Elon Musk Young Readers’ Edition

The story behind the real-life Iron Man - told especially for young readers.

Ashlee Vance is one of the most prominent writers on technology today. After spending several years reporting on Silicon Valley and technology for the New York Times, Vance went to Bloomberg Businessweek, where he has written dozens of cover and feature stories for the magazine on topics ranging from cyber espionage to DNA sequencing and space exploration.

Elon Musk is an inspirational role model for young entrepreneurs, breaking boundaries and revolutionising the tech-world. He is also the real-life inspiration for the Iron Man series of films, starring Robert Downey Junior. From his humble beginnings in apartheid South Africa, he showed himself to be an exceptionally bright child, and overcame brutal bullying to become the world’s most exciting entrepreneur, founding PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla and Solar City. 
 
He has emerged as something of a superhero-like figure for today’s generation of children. He’s not only seen as an entrepreneur in the spirit of a Steve Jobs but as an inventor and bold thinker. He’s the guy offering children the possibility of a brighter, more exciting future and has come to symbolize innovation and optimism.

How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future

Elon Musk

‘I would like to die on Mars, just not on impact.’ – Elon Musk

Is Elon Musk the new Steve Jobs? This is one of many questions this excellent biography poses

For anyone interested in technology, entrepreneurship or the price of greatness, Ashlee Vance's new book is a tremendous look into arguably the world's most important entrepreneur. Vance paints an unforgettable picture of Musk's unique personality, insatiable drive and ability to thrive through hardship. The book bursts with telling anecdotes and quotes that illuminate who Musk is

Exhaustively reported . . . this work will likely serve as the definitive account of a man whom so far we've seen mostly through caricature. By the final pages, too, any reader will sense the need to put comparisons to Steve Jobs aside. Give Musk credit. There is no one like him

A book that is smart, light on its feet and possesses a crunchy thoroughness. . . . Mr Vance delivers a well-calibrated portrait of Mr Musk, so that we comprehend both his friends and his enemies. It's a book with many ancillary pleasures. Mr Vance brings us up to date on the states of green energy and space launches. He also veers away from his subject just often enough, offering profiles of the frequently brilliant people who work alongside Mr Musk. The best thing Mr Vance does in this book, though, is tell Mr Musk's story simply and well

Ashlee Vance’s stellar biography captures Musk’s remarkable life story and irrepressible spirit

This is an entertaining read for anybody who wants to get into the mind of this hyperactive entrepreneur who bounces between being eccentric, obnoxious and a genius.

Ashlee Vance’s portrait of Elon Musk at mid-life is an essential read. You might think you know this story: how a South African with a big vision ended up creating and running the first successful private space concern (SpaceX) and the first profitable electric car company, with the biggest US solar installer (SolarCity) as a side project. But what emerges is a riveting portrait of Silicon Valley’s most driven entrepreneur since Steve Jobs, personal flaws and all.

This is the definitive look at the man who may have the biggest impact on the human race.

South African born Elon Musk is the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity. Musk wants to save our planet; he wants to send citizens into space, to form a colony on Mars; he wants to make money while doing these things; and he wants us all to know about it. He is the real-life inspiration for the Iron Man series of films starring Robert Downey Junior. 
 
The personal tale of Musk’s life comes with all the trappings one associates with a great, drama-filled story. He was a freakishly bright kid who was bullied brutally at school, and abused by his father. In the midst of these rough conditions, and the violence of apartheid South Africa, Musk still thrived academically and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he paid his own way through school by turning his house into a club and throwing massive parties. 
 
He started a pair of huge dot-com successes, including PayPal, which eBay acquired for $1.5 billion in 2002. Musk was forced out as CEO and so began his lost years in which he decided to go it alone and baffled friends by investing his fortune in rockets and electric cars. Meanwhile Musk’s marriage disintegrated as his technological obsessions took over his life ... 
 
Elon Musk is the Steve Jobs of the present and the future, and for the past twelve months, he has been shadowed by tech reporter, Ashlee Vance. Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of Spacex and Tesla is Shaping our Future is an important, exciting and intelligent account of the real-life Iron Man.

Ashlee Vance

An exuberant ride, happily hopping around the Pacific Rim from Kwajalein Atoll to California, from New Zealand to Kodiak Island, reveling in the do-it-yourself ethos of the new space business

The frenzied race by stargazing entrepreneurs to build a new economy in space is one of the most exciting tales of our time. Ashlee Vance, with his immersive reporting and exuberant writing, has captured the ambition and idealism of the colourful characters who are not only transforming our world but our heavens. It's the next tech frontier, and Vance turns it into a thriller

Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of STEVE JOBS

A new testament for New Space, and an eloquent, expertly-reported ode to the swaggering geniuses who are opening the final frontier

Brad Stone, author of THE EVERYTHING STORE and AMAZON UNBOUND

Illuminating... For an insight into the people and culture driving the new space age, Mr Vance's book is the place to start. After the wonder of the Moon landings, space somehow contrived to become boring. These days it is exciting again

[A] fantastic new book . . . I can highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in space, especially if you want to know how space startups work behind the public promises and marketing

Vance has delivered that rare book that educates and entertains while opening the reader up to a brand-new universe of wonderful characters and ideas. It's non-fiction that reads like a novel

