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Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History Kindle Edition
From the bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down the House, this is the incredible true story of how a college student and two female accomplices stole some of the rarest objects on the planet—moon rocks—from an "impregnable" high-tech vault.
But breaking into a highly secure laboratory wasn't easy. Thad Roberts, an intern in a prestigious NASA training program, would have to concoct a meticulous plan to get past security checkpoints, an electronically locked door with cipher security codes, and camera-lined hallways even before he could get his hands on the 600-pound safe. And then how was he supposed to get it out? And what does one do with an item so valuable that it's illegal even to own? With his signature high-velocity style, Mezrich reconstructs the outlandish heist and tells a story of genius, love, and duplicity that reads like a Hollywood thrill ride.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherAnchor
- Publication dateJuly 12, 2011
- File size1431 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Review
“Uproarious . . . stimulating enough to keep even the un-medicated narcoleptic awake.”
— Washington Times
“Mezrich’s prose has a cinematic flavor.”
— Boston Globe
“You won’t be able to put the book down. The story’s far too compelling, and entirely too personal, to toss aside.”
— Oregonian
“High-octane page-turners, replete with sex, skullduggery, and plot twists worthy of James Patterson.”
—New York Times
“The book is better; you should read the book.”
—Alex Rodriguez
“You know you’re onto something when Hollywood calls before your book is even out.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Sizzling . . . Mezrich’s pop narrative reveals an American public greedy to read about the most intimate details of the sex, money, and betrayal in Facebook’s formative history . . . energetic.”
— Telegraph
“Mezrich paints a story of backstabbing, wild sex, hard drinking, and, at one stage, feasting on roasted koala on a yacht owned by a Silicon Valley millionaire.”
—Guardian
From the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Prologue
It had to be the strangest getaway in history.
Thad Roberts tried to control his nerves as he stared up through the windshield of the idling four-wheel-drive Jeep. The rain was coming down in violent gray sheets, so fierce and thick he could barely make out the bright red traffic light hanging just a few feet in front of him. He had been sitting there for what seemed like forever; a long stretch of pavement serpentined into the gray mist behind him, winding back past a half-dozen other traffic lights—all of which he’d had to wait through, in exactly the same fashion. Even worse, between the lights he’d had to keep the Jeep at an agonizing five miles per hour—a veritable crawl along the desolate, rain-swept streets of the tightly controlled compound. It was unbelievably hard to drive at five miles per hour, especially when your neurons were going off like fireworks and your heart felt like it was going to blow right through your rib cage. But five miles per hour was the mandatory speed limit of the compound—posted every few yards on signs by the road—and at five miles per hour, once you hit one red light, you were going to hit them all.
Thad’s fingers whitened against the Jeep’s steering wheel as he watched the red glow, willing it to change to green. He wanted nothing more than to gun the engine, put his foot right through the floor, break the speed limit, and get the hell out of there. But he knew that there were cameras everywhere—that the entire getaway was being filmed and broadcast on more than a dozen security consoles. For this to work, he had to stay calm, obey the rules. He had to appear as if he belonged.
He took a deep breath, let the red glow from the traffic light splash across his cheeks. Only a few more seconds. He used the opportunity to toss a quick glance toward the passenger seat—which didn’t help at all. Sandra looked even more terrified than he felt. Her face was ivory white, her eyes like saucers. He wanted to say something to calm her down, but he couldn’t think of the words. She was pretty, with blondish-brown hair; even younger than Thad, barely nineteen years old. Maybe not the ideal accomplice for something like this—but she was an electronics specialist, and she had practically begged to be a part of the scheme.
Thad shifted his eyes toward the center “seat” between them, and almost smiled at the sight of his girlfriend crouched down beneath the dashboard, her lithe body curled up into a tight little ball. Rebecca had jet-black hair, cut short against her alabaster skin, and she was even prettier than Sandra. She had just turned twenty. But as young as she was, she was the only one of the three of them who didn’t look scared. Her blue eyes were positively glowing with excitement. To her, this was beyond thrilling—really, James Bond kind of shit. Looking at her, Thad was infused with adrenalin. They were so damn close.
