The Sheep Look Up Audiobook By John Brunner cover art

The Sheep Look Up

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

The Sheep Look Up

By: John Brunner
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.74

Buy for $19.74

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

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 Train just wants to survive.

More than a novel of science fiction, The Sheep Look Up is a skillful and frightening political and social commentary that takes its place next to other remarkable works of dystopian literature, such as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and George Orwell's 1984.

©2014 John Brunner (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc., and Skyboat Media, Inc. Adventure Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Fiction Scary Survival Apocalyptic Fiction

People who viewed this also viewed...

Stand on Zanzibar Audiobook By John Brunner, Bruce Sterling - foreword cover art
Stand on Zanzibar By: John Brunner, and others
The Shockwave Rider Audiobook By John Brunner cover art
The Shockwave Rider By: John Brunner
Flybot Audiobook By Dennis E. Taylor cover art
Flybot By: Dennis E. Taylor
All stars
Most relevant  
maybe I'm biased because I like dystopia stories but this was well written and I liked the performance. Funny how we have cycled back and after 2020 this story is sort of timely

interesting listen for 2021

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I agree with the other reviewers. This was difficult to follow as an audiobook. There were a long sections in particular with so many interruptions that I felt like I was listening to the radio on "search". I understand that the author wrote the book with such interruptions intentionally, but it was difficult for me to follow as an audiobook.

Audiobook was awkward

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting read, but confusing to follow. Don't know if it's the reader, or the lack of clear chapters. The readers' baritone voice, at times, makes it difficult to hear clearly. It may be 40+ years old, but resonant for today.

Confusing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
this is an OBVIOUS cautionary tale that should be required reading for everyone. our addiction to consumerism and antipathy toward intellectualism is killing us. We are, indeed, sheep.

the ones who NEED to hear this won't

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It was obvious this was written in the past, but I honestly figured it for the 50's or 60's. A lot of things that are in this novel were just fringe ideas about the affects of chemicals and pollution on the world when it was written in 1972. In 1972, Love Canal hadn't even happened yet, much less some of the other chemical disasters that happened in the late 70's and into current times. It's kind of scary that someone looked into our future and got some of the stuff correct'ish including some of the political issues. This was a hard read for several reasons: 1) the author broke out into really old quotes from the oddest places which broke the flow of the story, 2) the content was a bit disturbing in the discussion of racism, intolerance, rabid nationalism, and the depiction of other awful traits that people can show. I'm not sure if I'm glad I read this or sorry I read this. It was disturbing, but there was a well narrated story that kept me listening.

Old timey feel

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the style of John Dos Passos, it's hard to follow in audio. Fascinating.

Near Future Dystopia, but from 50 year old Future

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
John Bruner missed some things, but he got a lot of stuff right.
Especially in these times of the COVID Pandemic.

Added Relevance Today

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
John Brunner’s “The Sheep Look Up” could have been written yesterday. A world full of mega-corporations, destroying the world and the people who live there. Celebrity presidents worth no more than a glib sound byte. Misplaced patriotism. Any positive movement is destroyed, any well-meaning leaders killed. All in the name of profit and production.
The story has a Burroughs-like quality, short vignettes and scenes, some terrifying, some thought provoking, weave together the end of the world just as we expect it. Great reading by Stefan Rudnicki.
Excellent story.

Prescient Story for 2022

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Three hours in and there's still no story or plot. It's just a pessimistic narrative of all the worst case scenarios for climate change and a lot of insinuating that anyone with even a modicum of success is evil. Disappointing because the writing is good and Stephen Rudnicki gives an excellent performance as always.

where's the story?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
if Steinbeck has taught us anything by reliving the past, Brunner is teaching us by showing us a world that may come to present.
I found the initial listening a little hard to follow but all in all a good listen once I caught a few hours in.
I reccomend it for anyone looking for anything in the dystopia genre.

Grapes of Wrath for the future

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews