Sangamon Taylor works for an environmental advocacy group. Admirers refer to him as the granola James Bond. The Zodiac of the title is an inflatable boat" (Zodiac).
Within this book, Lobsters show bioconcenration, which they are important in ascertaining the cleanliness of Boston Harbor. The author points out there is no chemical crime is perfect. From there, it is apparent that pollution in the sea is an example of the tragedy of the commons. Furthermore, common property is used to the maximum point where no one wants to clean it up (Zodiac).
The motivation for Sangamon Taylor's work is that his mother died of cancer. A near genius, he has always had trouble with...
His time at Boston University was rocky. The MO of the miscreants comes down to poisoning the harbor, killing the PCBs with bugs, blowing up the evidence with bombs, and blaming the whole debacle on nameless eco-terrorists" (Zodiac).
Conclusion
Zodiac is an early work by author Neal Stephenson and it lacks some of writing aspects, however he does an excellent job combining the adventure, science, and weird characters that are trademarks of his work. The main character ST is an engaging protagonist. With a moral code that is more flexible than most, but that keeps the focus on the big things, which takes away from the bad first person narrative (Zodiac).
