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matthewn's review
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Prescient and overpowering novel about environmental destruction and nationalism.
riduidel's review against another edition
4.0
Comme pour les autres romans prospectifs de [a:Brunner|23113|John Brunner|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1336955014p2/23113.jpg], il est difficile de résumer simplement cette histoire. Disons qu'elle met l'Amérique face aux conséquences écologiques et médicales de son mode de vie. L'histoire est aussi parcourut d'épidémies de diarrhée, de maladies de peaux aussi vilaines qu'impossibles à traiter, et tant d'autres petits soucis qui nous rappellent que l'humanité n'est que l'un des occupants de cette terre, et pas forcément le plus adapté aux mutations qu'elle impose à l'environnement.
Alors évidemment, certains aspects de ce roman sont critiquables : une écriture peut-être un peu datée, un racisme aussi présent qu'inutile à l'intrigue, mais l'essentiel demeure juste.
Et l'essentiel, c'est évidemment la dénonciation de l'impact environnemental du mode de vie occidental. Et sur ce thème, je trouve que Brunner vaut bien dix [a:Bacigalupi|1226977|Paolo Bacigalupi|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1375566282p2/1226977.jpg].
Cela dit, il me semble un peu inférieur à [b:Tous à Zanzibar|41069|Stand on Zanzibar|John Brunner|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1360613921s/41069.jpg|2184253], justement à cause de ces faiblesses. Cela dit, lisez-le, parce que ça n'en fait pas pour autant un mauvais roman, loin de là.
Alors évidemment, certains aspects de ce roman sont critiquables : une écriture peut-être un peu datée, un racisme aussi présent qu'inutile à l'intrigue, mais l'essentiel demeure juste.
Et l'essentiel, c'est évidemment la dénonciation de l'impact environnemental du mode de vie occidental. Et sur ce thème, je trouve que Brunner vaut bien dix [a:Bacigalupi|1226977|Paolo Bacigalupi|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1375566282p2/1226977.jpg].
Cela dit, il me semble un peu inférieur à [b:Tous à Zanzibar|41069|Stand on Zanzibar|John Brunner|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1360613921s/41069.jpg|2184253], justement à cause de ces faiblesses. Cela dit, lisez-le, parce que ça n'en fait pas pour autant un mauvais roman, loin de là.
ursulamonarch's review against another edition
2.0
I found the ideas in the book interesting but couldn't get past the writing style.
tanaise's review against another edition
3.0
This was not a book that one likes. I think it was important to read, I'm glad I did, I possibly wish I hadn't read it at the same time as a Superbug story in Asimov and [b:Silent Spring|27333|Silent Spring|Rachel Carson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1436594630s/27333.jpg|880193] by Rachel Carson because WOW that was a scary depressing juxtaposition.
vailynst's review against another edition
4.0
Mini-Review:
4 Stars for Narration by Stefan Rudnicki
4 Stars for Concepts & Brutal Perspectives
2.5 Stars for Jarring Transitions
Currently on Audible Plus
Recommendation: Print Version over Audiobook
Read the book. The story & changes in perspectives will make more sense in print than it did in audio format. Rudnicki did a great job with the narration but that did not make it easy to keep track of what and where events were happening.
I'm not even sure why I ended up getting this book to read for my "Soon to Be Read" pile. I believe it may be on one of the group shelves and that's why I flagged it to read while it's on Audible Plus.
I did not know anything about the story before I read it. I didn't even remember the blurb because it's been a few months and a couple hundred books since I added it to my audio library.
Most disaster stories have a big war, biochemical warfare, planet wide natural catastrophe or something along those lines. I don't usually read stories about the slow decay. The kind that seems so slow in happening that it would never be a problem for me to deal with today. A handful of stories take on current events and spin a likely domino of events. The Sheep Look Up is one of those types of books.
It's very angry. I felt like the story was yelling at me and beating me up from the start to finish. There's no pause to breathe or relax. It's constant tension and explosion of emotions, actions and consequences. This is not a comfortable book. It's an extreme take on what could happen.
I think this was a good story to shake you up and make you think. Don't take what the story is telling you to be the truth. You're reading a fictional account using some facts and a lot of fiction. It is a story to make you think and act. Even if the actions only affect your life and what you do, that's better than being intentionally blind.
A lot of the world we know is based on a level of trust that we do not question. I'm glad that I live in a place where that is possible.
I'm not sure how other people take this story. I'm not about anti-government, evil corporations or whatever. All of that is based on people and it's the people that end up making the good or bad changes.
For me, I take this story as a warning and to care about my mind & body. It's hard to take care of other people or things when you do not take care of yourself. So, it's good to know what you take in by air, water and food. How materials in the objects around you may be temporarily useful and a part of the next trash pile that could be around longer than my lifespan. In what ways events and products may be presented to be perceived in a certain manner because that's easier than to ask questions. Learning and awareness are good. Processing may suck but that's life.
