March 28, 2024

Sex on the Moon

Ben Mezrich is back. His latest is “the amazing story behind the most audacious heist in history.” A NASA coop student stole a safe full of moon rocks and tried to sell them. After pilfering the lunar samples, he placed one under his bed sheets and …. Well…. I guess you can figure out where the name of the book came from.

The book is fun and sprightly. We saw what a gifted director can do with one of Merich’s books. David Fincher turned The Accidental Billionaires into the Oscar-worthy The Social NetworkBringing Down the House became the mediocre 21.

Sex on the Moon reads more like a screenplay. I expect we will see some version of it the theaters with a “based on a true story” label.

What the book misses is what motivated Thad Roberts to engage in theft. There is an interesting dynamic there and an even more interesting tale of human vice. But Mezrich doesn’t bother to dive that deep into the research to find this. That would just slow down the flow of the story.

The publisher sent me a copy of the book to review.