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52nd out of 126 books
—
200 voters
Zodiac
Sangamon Taylor's a New Age Sam Spade who sports a wet suit instead of a trench coat and prefers Jolt from the can to Scotch on the rocks. He knows about chemical sludge the way he knows about evil -- all too intimately. And the toxic trail he follows leads to some high and foul places. Before long Taylor's house is bombed, his every move followed, he's adopted by reservat...more
Paperback, 308 pages
Published
June 1st 1995
by Spectra
(first published April 30th 1988)
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This book revolves around toxic waste being illegally dumped into Boston Harbor. While I was reading it, the water in the fish tank went mysteriously cloudy overnight despite being recently cleaned and our two goldfish who were like ten years old went belly up. So that was kind of creepy.
The first Neal Stephenson book I read was Cryptonomicon and I jumped from there right into The Baroque Cycle and then the brain-busting brilliant behemoth that was Anathem. I loved them all, but saw frequent com...more
The first Neal Stephenson book I read was Cryptonomicon and I jumped from there right into The Baroque Cycle and then the brain-busting brilliant behemoth that was Anathem. I loved them all, but saw frequent com...more
If not for the voice of Sangamon Taylor, Neal Stephenson's Zodiac would have been a relatively okay eco-thriller, but the book isn't just the voice of Sangamon Taylor, it IS Sangamon Taylor, and once again Stephenson's ability to create compelling leading men (think Hiro Protagonist in Snow Crash) makes one of his books superior to the pulp it was inspired by.
Sangamon Taylor is Boston Harbor's very own Toxic Avenger. Working for GEE -- a thinly veiled, fictional Greenpeace -- ST spends his days...more
Sangamon Taylor is Boston Harbor's very own Toxic Avenger. Working for GEE -- a thinly veiled, fictional Greenpeace -- ST spends his days...more
Sep 27, 2011
Eric
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anti-Corporate Libertarians
Shelves:
neal-stephenson,
action-adventure-thriller
Zodiac was a bit muddled at points, with a large, mixed cast of eco-terrorists, corporate drones, scientists, and blue-collar Bostonians dropping in and out of the story, but overall it was a fast, exhilarating thrill-ride -- not too dissimilar from riding an actual zodiac.
It was reminiscent in a way to the cable television show Leverage, and if it were the show, it would have broken up nicely into three episodes -- the Swiss Bastards Job in Blue Kills, New Jersey; the Boner Chemicals Job in Bu...more
It was reminiscent in a way to the cable television show Leverage, and if it were the show, it would have broken up nicely into three episodes -- the Swiss Bastards Job in Blue Kills, New Jersey; the Boner Chemicals Job in Bu...more
2 likes · like · see review
Dear S.T. -
I just finished reading your Zodiac adventures and how I loved them. At first I was a bit confused since I was expecting a science-fiction novel. I know, I know, you did start your memoirs clearly stating that this is an eco-thriller, but I was misled by the GoodReads shelving. Have you seen it? Oof! "Science Fiction," "Horror," even "Fantasy." Although "Cyberpunk" has be the best one given that your colleagues refuse to work in an office with a computer and you use yours only for pr...more
I just finished reading your Zodiac adventures and how I loved them. At first I was a bit confused since I was expecting a science-fiction novel. I know, I know, you did start your memoirs clearly stating that this is an eco-thriller, but I was misled by the GoodReads shelving. Have you seen it? Oof! "Science Fiction," "Horror," even "Fantasy." Although "Cyberpunk" has be the best one given that your colleagues refuse to work in an office with a computer and you use yours only for pr...more
Before Stephenson got into the habit of fashioning entire techno-historical realities to fool around in, he wrote this odd little eco-thriller. It's about environmental activism before the green boom in the late 90's and early 2000's, when environmentally concerned types were usually just one or two ideological steps away from being misanthropic survivalists, obsessive self-taught chemical engineers, or wanted fugitives, and were hardly seen as people with a broad interest in constructive human...more
Neal Stephenson is a talented and multi-dimensional writer. Not only can he pen science fiction classics (e.g. Snowcrash) but he can also write enjoyable thrillers (e.g. Zodiac, the Eco-Thriller). No doubt about it...this Stephenson guy tells one hell of a yarn!