I'm glad I read the book. I'm also glad it's over because I couldn't handle the level of fear and rage that filled the pages.
If you ask me, this was a pretty darn good horror story. It's scary because it's possible.
4 Stars for Narration by Stefan Rudnicki
4 Stars for Concepts & Brutal Perspectives
2.5 Stars for Jarring Transitions
Currently on Audible Plus
Recommendation: Print Version over Audiobook
Read the book. The story & changes in perspectives will make more sense in print than it did in audio format. Rudnicki did a great job with the narration but that did not make it easy to keep track of what and where events were happening.
I'm not even sure why I ended up getting this book to read for my "Soon to Be Read" pile. I believe it may be on one of the group shelves and that's why I flagged it to read while it's on Audible Plus.
I did not know anything about the story before I read it. I didn't even remember the blurb because it's been a few months and a couple hundred books since I added it to my audio library.
Most disaster stories have a big war, biochemical warfare, planet wide natural catastrophe or something along those lines. I don't usually read stories about the slow decay. The kind that seems so slow in happening that it would never be a problem for me to deal with today. A handful of stories take on current events and spin a likely domino of events. The Sheep Look Up is one of those types of books.
It's very angry. I felt like the story was yelling at me and beating me up from the start to finish. There's no pause to breathe or relax. It's constant tension and explosion of emotions, actions and consequences. This is not a comfortable book. It's an extreme take on what could happen.
I think this was a good story to shake you up and make you think. Don't take what the story is telling you to be the truth. You're reading a fictional account using some facts and a lot of fiction. It is a story to make you think and act. Even if the actions only affect your life and what you do, that's better than being intentionally blind.
A lot of the world we know is based on a level of trust that we do not question. I'm glad that I live in a place where that is possible.
I'm not sure how other people take this story. I'm not about anti-government, evil corporations or whatever. All of that is based on people and it's the people that end up making the good or bad changes.
For me, I take this story as a warning and to care about my mind & body. It's hard to take care of other people or things when you do not take care of yourself. So, it's good to know what you take in by air, water and food. How materials in the objects around you may be temporarily useful and a part of the next trash pile that could be around longer than my lifespan. In what ways events and products may be presented to be perceived in a certain manner because that's easier than to ask questions. Learning and awareness are good. Processing may suck but that's life.
I'm glad I read the book. I'm also glad it's over because I couldn't handle the level of fear and rage that filled the pages.
If you ask me, this was a pretty darn good horror story. It's scary because it's possible.
iangreenleaf's review against another edition
2.0
I don't think this aged as well as some of the other landmarks of early dystopian science fiction. The whole thing feels like a very strong reflection of the post-Silent Spring, mid-Vietnam zeitgeist of its publication date of 1972. It's of some interest as a sort of historical document; a vivid depiction of an apocalypse that never came to pass. At the same time, though, all the detailed descriptions of specific threats make the whole thing feel quite dated. We might still have an apocalypse, but it won't be this one.
There are some good notes. The characters are sketched out well enough that I managed to keep track of almost all of them despite an absurd amount of jumping around to different viewpoints. And some themes still feel relevant today, like the way that environmental pressures put extra strain on race, class, and national tensions. Unfortunately, the depiction of race interactions is so clumsily antiquated that we're right back to feeling the age of the text.
It suffers from a number of non-age-related flaws as well. The plot loses its way pretty badly in the middle. Around the same time, the book starts to lean very heavily on a particular narrative device that I would have found exceedingly clever when I was in middle school but not at any point after that. I can respect this as an important work of its time, but I did not enjoy it as a book.
marcantel's review against another edition
5.0
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 unchecked by environmental regulations calls to mind images of Pittsburgh in the mid-70s. The effects of poor air and water are felt everywhere in the novel, even by the presence of an ELF-like resistance group called "Trainites." The gap between haves and have-nots has increased, and the government is embroiled in a series of foreign wars. When an international relief organization delivers a shipment of GMFs to a famished African nation with disastrous results, the lives of the novel's various characters converge in twelve chapters starting with "January" and ending with "December." I should also mention that this was my entertainment reading while trying to finish Jared Diamond's Collapse, which only intensified the sense of disaster portrayed in this novel.
blid's review against another edition
4.0
Due to variety of uncontuable characters seemed boring at first and I was just about to give up. However, the main idea of hits little to close to home and I stayed till the end. Air pollution? Oil leaks? Piles of garbage? Poisoned water?These are more and more concerning issues which are overemphasized a little in John's Brunner book, but just a little.
In terms of raw plot and action it's hard to recommend, but due to matters discussed I am willing to give it higher rating.
In terms of raw plot and action it's hard to recommend, but due to matters discussed I am willing to give it higher rating.
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