A review by richardrbecker
The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Don't drink the water is one of many warnings you'll repeatedly read in The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner. It's also a suitable warning for the book. The Sheep Look Up is one of those books you probably should read, but not one with a clearly stated or enjoyable plot. It's complicated.
The novel takes place over the course of a year, with one chapter for each month. Each chapter is driven by different characters whose paths cross as the world's ecology collapses. And this structure makes the reading less easy and enjoyable than it could have been, possibly why Asimov's The Gods Themselves beat Brunner out of a Nebula in 1972.
Despite this, the brilliance of the book is twofold. As an eco-dystopian, presumed to be set ten years after its publishing, Brunner delivers impeccably convincing world-building and characters. So much so that you almost feel like he ripped his pages from the future — hopefully, an alternative future. But one never knows with Brunner, who's well-known for his powers of prediction (having coined the term worm for computer viruses before they existed).
Nothing in The Sheep Look Up is what we want for the world (but we're getting some of them these things anyway). The failing environment leads to famine, wars, fake news, enteritis epidemics, failing antibiotics, radiation-leaking microwaves, forest fires, government bailouts, populist Presidents, and increased contaminated foods. Brunner makes it all feel too real, including the heavy push for vaccines and treatments with side effects.
Through it all, the characters are sometimes hard to track, with the exception of Austin Train, an influential ecologist who warns the world that the end is near. Train and his followers are always present in the background except when Brunner brings them into the spotlight. But the novel is not about Train as much as a collapse as seen through the eyes of a haphazard collection of people surviving their new and increasingly horrible normal. So, don't drink the water unless you know going in what's in it.
The novel takes place over the course of a year, with one chapter for each month. Each chapter is driven by different characters whose paths cross as the world's ecology collapses. And this structure makes the reading less easy and enjoyable than it could have been, possibly why Asimov's The Gods Themselves beat Brunner out of a Nebula in 1972.
Despite this, the brilliance of the book is twofold. As an eco-dystopian, presumed to be set ten years after its publishing, Brunner delivers impeccably convincing world-building and characters. So much so that you almost feel like he ripped his pages from the future — hopefully, an alternative future. But one never knows with Brunner, who's well-known for his powers of prediction (having coined the term worm for computer viruses before they existed).
Nothing in The Sheep Look Up is what we want for the world (but we're getting some of them these things anyway). The failing environment leads to famine, wars, fake news, enteritis epidemics, failing antibiotics, radiation-leaking microwaves, forest fires, government bailouts, populist Presidents, and increased contaminated foods. Brunner makes it all feel too real, including the heavy push for vaccines and treatments with side effects.
Through it all, the characters are sometimes hard to track, with the exception of Austin Train, an influential ecologist who warns the world that the end is near. Train and his followers are always present in the background except when Brunner brings them into the spotlight. But the novel is not about Train as much as a collapse as seen through the eyes of a haphazard collection of people surviving their new and increasingly horrible normal. So, don't drink the water unless you know going in what's in it.