His 1968 novel 'Stand on Zanzibar' exploits the fragmented organizational style John Dos Passos invented for his USA trilogy, but updates it in terms of the theory of media popularised by Marshall McLuhan.

Brunner later began to experiment with the novel form. He served as an officer in the Royal Air Force from 1953 to 1955, and married Marjorie Rosamond Sauer on 12 July 1958Īt the beginning of his writing career Brunner wrote conventional space opera pulp science fiction. He wrote his first novel, Galactic Storm, at 17, and published it under the pen-name Gill Hunt, but he did not start writing full-time until 1958. John Brunner was born in Preston Crowmarsh, near Wallingford in Oxfordshire, and went to school at St Andrew's Prep School, Pangbourne, then to Cheltenham College. 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. The ''trainites,'' a group of violent environmental activists, want him to lead their movement the government wants him dead and the media demands amusement. Large corporations fighting over profits from gas masks, drinking water, and clean food tower over an ineffectual, corrupt government.Įnvironmentalist Austin Train is on the run. The water is undrinkable - unless you're poor and have no choice. The infant mortality rate is soaring, and birth defects, new diseases, and physical ailments of all kinds abound. In a near future, the air pollution is so bad that everyone wears gas masks. A prophetic look at the potential consequences of the escalating destruction of the Earth.

The sheep look up brunner