Republicans without a sense of humor should beware...this is NOT the book for you! It is unapologetically liberal in regards to the damage being done to our environment by big business. In this day and age when many liberals (I am talking...more
Republicans without a sense of humor should beware...this is NOT the book for you! It is unapologetically liberal in regards to the damage being done to our environment by big business. In this day and age when many liberals (I am talking...more
1 like · like · see review
An early variant of Stephenson's 'Snow Crash' writing style. More down-to-earth plot, set in the present rather than the near-future, but just as much fun. It definitely feels rougher and less polished than either Snow Crash or The Diamond Age, but it's great fun. And the description of trying to cross the street in Boston is worth the purchase price.
The main character and narrator of this book is one awesome dude. He's an ecological activist who fights big corporations that pollute the environment with chemical waste. The bad guys are unbelievably bad, which is sometimes a good thing, and other times, not so much. For example, they have a diabolical way of trying to save their own asses, which end up getting them into worse trouble, only after some clever detective work on the protagonist's part. This was cool. But the shoot out with paint...more
Two parts The Monkey Wrench Gang, one part White Noise; a paranoid tale of modern nonviolent eco-terrorism. S.T., a Boston operative at GEE, an environmental group, discovers that a corporation called Basco is dumping PCBs in the harbor. Soon he's pursued by PCP-snorting Satanic cult members, Basco's hired goons, and maybe the FBI or the Mafia.
This starts off as a fun book, but it gets far too bogged down in a mass of plot and barely fleshed out characters. The hero, fleeing for his life, twice...more
This starts off as a fun book, but it gets far too bogged down in a mass of plot and barely fleshed out characters. The hero, fleeing for his life, twice...more
I'm late to the party on this one by a factor of Lots, but I thoroughly enjoyed this.
The language is crisp and clever, the characters are interesting, and the protagonist manages to surf that delicate edge of being an antihero without being *too* obnoxious - although it's not perfect in that regard.
We follow an ecological vigilante who has dedicated his life to hounding corporations dumping waste into the environment and shutting them down, who finds himself dealing with a mysterious toxic calam...more
The language is crisp and clever, the characters are interesting, and the protagonist manages to surf that delicate edge of being an antihero without being *too* obnoxious - although it's not perfect in that regard.
We follow an ecological vigilante who has dedicated his life to hounding corporations dumping waste into the environment and shutting them down, who finds himself dealing with a mysterious toxic calam...more
Zodiac is described as an eco-thriller, which about sums it up, actually! It certainly is a thriller - I read all 290 or so pages in one (long) night, gripped from the outset. The hero of the story is a chemist working for GEE, a direct action environmental organisation, in its Boston branch. He's out to get the companies dumping toxic waste into the harbour and the rivers and canals that feed into it. He has three company logos on the bows of his inflatable raft with its over-size outboard moto...more
3 likes · like · see review
This is early Stephenson, so don't judge the rest of his work by this effort.
The basics: toxic waste fighting James Bond type takes on big chem.
The good: fun period piece from the late 80's, excellent use of setting for people who know Boston, pretty decent introduction to toxic waste issues and chemistry, and some nascent hints of the Stephensonian high-adventure that will become is trademark in later books.
The bad: it's hard to like the main character S.T.. He's just a really arrogant assho...more
The basics: toxic waste fighting James Bond type takes on big chem.
The good: fun period piece from the late 80's, excellent use of setting for people who know Boston, pretty decent introduction to toxic waste issues and chemistry, and some nascent hints of the Stephensonian high-adventure that will become is trademark in later books.
The bad: it's hard to like the main character S.T.. He's just a really arrogant assho...more
1 like · like · see review
Avant toute chose, je me dois de prévenir le lecteur innocent que, même si Neal Stephenson est à mon sens l’un des plus grands auteurs de Science-fiction, ce roman n’a aucunement sa place dans une collection de science-fiction, qu’elle soit éditoriale ou bibliophile. Bon, maintenant, je ne suis pas éditeur, et il y a peut-être un secret que Pierre-Paul Durastanti aura la bonté de me révéler. Toujours est-il qu’on peut considérer ce roman comme un bon techno-thriller écologique, ou autre chose, m...more
Zodiac is a wild ride about an eco-detective named Sangamon Taylor who lives in Allston, a suburb of Boston. Although written in the late 1980s, the book's themes of corporate negligence, exploitation, and emphasis on the bottom line are still relevant -- and perhaps not so eye-opening or unique today. What gives this book so much interest is S.T.'s narrative voice. He's a brilliant, foul-mouthed young scientist who tracks down the bad guys dumping PCBs and genetically modified chemical toxins i...more
I couldn't find what I was looking for on my first visit to the library, so I settled for this because the author had penned one of the other books I was looking for. Glad I picked it up. Written in the first person, this yarn follows the self-proclaimed Toxic Spider-man on his crusade against giant companies who love to pollute the Northeast. A fast read with a sarcastic voice, and some decent science to back it up. Guns, germs and mayhem.
