Zodiac
This is a reread of a book i first read when i was in college. Its one of Neal Stephenson’s shortest book and also one of his most action packed. Later Stephenson’s novels are long on philosophy, ideals and morality lectures, but not this one. This one is really simple. Chemical pollution is bad. that’s the only morality play you get in this book. The rest of the book is about the toxic avenger, the granola james bond, the do everything well and do everything amazing protagonist that Stephenson’s so famous for writing (Sangamon Taylor is Hiro Protagonist’s progenitor). S.T. can chemist, S.T. can dive and take samples, S.T. can pilot a zodiac that can outrun cigar boats, S.T. can strategize…he basically is a one man do everything crew.
Set against such a great protagonist, the antagonist is equally as formidable. Basically one of the old school chemical giants, basco is one of those old school chemical companies like Dow or DuPont. In the book, they are trying to hide the polluting mcguffins by developing an organism that can eat away the PCBs that leaks from ancient equipment that was dumped in the harbor a long time ago.
Hijinks ensue and soon our protagonist has to dodge smear campaigns, murder attempts, and biological weapons while he strives to bring down yet another big bad evil organization.
The journey however is incredibly well presented. You get to see S.T. in his domain, blocking up polluting pipes, diving in to collect polluted samples, talking to local fisherman about dangerous lobsters….the book is enjoyable because Stephenson keeps it super high pace. There’s some educational lectures bout the dangers of PCB and chloracne, and other cancers and the dangers of pollution. Also some about the ineffectualness of the EPA…the book is purely of the late 80s, but you wouldn’t miss the lack of references to computer or internet.
I’d say this is Stephenson at his best because after snowcrash, no editor was ever able to constrain him about lectures of every thing. Stephenson’s a clearly well educated/well read person, but his need to share every and anything really drags on. Environmental pollution is a small enough topic that as much as he tries, he’s still not able to fill up too much of the book with any one particular topic. This keeps the moralizing short and the action long.
Highly recommended especially if you’re sick of 1000 page novels by stephenson!