How could you go wrong with a title like ‘Sex on the Moon’? Okay to be fair the full title of the book is’ ‘Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History’. It just screams READ ME! Right? So, I did, and what a story. The book is written by the author of the ‘Accidental Billionaire’, Ben Mezrich, which was turned into the film ‘The Social Network’. In ‘Sex on the Moon’ Mezrich introduces us to another young up and comer named Thad Roberts who is ready to become the first man on Mars. Well that is before he gets the crazy idea to steal some Moon rocks from NASA and sell them over the Internet! Oh the crazy things kids do for love.
The story is engaging as we see Thad’s spirited nature come out during his time at NASA. He sneaks his way on to a shuttle simulation test and gains favor with many of the up and coming scientists at NASA. His future looks bright until he decides to try and impress a girl and make a little money for himself. As I mentioned the story is intriguing and Mezrich unfolds the story in a fairly logical and orderly fashion. However the style of writing is a bit sophomore-ish. Lines like ‘…as she touched his muscular chest while standing next to him…’ just screams cheesiness, and for me, took away all sense of believability at times. Really did this woman really think that, at that particular moment in time? Why does something like that even have to be mentioned in a non-fiction book like this? I picked up a non-fiction book to read not a romance novel!
Overall the book was a good and interesting read. I always remembered reading or hearing something about this story and had pretty much chalked it up as an urban legend. Now I know differently. How does the title fit into the book? Well I will let the reader find out for themselves. Those Moon rocks will never be the same.
