The Sheep Look Up
by John Brunner · first published 1972
47% recommend53% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Bleak 1970s dystopian novel of US ecological collapse, praised for its prescience and the unnerving normalcy with which decline is accepted; suits readers of eco-apocalypse and early cyberpunk roots.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In a near future, the air pollution is so bad that everyone wears gas masks. The infant mortality rate is soaring, and birth defects, new diseases, and physical ailments of all kinds abound. The water is undrinkable—unless you’re poor and have no choice. Large corporations fighting over profits from gas masks, drinking water, and clean food tower over an ineffectual, corrupt government. Environmentalist Austin Train is on the run. The “trainites,” a group of violent environmental activists, want him to lead their movement; the government wants him dead; and the media demands amusement. But
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I agree about The Sheep Look Up being an underrated novel. I read it in 1984 or '85. Until the end of the book, I was thinking it was a parody or satire or projection of Ronald Reagan's presidency. When I finished, I looked at the copyright…
on “A 1969 New Wave Sci-Fi Novel That Made Correct Predictions” ↗…Nova) oh and Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light and This Immortal are both great. Some of Philip K. Dick's stuff is great, but everyone recommends him. :) almost forgot John Brunner, check out Steel Beach, The Sheep Look Up, and Stand on Zanzibar.
on “Ask YC: What's the most inspiring sci-fi book you've read?” ↗Here is a real list, shorter and MUCH higher quality: 1. The Cyberiad 2. Babel-17 3. The Stars My Destination 4. The Sheep Look Up 5. More Than Human 6. Lord of Light 7. To Your Scattered Bodies Go 8. Earth Abides 9. Dying Inside 10. City 11. Last and First Men 12. Slan 13. The World of Null-A
on “32 Sci-Fi novels that you should add to your reading list” ↗…that the novel length treatment of the idea is not quite as amazing as the original short story. One author that I find sadly missing from the list is John Brunner. Each of "Stand on Zanzibar", "The Sheep Look Up", and "Shockwave Rider" would arguably deserve a place on this list.
on “The Best Science Fiction Books (According to Reddit)” ↗If you want ecology apocalypse, check out John Brunner's _The Sheep Look Up_ (written in the early 70s). No other book I've read scared me as much as that one. I think what did it was the utter normalcy with which everything was just accepted as is.
on “Paranoid Android: The Divine Madness of Philip K Dick” ↗The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner. It was the scariest book I ever read.
on “Monarch butterfly populations in U.S. west are down an order of magnitude” ↗Reread all of Brunner, for that matter. Perhaps "The Sheep Look Up?" -- and we all thought that President Prexy was referring to Reagan!
on “Why Facebook’s Political Moves Should Terrify Us All” ↗The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner is still my favorite novel while A Ticket to Tranai by Robert Sheckley is my preferred short story.
on “Ask HN: What's your favourite sci-fi/fantasy book?” ↗IMO, Brunner has written four outstanding classics: "Stand on Zanzibar", " The Shockwave Rider", "The Sheep Look Up" and "The Jagged Orbit", and one that was not quite in that league, but was great niche sf, " The Squares of the City". the rest is all what I term "minor sf" for want of a better term - I hesitate to…
on “A 1969 New Wave Sci-Fi Novel That Made Correct Predictions” ↗Samuel Delaney was a big influence; Gibson wrote the foreword to newer editions of Dhalgren. Gibson has also said John Brunner was also a big influence, and praised The Sheep Look Up (which is great). I wonder if Gibson read Alfred Bester, whose The Stars My Destination certainly has something cyberpunk in it. His lesser-known novel The Computer Connection (also known as Extro) is…
on “How William Gibson Keeps His Science Fiction Real” ↗…in Pliocene Earth - Hyperion by Dan Simmons, excellent SF with a feel of the Canterbury Tales about it - Neuromancer by William Gibson, plus the follow-ups (all the Sprawl) are very good too - The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner, about the eco collapse of the US in the 1980s (10 years after it was written) and which William Gibson called a "brilliant novel" - Necrotech by KC Alexander, a brutal and obscene body-mod…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite sci-fi books?” ↗This article also reminds me of "The Sheep Look Up" by John Brunner (1972). The author is from the UK, but it's mostly set in the US. It contains a brilliant parody of Trader Joes / Whole Foods (from well before they were founded, of course). Apparently,…
on “EPA fast-tracking of gene-altering pesticide sparks concerns” ↗Somebody really should mention John Brunner. His "Stand on Zanzibar" and "The Sheep Look Up" predate Gibson and Sterling by a decade and both those authors have cited his influence on their works. I love Neuromancer but Zanzibar is also brilliant.
on “Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025” ↗The better prescient reference is John Brunner’s triad of The Shockwave Rider (origin of the computer virus, too!), The Sheep Look Up, and Stand on Zanzibar. They very much foreshadow the shallow pop star president, contempt for expertise, mass poverty, and incoherent direct action scenarios of technocracy/mass surveillance/prediction…
on “We are living in a version of the future out of J.G. Ballard or William Gibson” ↗On my optimistic days I feel like we are living in a Zanzibar Shockwave Rider future. The rest of the time it feels like Sheep Look Up or Jagged Orbit. Highly recommend John Brunner
on “Blindsight (Watts Novel)” ↗