Customer Reviews

Zodiac: The Eco Thriller

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(46)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

OK, _Snow Crash_ caught my attention. But it suffered (imho) from grandiosity -- the need for a Great Cosmic Plot Resolution. DA was even more interesting but has some of the same disease -- the themes get so big they are unwieldy. Same goes for the voudun stuff in Gibson, if you ask me.

_Zodiac_ is my pick of NS's work. I buy used copies and give them away to people. It's better than his later works because he's on his own turf, writing more tightly and realistically about stuff he really knows. The manuscript glitters with one-liners; I sometimes slowed down and read whole sections out loud to myself to get the full enjoyment out of them.

Sangamon Taylor, ego and all, has become one of the most memorable characters of my long SF-guzzling career. I recommend this book to sci fi and non-sci-fi readers alike. I still don't believe you can punch a hole in a zode with a wired tazer, but I love the book anyway :-)

And yes, it's a cautionary tale. It has a moral message. So has Dickens, most of Shakespeare, and most of Star Trek for that matter. There's nothing wrong with preaching if it's done with wit, style, and real passion. I think NS pulls it off. If I didn't dread sequels so much, I'd love to see a volume of the prior, or continuing, adventures of ST.

"Zodiac" is Neal Stephenson's second book, written between the unimpressive "The Big U" and the cyberpunk classic "Snow Crash." It was mildly successful and according to Stephenson, "on first coming out in 1988 it quickly developed a cult following among water-pollution-control engineers and was enjoyed, though rarely bought, by many radical environmentalists." Unlike Stephenson's more recent works, it involves only one linear plot line, and is also of a more reasonable size. This may make it his most accessible work, though it isn't his most entertaining.

The story is told in the first person, from the perspective of Sangamon "S.T." Taylor, a Boston chemist employed by the Group of Environmental Extremists (GEE), International - an organization probably inspired by Greenpeace. S.T. works as a professional headache for industrial polluters flaunting the law and endangering their communities. His job is to terrorize the companies into acting in what is really their own best interest (i.e., not destroying the earth for short-term savings). Of course, it should go without saying that S.T. does not actually use terrorism to terrorize these polluters. Rather, he works with a potent mix of trespassing, his classic tactic of plugging up the pipes dumping toxic waste into the water supply, and his ultimate weapon: Bad Publicity.

"Zodiac" starts of with some fun actions of this sort, but the story does not really begin until S.T. unexpectedly finds incredibly large amounts of incredibly toxic PCBs in Boston Harbor. Just as soon as he starts his investigation, however, the poisons disappear - which, if it had happened spontaneously, would be a mind-boggling 'violation' of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Since there's no known way for PCBs to be removed from the water by hand, the only explanation is that S.T. has committed the screw-up of a lifetime. No sooner has S.T. resigned himself to this fate than the PCBs reappear, in even greater quantities. That's when large numbers of people start trying to kill him. To say nothing of the Satanists. Framed as an ecoterrorist, S.T. is forced to flee Boston and join forces with the real environmental extremists in order to unravel the mystery of the PCBs, redeem himself, and, quite possibly, save the world.

So "Zodiac" really is an "Eco-Thriller," and I enjoyed it as much as (if not more than) the more famous "Snow Crash." At the very least, "Zodiac" has aged better. While some parts of "Snow Crash" read like the the wildest fantasies of the .com boom, "Zodiac" could easily be set anytime in the next (or past) twenty years. Many of the book's apparent flaws come from comparison to Stephenson's later work: "Zodiac" lacks both the intricate, awe-inspiring complexity of "Cryptonomicon" and "The Baroque Cycle" as well as much of the indescribable brand of humor that made "Snow Crash" and "Cryptonomicon" so memorable. Another gripe could be characters - except for a few main characters, they remain vague outlines for the most part. We know they're present, but don't really get a clear picture of them.

At any rate, if you're a Stephenson fan, "Zodiac" is well worth a read. Even compared to his later works, it shouldn't disappoint. On the other hand, if you're new to Stephenson, "Zodiac" is as good a place to start as any. Although it's not the experience that "Snow Crash" and "Cryptonomicon" are, it's also more accessible and not nearly as imposing as "Cryptonomicon" and "The Baroque Cycle." I recommend it.

Neal Stephenson is considered a "cyberpunk" writer due to his mega-hit "Snowcrash". This ghettoisation of his books is unfortunate, as it keeps potential mass market readers from discovering the excellent "Zodiac". Any reader who enjoys a fast paced thriller will go wild over this book! It is hard to put down & will disturb it's readers with the extent of the poisoning of our planet that we all cooperate in on a daily basis by participating in a market economy. Even though "Zodiac" is classed as science fiction, the facts in this book are documented & real; only the events are fiction, but anyone who reads the newspaper will recognize the basis for the characters & action. In summary: this is an exciting book that will stay with you long after you've closed the cover. READ "ZODIAC"!

This is a fun, readable book, but it is certainly not a masterpiece. S.T. is a cool character. I like the handling of drug-use in the book. It's pretty realistic in that it's as quotidian as eating breakfast. The problem in this, as in Big U, is the "larval" stage of N.S.'s hipster style dates easily. When S.T. calls a yuppie an "android from Hell" I groaned. Wasn't this already a cliche in 1988? Style aside, the plot is pretty standard, the action is unremarkable, and the supporting characters are, as has been mentioned by a lot of fans, so thin you can read an Evinrude tech manual through them. But I can't deny that I was compelled to finish the book and had a good time with it. (By the way, the tech side of things: chemistry, weapons, cars, etc. was cool as usual. I appreciated the 'condescension' of explaining the workings of molecules using beer cans. I got a C- in Chemistry in 11th grade, which was thankfully the last time I had to grapple with valences and such.) If you're interested in Ecology, hard-boiled fiction, the 80s, or Neal Stephenson's writing, read this book. If you're not, read something else. One other thing: if you read this and Cryptonomicon check out the similarities between Dolmacher (Zodiac) and Loeb (Crypto) -- psycho nerds with survival skills. I guess N.S. puts his money where his pen is when it comes to recycling.

Nearly twenty years after it was first published in 1988, Zodiac is still a relevant and fun book. Sangamon Taylor fights the good fight against evil corporations, an uncaring public, and the lunatic fringe in the environmental movement. During the ride he finds that he has to contend with (among other things) misunderstood motives, romance, and violent heavy metal fans.

I did a lot of chortling while reading this adventure. I had avoided picking it up for a while because I was worried that an eco-thriller would be preachy. Luckily, it is no such thing. It has a point to make and makes it well, weaving the environmentalism and science into the story.

Although it is smaller in scope than books like Snow Crash, Zodiac contains enough of the inimitable Stephenson writing style that it should keep fans of his later work happy. Some people may actually find that they prefer Zodiac despite the scale-- it is breathlessly exuberant in a way that his other later works never manage to recapture. Highly recommended.

Like most people, I read Snow Crash first, and loved it. Zodiac isn't nearly as intellectual as Snow Crash, nor does it have nearly the same depth, but it's tons of fun nonetheless. The protagonist, S.T., is wonderfully realistic, especially if you've ever moved within activist circles. I enjoyed the off-handed instruction in toxic monkeywrenching (how to block pipes, etc.) that echoes so well the eco-classic "The Monkeywrench Gang." Stephenson is a brilliant storyteller, and S.T. is a compelling hero. It's not the most intellectual of books, but great for vicarious revenge against polluting corporations.

Zodiac is a fun book that takes a boring subject like ecology and makes it 'cool' (for lack of a better word). Instead of hand-wringing eco-hippies shoving data down people's throats till they puke, S.T., the main character, is a wise-acre, quick thinking, media-manipulating environmentalist who gets things done--and makes some major enemies along the way.

