Sex on the MoonThe Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History

Ben Mezrich

Rate It! Avg: 3.5 (3 ratings)

Summary

Sex on the Moon

By: Ben Mezrich

Narrarated by: Casey Affleck

Thad Roberts, a fellow in a prestigious NASA program had an idea—a romantic, albeit crazy, idea. He wanted to give his girlfriend the moon. Literally.

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.

Sample Audiobook
Audiobook Information
New York Times Best Seller
  • Edition: Unabridged
  • Author: Ben Mezrich (See All Books)
  • Date Released: Jul 12, 2011
  • Publisher: Random House Audio
  • Genre: True Crime, Biography & Memoir

Total File Size: 235 MB (7 files) Total Length: 8 Hours, 33 Minutes

eMusic Review 0

Avatar Image
Claire Zulkey

eMusic Contributor

08.29.11
Ben Mezrich, Sex On the Moon
2011 | Label: Random House Audio

A semi-geeky, semi-romantic heist story
There’s a little something for everyone in Ben Mezrich’s semi-geeky, semi-romantic heist story about Thad Roberts, a dreamer and schemer who came up with a plot to steal a 600-pound safe containing moon rocks from NASA, where he was an up-and-coming co-op intern. There’s a bit of a superhero origin story in Mezrich’s tale, as Casey Affleck narrates how Roberts goes from a shunned and ashamed Mormon boy to fulfilling his dream by working at NASA and eventually falling in love with an intelligent, vibrant woman after his marriage begins to crumble. Science nerds will flip for the details of what it’s like to actually work at NASA, which seems like the smartest fraternity in the world with the coolest space-age showers. And then there’s the heist, which is both Roberts’ raison d’etre and his downfall, which includes international intrigue, FBI involvement and eventually a cool prison nickname. The book lacks a little zing for one that focuses on such a compelling crime and takes place in such rarefied air, and Roberts may fall short of being a truly sympathetic character, but details like Roberts ingesting a line of moon dust will keep Sex On the Moon in listeners’ heads for days to come.

Write a Review 0 Member Reviews

Please register before you review a release. Register