Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #404572 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Ian Watson
"A complex tragic masterpiece. John Brunner is the Rachel Carson of science fiction."

John Grant, Joint Editor, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
"The Sheep Look Up is, in my opinion and for all kinds of reasons, unquestionably the best SF novel ever written."

James Blish
"The best Brunner novel I've yet read . . . staggeringly controlled and dramatic.a work of art!"

Customer Reviews

Ecological collapse, economic meltdown, global conflict - its all here in one fun-filled volume!
Following on from the award winning overpopulation-themed Stand On Zanzibar, Brunner went onto attempt a dystopic meditation on environmental catastrophe with "The Sheep Look Up". Set in a near-future North America ruined by pollution and seething with insurrectionist tension, the novel follows a large cast of characters as they attempt to survive as best they can in a nation teetering on the edge of disaster.

Much is made of the prophetic nature of Brunner's work and, unfortunately, projections in the book that may have seemed far-fetched at the time of writing have become chillingly prescient. Although unaware of the critical nature of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and instead concentrating on environmental toxicity as his main trope, most if not all of his predictions have some degree of value today: he anticipates the rise of the neo-conservative agendas of Reagan and the Bushes (US neo-imperialism; the imbecillic, soundbite-spewing "Prexy" character), malthusian challenges with agriculture (the importing earth worms and bees to boost collapsing yields, increasing pesticide-resistance), the rise of the organic produce movement (labelled "Puritan Foods" in the novel), militant environmental/anti-globalisation activism (the "Watt" communes and "Trainites"), the tentative moves to low-emission cars (the use of electric and steam-powered cars); even the celebrity fashion for adopting babies from third world countries gets included. A number of these ideas are clearly products of their time - as with "Zanzibar", the war in Vietnam weighed heavily on Brunner's mind and this is reflected in the novel. In addition, like his contemporaries, he utterly failed to anticipate the collapse of the Soviet Union, thus Communism features overly strongly as the background antagonistic force. Having said that, with the likes of Chavez in power in Venezuela, the rise of Latin America as an enemy of the US could yet be realised.

Readers will immediately recognise Brunner's distinctive multi-strand narrative structure from "Zanzibar", which echoes that of early 20th century modernist author John Dos Passos (in particular, his Manhattan Transfer ), or more contemporaneously, the films of director Robert Altman. The story is broken down into multiple chapters of varying length, from a single sentence to a handful of pages. The chapters consist of either significant quotations, self-contained vignettes, or small portions of a continuing narrative, many of which intertwine with other narrative strands later on. Unlike "Zanzibar", the chapters are grouped together in chronological sections by month, thus covering an entire year in the fictional world; the effect of which is to present the world descent into chaos as a series of gradual, incremental changes and to emphasise the, often obscure, interconnectedness of disparate events.

This narrative style is both the novel's greatest asset and also its fundamental failing. As with "Zanzibar", it uses multiple characters and viewpoints to create an atmosphere, and to extrapolate the situation in the wider world from a series of localised snapshots. However, it sorely lacks the former novel's narrative focus. "Sheep" simply doesn't have as strong a pool of "main" characters as the likes of Donald Hogan or Norman House. As a result, the reader's attention is diffused amongst a larger number of lesser characters, whose plot threads are often so short and of such relatively little immediate consequence, it becomes a challenge to follow or to truly care about any of them. You find yourself forgetting who people are, which narrative arcs will need to be recalled later and which can be safely ignored as mere atmospheric detail. Even the Brunner cipher Austin Train fails to truly engage. Part of the appeal of "Zanzibar" came from the evocative exerpts from the fictional political works of the philosopher character Chad C. Mulligan; reading them in between the narrative chapters invoked the sense of Mulligan as an over-arching presence throughout, thus when he actually appears as a character in the narrative, the event takes on greater significance. "Sheep" lacks this feature, therefore the reader is forced to accept that Train actually is this erudite and influential philosopher who can change the world, without seeing a great deal of evidence for it in the text.