I wasn't sure I would like this book at first. Too much science, too technical, I thought. But as i got further into the book, I started to really enjoy it. I liked the fast-paced narrative style and especially the main character's casual attitude. Nothing seemed to phase him--his house is bombed, he gets beat up, shot at, swims through toxic waste--and it all seems to be ordinary occurrences to him. Through it all he remains up beat and positive--always concerned about his beloved Boston Harbor...more
This is one of Stephenson's early books, and although I enjoyed it pretty well it was in some ways just too much of a good thing. It was kind of kitchen sink type of approach, throwing in a bit of everything. Although I've heard much about Stephonson's later books and how much people love them, I've never had a strong urge to pick any of them up because of having read Zodiac. It was good, but not outstanding.
Zodiac showcases all of Neal Stephenson's strengths and weaknesses pretty effectively. The charismatic but grungy anti-establishment protagonist saves Boston from dioxin poisoning from an evil corporate machine: an eco-thriller, according to the blurb on the front. It's really good; it's cleverly written, exciting, full of scientific jargon that the average layman reading the book can get a pretty good grasp of. It is wonderful, right up to the climax -- and then the book's over. There are barel...more
Aug 18, 2009
tENTATIVELY, cONVENIENCE
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
literature,
politics
Ok, I'm now a died-in-the-wool (whatever that means) Stephenson enthusiast. According to Goodreads, there're 14 editions of this - so it must be popular. Lardy how I HATE liking popular things! Nonetheless, I like it. Yeah, yeah, Stephenson's sortof a cross between Pynchon & Robert Anton Wilson - I reckon w/ some Rudy Rucker tossed in. There's plenty of murder & mayhem in here to suck in yr average thrill-seeker but there's also enuf precocious exposing of ecoactivists being labelled 'te...more
Although the writing isn't as developed or clean as his later works (especially Cyptonomicon and beyond), it is just as clever, witty, funny, smart, and hard to put down as everything else that Stephenson writes. Zodiac takes a pretty standard thriller structure and places the story of a chemist who works for a company that fights for the preservation of the environment. Sangamon Taylor (another of Stephenson's amusingly named characters) specializes in preventing and exposing toxic waste dumpin...more
#41: Zodiac by Neal Stephenson:
They shut off our phone service so we all had to sit down and thrash out about three months worth of unpaid long-distance bills. In the middle of a spirited discussion of who had made seven consecutive calls to Santa Cruz at three in the morning, Ike got up and announced that he was moving out. He was tired of the plumbing problems, he said, and the weird messages on the answering machine, and Roscommon had come in while he was at work and torn down the Mel King ca...more
The way this author fills his prose with a gazillion gems of twists/takes on current cultural or scientific concepts--which he's taken to the next step, or to a completion--only to leave that gem to your imagination to slowly build around your ears, bricking you into this futuristic idea that you kind of can't wait to experience and kind of dread experiencing... he's magic. You can build an entire block of this futuristic world out of each sentence, if you just sit and savor it long enough. It's...more
This novel reminded me a lot of Snow Crash. It had very similar pacing and action, the main difference being the setting. It also reminded me a lot of Tom Clancy novels -- had I ever read a Tom Clancy novel, anyway. Some of the action was a wee bit over the top (what exactly was that helicopter gunship doing firing its machine gun at S.T. as he was escaping on the ocean?), but for the most part it didn't strain credulity too much.
As a character, S.T. worked. He reminded me somewhat of various ch...more
As a character, S.T. worked. He reminded me somewhat of various ch...more
I can't help it, I'm a Masshole through and through, and there's no one as obsessed with seeing their city in fiction as a Bostonian, so this is my favorite of Stephenson's works, and I'm surprised it's not more well known. (I've only ever been able to find this book in Cambridge bookstores). I read this, mostly on the T, while sweating through a Boston heatwave; surely this has to be the optimal Zodiac-reading experience. As with most of Stephenson's works, there were some two-bit characters I...more
Zodiac is about S.T., an environmental scientist who wages a guerrilla campaign of activism and media stunts to publicize corporate pollution. Our hero stumbles on a twisty plot involving PCBs, Satanic rock groupies, and a presidential candidate.
