Del Rey: The Sheep Look Up

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The Sheep Look Up is a dystopian sf novel by John Brunner, first published in 1972 and nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel that year. Set in a deteriorating USA, the story explores the extreme pollution levels and declining public health resulting from a corporation-sponsored government. The title references a line from John Milton's poem Lycidas. Following a multi-strand narrative style similar to Brunner's earlier work, Stand on Zanzibar, the book features numerous characters who rarely intersect, with sections varying in length from 30 words to several pages. Austin Train, the central character, mirrors Xavier Conroy and Chad Mulligan from Brunner's other novels. An academic, Train becomes disillusioned as society ignores his insights into social change, driving the plot while providing backstory. Although nominated for a Nebula Award, the novel fell out of print in the 1990s, later being republished with a foreword by David Brin and an afterword by environmentalist James John Bell. Brin contextualizes the work within Brunner's era, while Bell views it as prophetic, linking its themes to real-world events, including parallels between Brunner's fictional president and contemporary figures. Wm Gibson has also noted the book's relevance to the realities of 2007, highlighting its prescient nature.