Zodiac
the eco-thriller
by Neal Stephenson · first published 1988
39% recommend57% neutral5% critical
Why HN recommends it
Short, fast eco-thriller about a chemist-turned-environmental-activist, with Stephenson's humor about technical detail but fewer tangents; an easy entry point to his work and an ending that doesn't just stop.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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 reservation Indians, moves onto the FBI's most wanted list, makes up with his girlfriend, and plays a starring role in the near-assassination of a presidential candidate. Closing the case with the aid of his burnout roomate, his tofu
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I'll pick 2 at random: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Zodiac by Neal Stephenson
on “Ask HN: Please name two of your most favorite books.” ↗Highly recommended book that touches on bio-accumulation: Zodiac by Neal Stephenson (http://www.amazon.com/Zodiac-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0802143156)
on “The ticking time-bomb at the bottom of the Baltic Sea” ↗…Critical Chain by Eliyahu M. Goldratt The Unicorn Project by Gene Kim (sequel to the Phoenix Project) Makers by Cory Doctorow Daemon & Freedom™ by Daniel Suarez The Affinities by Robert Charles Wilson Zodiac by Neal Stephenson The Blue Ant trilogy (Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, Zero History) by William Gibson Omnitopia: Dawn by Diane Duane Walkaway by Cory Doctorow Autonomous by Annalee Newitz The…
on “Ask HN: What's some great fiction for founders and entrepreneurs?” ↗Anyone who finds this story interesting should read Zodiac by Neal Stephenson.
on “How the Benzene Tree Polluted the World” ↗…Then, much later, I relented and got Cryptonomicon, and it is one of my favorite books ever. I have since dabbled a bit with Stephenson, and amazingly his other books fall along the same divide for me. Zodiac is amazing, the Victorian sci-fi series (Diamond Age?) are unreadable. One book, Seveneves, the first part is amazing Neal Stephenson, the second is lazy, naive and dumb Neal Stephenson. Super puzzling,…
on “Snow Crash: HBO Max adaptation of Neal Stephenson's 1992 cyberpunk novel” ↗I really enjoyed Zodiac. It’s reads like a thriller novel but it’s a little more grounded and less weird than Snow Crash. I think it’s a good entry point for Stephenson novels.
on “We are all nerds: The literary works of Neal Stephenson” ↗…https://twitter.com/baconmeteor/status/663076130077802496 I have heard good things about this book, but it has been a while since I could get into Neal Stephenson's work. My favorite is one of his earliest, Zodiac. It's the only book of his I've read that doesn't just...end.
on “The Day the Moon Blew Up” ↗…signs, lights, people, etc. and cut off cars randomly. And cars have to shove their way through the mess or they will never get anywhere. Cambridge traffic is simply dreadful. Go read Neal Stephenson's "Zodiac" for a taste.
on “Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law” ↗…still remember Snow Crash as my formal introduction to cyber space, virtual avatars, megacorporations, and light cycle races. And it told of the awesome power of reason. My second favorite Stephenson is Zodiac, strangely.
on “We are all nerds: The literary works of Neal Stephenson” ↗I found Cryptonomicon a painfully long slog. I enjoyed it overall, but only read it because of having read Snow Crash and Zodiac first. I love Stephenson's humor with technical issues. I suppose I should read some of his longer, er, later books.
on “The Best Science Fiction Books (According to Reddit)” ↗Anyone instantly thinking of Neal Stephenson's Zodiac? How are they generating the amino acid? [edit] I also noticed that this article is over a year old.
on “GM microbes created that can’t escape the lab (2015)” ↗Zodiac is the easy introduction because it's the least Neal Stephenson book of the lot: short, minimal infodumps and tangents, and it really doesn't get much nerdier than the protagonist being a chemist [as…
on “We are all nerds: The literary works of Neal Stephenson” ↗Anyone thinking this might have potential as an unconventional weapon might find it interesting to read Neal Stephenson's Zodiac. The protagonist, a chemist-turned-environmental-activist, makes some Putrescine (a similarly stinky substance) for self defence.
on “Things I Won't Work With: Thioacetone” ↗…Stephenson. Anathem was a notable exception, with a nice proper denouement, and that was after I'd found out that lots of other people found Stephenson endings unsatisfying. I also didn't find fault with Zodiac or The Big U, although these were of course somewhat more conventional than his later works. I don't think you understand why thousands of people find most of Stephenson's endings unsatisfying. That's…
on “Neal Stephenson was prescient about our AI age” ↗Dunno, I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was a, well, slow burn, but nicely written IMO, setting up the scene and all. Felt a lot like reading Neal Stephenson's Zodiac, with a bunch of engineers and the chemistry aspect. I didn't read it as an actual email; it's storytelling, and pretty good one at that.
on “Burning a Magnesium NeXT Cube (1993)” ↗