This story read like a faster-paced and less-intense version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: a rock-and-roll spirited protagonist crusading against corporate wrongdoing while enjoying a healthy serving of casual sex along the way.
Zodiac feels very in...more
This story read like a faster-paced and less-intense version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: a rock-and-roll spirited protagonist crusading against corporate wrongdoing while enjoying a healthy serving of casual sex along the way.
Zodiac feels very in...more
Another excellent work by Stephenson. I've read most of his other non-Baroque-Cycle fiction at this point, so I'm catching up on his earlier work after seeing his later efforts.
Zodiac was perfect for me as a snark-appreciating chemist. The protagonist who relays the story in first person, Sangamon Taylor, is oft referred to as the "granola James Bond" as he slings chemistry instrumentation, nitrous oxide, and small-boat-prowess like a sidearm. The book delves into the topics du jour the way only...more
Zodiac was perfect for me as a snark-appreciating chemist. The protagonist who relays the story in first person, Sangamon Taylor, is oft referred to as the "granola James Bond" as he slings chemistry instrumentation, nitrous oxide, and small-boat-prowess like a sidearm. The book delves into the topics du jour the way only...more
I didn't like but cannot blame the author for it, because the Baroque Cycle are my first reads of Stephenson. So, like other readers mentioned earlier: you know it is one of his earlier books. Characters are mostly pale, the whole story lacks suspense and Sangamon Tayler, the 'Granola James Bond' is always and in every situation the super cool guy in a way that is getting more and more annoying. The only likeable figure is his room mate Bart and Boone, the eco terrorist. The bad guys are pale, s...more
Holy Moly, a Stephenson book with a satisfactory ending! Well knock me over with a feather!
Seriously, though: this is more about the environment, and activism, than technology (speaking in the context of this book as a Neal Stephenson novel.) So it's a little bit less appealing. Though still sciencey, and also really gross and completely terrifying. We are all going to die of cancer or something else even more horrible. I'm glad I don't live in Boston.
Really seriously, though: Zodiac is about a...more
Seriously, though: this is more about the environment, and activism, than technology (speaking in the context of this book as a Neal Stephenson novel.) So it's a little bit less appealing. Though still sciencey, and also really gross and completely terrifying. We are all going to die of cancer or something else even more horrible. I'm glad I don't live in Boston.
Really seriously, though: Zodiac is about a...more
1 like · like · see review
How did the author of such a tight, suspensful book with such a fascinating anti-hero character come to write, later in his career, long, slow books? Zodiac is a fascinating story of environmental activism with a very light touch. The main character Sangamon Taylor, tries to stop pollution by shaming the companies that make and dump it. But when PCBs start vanishing from the Boston Harbor, right when he was about to expose a company run by a Republican Presidential candidate, pollution might thr...more
I have tried to read Snow Crash three times now and cannot get beyond the first thirty pages. Something about this guy’s writing style bugs the shit out of me. It distracts me and I find it hard to keep track of who is speaking. Sometimes I skip pages and don’t notice. BUT! Despite this book not being my kind of writing style, I really liked it. The topic, toxic waste and how we could “solve” it is fantastic, and it really kept me interested for the whole book. It got really good by the end, but...more
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Neal Town Stephenson is an American writer known primarily for his science fiction works in the postcyberpunk genre with a penchant for explorations of society, mathematics, cryptography, currency, and the history of science. He also writes non-fiction articles about technology in publications such as Wired Magazine, and has worked part-time as an advisor for Blue Origin, a company (funded by Jeff...more
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“If you've put yourself in a position where someone has to see you in order for you to be safe - to see you, and to give a fuck - you've already blown it.”
—
9 people liked it
“I had to ride slow because I was taking my guerrilla route, the one I follow when I assume that everyone in a car is out to get me. My nighttime attitude is, anyone can run you down and get away with it. Why give some drunk the chance to plaster me against a car? That's why I don't even own a bike light, or one of those godawful reflective suits. Because if you've put yourself in a position where someone has to see you in order for you to be safe--to see you, and to give a fuck--you've already blown it... We had a nice ride through the darkness. On those bikes we were weak and vulnerable, but invisible, elusive, aware of everything within a two-block radius.”
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updated Jul 29, 2011 06:10am
I love Cryptonomicon and the other books he did after it, but they are not c...more
Jul 30, 2011 07:01am