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Sex on the Moon
The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History
1 of 1 copy available
Thad convinced his girlfriend and another female accomplice, both NASA interns, to break into an impregnable laboratory at NASA—past security checkpoints, an electronically locked door with cipher security codes, and camera-lined hallways—and help him steal the most precious objects in the world: the moon rocks.
But what does one do with an item so valuable that it’s illegal even to own? And was Thad Roberts—undeniably gifted, picked for one of the most competitive scientific posts imaginable, a possible astronaut—really what he seemed?
Mezrich has pored over thousands of pages of court records, FBI transcripts, and NASA documents and has interviewed most of the participants in the crime to reconstruct this Ocean’s Eleven–style heist, a madcap story of genius, love, and duplicity that reads like a Hollywood thrill ride.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
July 12, 2011 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780307750792
- File size: 246601 KB
- Duration: 08:33:45
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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While a well-crafted reading is usually preferred by this listener, Casey Affleck's casual, often unpolished narration serves to add some charm to these proceedings, slightly reversing the basic unlikability of this book's central character, Thad Roberts. Why is Mr. Roberts so unlikable? First, he leaves his pretty, supportive wife in favor of a hot NASA intern, and second, he uses his NASA internship to steal moon rocks, an action that reveals his ignorance of all that they stand for--courage, risk-taking, national pride, the quest for knowledge. Affleck's wide-eyed performance makes the case for naòvetÄ being a big part of Roberts's actions. Otherwise, SEX ON THE MOON is a bit of a head-scratcher. Did author Ben Mezrich and narrator Affleck really think we'd buy their portrayal of Roberts as a dashing rogue who meant no harm? J.P.M. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine -
April 18, 2011
A promising NASA recruit throws everything away for a girl, illustrating the fascinating consequences when science, ambition, and starry-eyed love collide. In bestselling author Mezrich's telling, Thad Roberts, while at the University of Utah, became determined to be an astronaut and threw himself into science courses. He left his wife behind when he was accepted to the elite Johnson Space Center Cooperative Program in Houston, the training ground for NASA scientists. Despite his lack of an engineering background, Roberts excelled in the life sciences department. While cataloguing samples, he noticed the moon rocks NASA categorized as "trash"âsamples returned after experiments. Then Roberts met and fell in love with a new recruit, Rebecca, and planned to give her the moon, or at least its profits, by stealing the "used" moon rocks. Roberts devised the heist and arranged an online sale with a mineral collector in Belgium. The suspicious buyer alerted the FBI, which set up a sting, and Roberts was sentenced to eight years in federal prison. Mezrich (The Accidental Billionaires, from which The Social Network was adapted) has perfected his intensely readable brand of nonfiction: talented, often unscrupulous, young people skyrocketing to the top only to tumble back to earth. -
September 26, 2011
Thad Roberts is a brilliant, thrill-seeking NASA employee who goes rogue and—along with a few accomplices—makes it his personal mission to break into an impregnable government laboratory and steal a hunk of lunar rock to impress his girlfriend and possibly make a little money on the side. Surprisingly, narrator Casey Affleck offers only a middling performance. His pronunciation of words frequently proves challenging for the listener and his tone is too melancholy for Mezrich’s history of this madcap and thrilling heist. Additionally, Affleck’s narration often registers as mannered and melodramatic. Still, his performance has its finer moments. Affleck is at his best reading the letters written by Thad during his incarceration, which allow him to create and occupy a character. A Doubleday hardcover.
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