And suddenly he was bathed in green as the light finally changed. Thad touched the gas pedal, and the Jeep jerked forward—then he quickly lifted his foot—making sure the speedometer read exactly 5 mph. The slow-motion getaway continued, the only sounds the rumble of the Jeep’s engines and the crackle of the rain against the windshield.
A bare few minutes later, they came to the last traffic light—and again, of course, it was red. Even worse, Thad quickly made out the security kiosk just a few yards to the left of the light. He could see at least two uniformed guards inside. Thad held his breath as he slowed the Jeep to a stop at the light; he kept his head facing forward, willing Sandra to do the same. He didn’t want to have to explain why he was at the compound, past midnight on a Saturday. Thad was counting on the fact that neither of the guards would be eager to step out into the rain to interrogate him. Even so, if one of the guards had looked carefully, he might have noticed that the Jeep was sagging in the back. In fact, the vehicle’s rear axle was bent so low that the chassis almost scraped the ground as they idled at the traffic stop.
The sag of the Jeep was one of the few things that Thad and his two accomplices hadn’t planned. A miscalculation, actually—the safe that Thad and the two girls had hoisted into the back of the Jeep—less than ten minutes ago—weighed much more than Thad had expected—probably close to six hundred pounds. It had taken all three of them and a levered dolly to perform the feat, and even so Thad had strained every muscle in his back and legs getting the damn thing situated properly. Thad was just thankful that the Jeep’s axle hadn’t collapsed under the weight. As it was, he was pretty sure that even a cursory inspection of the vehicle would be enough to blow the whole operation.
Thankfully, neither of the guards made any move to step out of the kiosk. When the light shifted to green, Thad had to use all of his self-control to barely touch the gas—piloting them forward at the prescribed 5 mph. Almost instantly, the exit gate came into view. They approached, inch by inch—and at the last minute, the gate swung upward, out of the way. And then they were through. Thad slowly accelerated. Ten mph.
Twenty mph.
Thirty mph.
He glanced in the rearview mirror. The compound had receded into the rain.
He looked at Sandra—and she stared back at him. Rebecca uncurled herself and sat up in the middle of the Jeep, throwing an arm over his shoulder. Then they were all screaming in joy. They had done it. My God, they had truly pulled it off.
When the celebration had died down, Thad glanced into the rearview mirror again—but this time, he wasn’t looking at the road behind them. He could see the dark bulk of the safe, covered in a plastic tarp they had bought in a hardware store just twenty-four hours ago. The sight of the thing caused his chest to tighten—a mix of anticipation and what could only be described as pure awe.
In that safe was the most precious substance on earth. A national treasure—of unimaginable value, something that had never been stolen before—something that could never, in fact, be replaced. Thad wasn’t sure what the contents of the safe were worth—but he did know that if he’d wanted to, he could have just as easily walked off with enough of the stuff to make him the richest man in the world. As it was, he and his accomplices had pulled off one of the biggest heists in U.S. history.
But to Thad, it hadn’t really been about the monetary value of the contents of the safe. All he’d really wanted to do was keep a promise to the girl sitting next to him, her arm over his shoulder. A simple promise that a million other men had made to millions of women over the years.
He had promised to give her the moon.
The difference was, Thad Roberts was the first man who was actually going to keep that promise.
From the Hardcover edition.