Couple all of the above with the fact that it is almost unremittingly grim and nihilistic, it's a much harder read than "Zanzibar" and thus doesn't quite attain that novel's heights. Nonetheless, even just for its strong environmental message, this novel deserves, nay DEMANDS a timely reprint (Gollancz SF Masterworks take note!). Recommended.

Interesting concept, but not the easiest read
Although I realise that this book isn't supposed to be a light read, I found its style hard to follow at times. There are a number of interweaving stories set against the background of a severely polluted Earth, but these are written in short chapters buried among various unconnected scenes. These include adverts, newspaper articles, descriptions of characters or events that do not appear again throughout the entire book, lists of chemicals, quotes from the president etc etc. Although these little snippets set the atmosphere nicely, it makes it hard to follow the actual story sometimes.

It's a decent story if you're interested in the theme of climate change, but it won't tell you anything that you don't already know, and the style is fairly annoying.

Classic work of science fiction
John Brunner imagines a world so toxic life is barely feasible. Born in 1934, Brunner published his first novel at the age of 17 and had gone on to build a career on pulp space opera adventures. By the 1960's, however, he was learning a more confident and mature literary style and had begun to explore themes of social dysfunction and the impact of science and technology on human life, and was hailed as one of the leading lights in the British New Wave of science fiction.

Brunner's "Stand on Zanzibar" achieved critical acclaim in 1968 for its exploration of overpopulation and global pollution. "The Jagged Orbit", "The Sheep Look Up", and "The Shockwave Ruler" would follow to form a foreboding and visionary quartet of warnings about consumerism, pollution, and climate change. Brunner has been described as doing for science fiction what Rachel Carson did for science fact by pointing to the growing dangers of environmental collapse.

"The Sheep Look Up" is the darkest of Brunner's apocalyptic quartet. North America is on the verge of extinction. It has been transformed into a vast petri dish of contaminants and toxic waste. The population is sickened by poisoned foods and an equally poisonous atmosphere. The car and aeroplane spew pollution into the atmosphere. Climate change has reduced agriculture to a lottery in which farmers try to sway the odds by liberal doses of fertilisers, pesticides, and antibiotics administered to their animals. Medicine has all but collapsed.

A growing resistance movement is fighting a political and guerrilla war against the polluters, but the political status quo fervently denies that climate change is occurring or that the levels of pollution have passed beyond a safe event horizon. Meanwhile, US troops roam the globe, attempting to pacify increasingly wider tracts of disaffected humanity ... and American travellers wonder why everyone hates them.

Brunner's dystopic world is hardly fantasy. First published in 1972, it seems a visionary message today with its apocalyptic vision of a hell on earth which is beginning to look all too familiar in the 21st century.

Brunner's novel was written in the form of a diary of a year in the death of the Earth - it is told in snapshot entries ... newspaper headlines, television news flashes, the incidental experiences of a cast of witnesses to collapse, a series of cameo images of decaying life. The characters are a motley collection, some prominent, some 'ordinary', but each has a part to play in exposing the reader to a vision of calamity as global politics and economics propel the USA to obliteration.

It's a thoroughly absorbing - and depressing - piece of science fiction. Perhaps 'imagined social history' might be a better description of the genre. Brunner's imagination certainly captured a world which is disturbingly real. It's a page-turner of a novel. It's difficult to put down, so rapidly do you get caught up in it.

If I have a criticism it is that the cast of thousands can leave you struggling to remember precisely what was happening to each of them last time you heard from them, but the reader has no right to expect an easy read here. Brunner's is a disturbing vision which offers a vital corrective to the space opera adventure which dominates so much science fiction, on the page or on the screen. A classic which demonstrates Brunner's visionary and literary strengths, and a dynamic, exciting piece of writing which deserves to be read by a wide audience.