Consistently, Stephenson's best books take place in 'the real world;' frankly, I found Snow Crash amusing but slow, and Diamond Age was a bear to get through. In both cases, the techno ideas were great but pages of explainations bogged down the stories. Here, the science is slipped in comfortably, much in the same way it was for "Interface," which he co-wrote under the name Stephen Bury. I have to say, I hope Stephenson starts writing books about here and now again instead of wasting his talents on futurist sci-fi.

This novel is the metaphysical opposite of Henry Miller's "Crazy Cock." That novel was a game first attempt by the author who ultimately carved a niche for himself using the first person narrative. The problem with Crazy Cock was that Henry Miller used the omniscient narrator in that novel, which took the edge off of his style.

This novel is the exact opposite of Crazy Cock in that Stephenson has written from the first person perspective, which is in tension with his greatest strengths as a writer. Mr. Stephenson is particularly adept at laying out his scenes with such detail that the imagery becomes almost tangible. The other attribute that sets him apart from other writers is his ability to truly develop multiple characters. (A side note: he is probably the best male author that I have ever read at creating strong female leads -- see Snow Crash, the Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle for some of the most a**-kicking female roles ever devised by a male author.) The first-person narrative simply does not lend itself to these strengths, which is why this is not one of Stephenson's better works.

That said, it's a rousing good story and a fun read. Like the Stephen Bury novels, it stands head and shoulders above the majority of novels that are classified as "thrillers." If you are comparing this novel with the thriller genre, it gets 5 stars. If you are comparing it with Stephenson's other work, it gets 3. I split the difference here and gave it four.

Although not as intellectually stimulating as either Snowcrash or the Diamond Age, Zodiac is still a good read. It required no past knowledge of computer systems, jargon, or even genre-slang. This is just a story, an easy read, an enjoyable tale of a toxic-spillage avenger doing his job in present day Boston. The most interesting thing about this book is the overwhelming feeling that our main character, Sagamon, is maybe from a completely different life-perspective from the people he encounters during the tale. His interactions with metal heads, business men, and slack jawed local jokels are brilliantly entertaining. If you're looking for something a little more academic and dense, go for The Diamond Age, if you're fascinated by technology and the future of the computer world, read Snowcrash.

Set in Boston this thriller centres on the exploits of the oddly monikered Sangamon Taylor aka The Toxic Spiderman. He is a chemist working for a group of environmentalists called GEE, and is trying to prevent pollution of the waterways by chemical companies. As a professional pain in the ass he publicly humiliates and embarrasses the major chemical corporations that are polluting the environment.

Sangamon Taylor is a chemist for the Northwestern chapter of GEE International (Group of Environmental Extremists). He is blond shaggy haired and wears tennis shoes and multiple t-shirts. A graduate of Boston University he is looked down upon by those from MIT.

He sees himself as the archnemesis of the chemical company Basco the number two polluter in the table of polluters of Boston Harbour. The Boston population as a whole and the sewage they produce hold the number one spot.

Zodiac is the only hardboiled ecological thriller I know of and it features what has become the trademark Stephenson wit. The book features assassination attempts, genetically engineered bacteria and a cast of characters that ranges from Native Americans to the Executives of chemical companies and their heavy metal loving teenage sons.

A mystery not of the whodunit variety, but more of the what the heck happened and why did it happen. The book also acts as an introduction to environmental issues and the science of pollution.

Even though it doesn't feature any hackers the hacker ethos is present in the book in the form of Sangamon Taylor a cool anti-establishment chemistry nerd.

The return of the psycho nerd Dolmacher in Zodiac has similarities to that of Andrew Loeb in Cryptonomicon. Both of them have survivalist skills and seem to flit between being sane and a bit creepy to being completely psychologically deranged.

The book lacks in characterisation of everyone outside of the central character of S.T., but as the book is told in the first person from his perspective this reflects how he views the world and the people around him.