Product details
- ASIN : B004FGMD5U
- Publisher : Anchor (July 12, 2011)
- Publication date : July 12, 2011
- Language : English
- File size : 1431 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 322 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #179,067 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
With a writing career spanning 19 years, Mezrich has authored twenty books, with a combined printing of over 6 million copies, including the wildly successful Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, which spent sixty-three weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List, and sold over 2 million copies in fifteen languages and was adapted into the #1 Box Office movie 21. His book, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal – debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List and spent 18 weeks there in hardcover and paperback, as well as hit bestseller lists in over a dozen countries. The book was adapted into the movie The Social Network and was #1 at the box office, won Golden Globes for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best score, and was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 3 including Best Adapted Screenplay. Mezrich and Aaron Sorkin shared a prestigious Scripter Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as well. Mezrich is the only non-fiction author to have two number one box office movie adaptations which has earned him the title of Sexiest Author on People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive List.
Ben Mezrich cracked the Hollywood Reporter’s annual hot list: Hollywood’s 25 Most Powerful Authors. This power list of authors touted to be “the industry’s most sought-after word nerds” is based on stats like Mezrich’s multiple movie deals in production such as Woolly, Seven Wonders, Once Upon a Time in Russia, and The 37th Parallel.
Ben’s newest book Bitcoin Billionaires chronicles the second act of wonder twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss as they claw their way through Silicon Valley and come out on top as the first bitcoin billionaires after an unlikely-to-win battle with the omnipotent Empire–Facebook.
Ben co-writes a middle grade fiction series Charlie Numbers with his wife Tonya, their newest book: Charlie Numbers and the Woolly Mammoth will hit shelves November 5th, and is slated to be produced for the big screen by Ellen Pompeo.
Mezrich recently joined the Writers Room for the hit Showtime TV show Billions as Consulting Producer for season 5.
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In Ben Mezrich's six non-fiction book, he hits it out of the park. Through stellar writing, Mezrich is able to effectively introduce the confusing Thad Roberts to the audience. Roberts is clearly a man of great depth, and Mezrich's writing helps unlock Roberts' depth, to the reader's delight. The true beauty of Mezrich's writing is that he makes the readers fall in love with a character despite the fact that the character is breaking the law. By the end of the story the reader is emotionally attached to the misunderstood genius that is Thad Roberts. Even when Roberts is hauled off to jail for stealing from the government, the reader feels for him because they are emotionally attached to Roberts. Mezrich writes from the viewpoint of Roberts, and uses Thad's thoughts to explains the ins and outs of NASA and the situation. With this method Mezrich is never forced to go on a tangent to explain a situation. This keeps the reader engaged throughout the story, because there is no feeling that the author is giving a history lesson instead of telling a story. In comparison to his other books, this is by far Mezrich's hardest task due to Roberts' mistakes, and the complexity of the situation. However, Mezrich passes with flying colors, and creates by far his most interesting book, as well as his most well written one. Read this book no matte what because Mezrich has created a beauty of a book that should be read and enjoyed by all.
It's funny, but as I write this review, I find myself getting angry, not only at the protagonist for what he did, but also at the author for trying to make him into a sympathetic character through a series of bald rationalizations. After having read the book, I don't find Thad Roberts to be some sort of misunderstood romantic character who just let a prank go to far. I find him to be a greedy and sociopathic thief who betrayed the people who gave him a leg up toward his dream and showed him extraordinary kindness, and also someone who callously did extraordinary damage to NASA's scientific enterprise. I find myself agreeing with the judge who appears late in the story, but I still don't think that Thad's Kharma would be balanced unless a prison guard has stolen that manuscript he was working on and destroyed it. That might have been some justice for what he did to Everett Gibson.
Oh yeah, and the author misquotes the lyric from the Rolling Stone's "Wild Horses".
But by all means, buy the book. As I said, it was an entertaining read.
Top reviews from other countries
I'm not going to get drawn into the ethics of highlighting criminal activity, but I will say that this book glorifies the crime he committed, this is amplified by the constant "Thad was a really really smart guy" which is on almost every page, which becomes annoying quickly.
What I did like was the insight the book gave into the inner workings of NASA but if that is what you are after I cannot recommend Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth enough which gives you incredible insight into the men who shaped our perception of space without the fictional dialogue you get with this authors work.