Andy Weir, author of THE MARTIAN and HAIL MARY

Through incisive reporting and colorful prose, Ashlee Vance takes us on a thrilling ride to the outer limits of human achievement

Sheelah Kolhatkar, bestselling author of BLACK EDGE

The book chronicles an enthralling Wild West of ego, idealism, and regulation-skirting greed, where soaring dreams are weighed down by economics and physics. CEOs, investors, engineers, and welders alike are smitten, but their efforts yield mostly pedestrian tools that track cargo ships, measure crop growth, or make phone calls. Still, the projects keep multiplying. "Something about space," Vance writes, "allows humans to perceive themselves as being part of a timeless story and casting their lot in with the infinite

The spectacle of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and other technology scions shooting themselves into space may give you the idea that the whole experience is an ego trip, but Vance, the author of a best-selling biography of Musk, encourages readers to think bigger. He follows four companies - Astra, Firefly, Planet Labs and Rocket Lab - in this interplanetary land grab, all with the hope of making Earth's lower orbit the next site of technological innovation

19 Works of Nonfiction to Read this Spring

[An] exciting account... provides finely observed portraits of the figures behind the aerospace companies...offers a fresh look at the new space race, and Vance's feels-like-you're-there storytelling captures the "spectacular madness" of the moonshots. It's The Right Stuff for the silicon age

[An] energetic account...[Vance] ably captures 'the spectacular madness of it all.' With enthusiasm and solid research, this book is an entertaining, informative look at cutting-edge technology

Ashlee Vance writes about a new kind of space race marked by private companies launching rockets and putting a massive number of satellites into orbit. The characters behind this new fight to dominate the skies are just as interesting as the ones [Tom] Wolfe wrote about decades ago . . . Vance's behind-the-scenes access to the companies helps explain the challenges the private space industry faces and propels the book along as he describes failed rocket launches and globe-trotting investors

One of the best books ever written about NewSpace . . . An incredibly entertaining account of today's space industry . . . Well-written and thrilling . . . When the Heavens Went on Sale is a timely read that introduces readers to the exciting business of launching small satellites. The space-based economy is just getting started

Well-researched and insightful . . . An excellent addition to science or biography collections

A fascinating read about an emerging, rapidly changing industry . . . If, for any reason, you thought the people in the space industry were boring, When the Heavens Went on Sale will make it clear they far from it

Full of colorful people, risky investments, and teachable explosions, Vance's book is fascinating

The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach

*An instant New York Times Bestseller* 
 
'One of the most exciting tales of our time... It's the next tech frontier, and Vance turns it into a thriller' Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs 
 
'Eloquent, expertly reported' Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store 
_______________ 
 
A momentous look at the private companies driving the revolutionary new space race, from the 3-million copy, New York Times bestselling author of Elon Musk 
 
In 2008, Elon Musk's SpaceX became the first private company to build a low-cost rocket that could reach orbit. Suddenly Silicon Valley, not NASA, was the epicentre of the new Space Age. 
 
Ashlee Vance follows four pioneering companies - Astra, Firefly, Planet Labs and Rocket Lab - as they race to control access to outer space. While the space tourism ambitions of billionaires such as Bezos and Branson make headlines, these under-the-radar companies are striving to monetise Earth's lower orbit; to connect, analyse and monitor everything on Earth. 
 
With unprecedented access to private company headquarters, labs and top-secret launch locations - from the US to New Zealand, Ukraine to India - Vance presents a gripping account of private jets, communes, gun-toting bodyguards, drugs, espionage investigations and multimillionaires guzzling booze as their fortunes disappear. 
 
This is the most pressing and controversial technology story of our time. Welcome to the new Wild West above the clouds.

Ashlee Vance

Praise for When The Heavens Went On Sale

An exuberant ride, happily hopping around the Pacific Rim from Kwajalein Atoll to California, from New Zealand to Kodiak Island, reveling in the do-it-yourself ethos of the new space business

The frenzied race by stargazing entrepreneurs to build a new economy in space is one of the most exciting tales of our time. Ashlee Vance, with his immersive reporting and exuberant writing, has captured the ambi ...

A new testament for New Space, and an eloquent, expertly-reported ode to the swaggering geniuses who are opening the final frontier

An exuberant ride, happily hopping around the Pacific Rim from Kwajalein Atoll to California, from New Zealand to Kodiak Island, reveling in the do-it-yourself ethos of the new space business

The frenzied race by stargazing entrepreneurs to build a new economy in space is one of the most exciting tales of our time. Ashlee Vance, with his immersive reporting and exuberant writing, has captured the ambi ...

A new testament for New Space, and an eloquent, expertly-reported ode to the swaggering geniuses who are opening the final frontier

An exuberant ride, happily hopping around the Pacific Rim from Kwajalein Atoll to California, from New Zealand to Kodiak Island, reveling in the do-it-yourself ethos of the new space business

The frenzied race by stargazing entrepreneurs to build a new economy in space is one of the most exciting tales of our time. Ashlee Vance, with his immersive reporting and exuberant writing, has captured the ambi ...

A new testament for New Space, and an eloquent, expertly-reported ode to the swaggering geniuses who are opening the final frontier

Books by Ashlee Vance

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