and some of the social fallout, some of which is coming true. Starts and develops well but unfortunately the story kind of fizzles and there is no character development of the supposed Messiah. Still worth a look.
This is the most frightening, prophetic, depressing book I have ever read. I stopped reading books by Brunner after this one. Written in the 1970's he predicted a horrible, polluted world. One wishes this book was required reading for todays politicians, maybe it would scare them into going green.
I read this book the summer after I finished high school, it's a book I still think of today. I've heard that part of what made its message so potent at the time was that the interlaced newspaper clippings were actual stories taken from actual papers of the time.
I need to re-read this one.
I need to re-read this one.
Brunner's style took a little adjusting to. The chapters are each broken into months of the year with much smaller subdivisions written as poems, advertisements, interview from a TV show, letter, or just a short glimpse at a character. The style was interesting but at times made the story kind of choppy. There are many characters quickly introduced in the first chapter and a few times I found it difficult to keep track of them. Eventually the subplots start to weave together and in the end, I...more
This was a bit of a slog to get through. I kept reminding myself it was written in 1972. Then the story would have been new and futuristic. Now it seems like a news report. I still think it is an important read. Maybe I would recommend skimming through some of the middle chapters.
Like a sharp slap across the face. Written in the 1970s, Brunner was eerily prophetic. He speculated about an ecological distopia that seems more like realistic fiction (read in current context), than science fiction. Sobering and scary.
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The late John Brunner was perhaps as well known for much of his career in the US as in the UK. A leftwing activist, with particular connections to the peace movement, much of his best and most mature fiction is involved in a complex analysis of social trends and where they will take us--novels like Stand on Zanzibar which deals with overpopulation, among other things, and The Sheep Look Up, which ...more
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“Shit, I forgot. This time of the afternoon the bar's probably shut. Half the staff has gone sick again. Mono, I think. Well, let's go look anyway; we might be lucky. We can't go up to my room--it's full of bugs.'
Which kind?'
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