Elon Musk

Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

By: Ashlee Vance

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

In the spirit of Steve Jobs and Moneyball, Elon Musk is both an illuminating and authorized look at the extraordinary life of one of Silicon Valley's most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneurs - a real-life Tony Stark - and a fascinating exploration of the renewal of American invention and its new makers.

Elon Musk spotlights the technology and vision of Elon Musk, the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, who sold one of his Internet companies, PayPal, for $1.5 billion. Ashlee Vance captures the full spectacle and arc of the genius' life and work, from his tumultuous upbringing in South Africa and flight to the United States to his dramatic technical innovations and entrepreneurial pursuits.

Vance uses Musk's story to explore one of the pressing questions of our age: Can the nation of inventors and creators who led the modern world for a century still compete in an age of fierce global competition? He argues that Musk - one of the most unusual and striking figures in American business history - is a contemporary, visionary amalgam of legendary inventors and industrialists, including Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs. More than any other entrepreneur today, Musk has dedicated his energies and his own vast fortune to inventing a future that is as rich and far reaching as the visionaries of the golden age of science-fiction fantasy.

©2015 Ashlee Vance (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"Fred Sanders narrates this smartly written biography with the right balance of gravitas and entertainment value, providing accents for some of the major characters including a convincing South African accent for the story's star.... The combination of great narration, well-written and well-researched content, and a bigger-than-life subject propels this nuanced work into the upper atmosphere of audiobook biographies." (AudioFile)

Excellent

Extremely well written and researched. Fascinating subject. Great reader. I'll probably listen to this one again at some point.

excellent read!

makes you want to change and be a better person. The reader was amazing. highly recommended

Awesome

Loved it. What a fascinating visionary and business man. It should be interesting to see where his company's are 10 years from now and if we have a human on mars.

What can be accomplished if you work hard

This is an interesting rags to riches story. He was sort of a recluse as a child, became quite successful, quite rough and gruff, but has a nice, fun side also. It's amazing how much he has accomplished in his life to this point. He has developed very nice electric cars, space possibilities outside of government control, and solar power. Very very bright and a very very hard worker who requires a lot of his employees. It would be hard to work for him and have any sort of family life. I enjoy business biographies and I found his story very interesting.

Portrays Musk as a demi-god

What did you love best about Elon Musk?

Amazing story and portrayal of one of the most creative leaders of the last decade. Musk is glorified in this detailed biography. I am a huge fan of the aspirational long term goals of Musk. He has inspired legions of Muskenites, and has transformed the auto and space industries setting new goalpost.

Most of the business headlines are nothing new, and a lot of the book seems like the auto manual for Tesla. Which in fact has worked to sell me on getting my hands on a model x ;) There are moments of incite, when the author breaks into his secret meetings with the google guys. I wish the book would have delved a little deeper into his personal life. Vance touches upon Musk's personal connections, but I wish he would have gone deeper.

I've been to burning man many times, and I am glad it was given some time in the book. I feel like there could have been a bit more background on this and his experience there. It was glossed over a little too quickly. It would have been nice to see Musk's inner circle cracked a little more. There also was a touch of hypocrisy dealing with Tesla that wasn't addressed. Musk felt he was pushed out of his first two companies by money and power. He delivered the same fate to Eberhard.

A fascinating read, covering a character that could help to shape the next American revolution as we evolve as a country through entrepreneurial leadership. Musk is the kind of man the embodies everything that has traditionally made this country great, and reminds us that we can still dream.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The man who feared robots, while dreaming of space

A little fan boy

The book feels a little like Ashlee Vance is a fanboy. I thought the book was extremely enlightening is ways I never expected. The only issue is the complete lack of discussion on racism. There was a comment on how Elon hated racism, but the fact that Ashlee Vance is from South Africa he is super aware that Elon's entire family exoduses out of South Africa at the exact time all the racist whites were fleeing--and yet no discussion on this topic in the book. Why?

I want to be Elon Musk

Loved it. He is inspirational. Good luck Elon. Keep changing the world one rocket, car and solar panel at a time.

Must listen, top notch performance

For anyone even remotely interested in the type of audacity that is borne in Silicon Valley, this book is for you. I work in tech and consider myself very plugged into the industry, but I only knew about half of the nuances and quirks that this book covers.

Great book and an amazing story

I have always been and am impressed by Tesla, Solarcity and SpaceX companies.
This story of Elon Musk is one of if not the best books I have ever read.
Musk has such a fascinating personality and he is so amazingly brilliant. If I were part of his circle I would be definitely one of those people who adores him. The reason that he is so straight forward is because he so smart that he doesn't have any time for any bs and sugarcoating, he doesn't lie to himself and to people around him. In Musk's world it is what it is and it takes strong personality to understand him and not to get offended by taking it personal.
Again, I love the book and I love Elon Musk's personality, and would totally recommend it to my friends.
Natalie

Amazing.

Couldn't help thinking of Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. Dude's trying to do amazing things for the betterment of mankind and people getting in the way! Nuts!

Really well compiled biography. Very enjoyable, entertaining, and informative. Not to mention inspiring. Highly recommend this one.