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Iron Giant

I'm not really the best person to review this book

Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2017

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I'm not really the best person to review this book. You may dismiss it entirely.

In the early 1970's I used to watch the USA launch rockets into space. So exciting! I grew up reading science fiction: Asimov, Heinlein, etc. I remember seeing a cut out diagram of the space shuttle for the first time. So amazing to live during that time for me. International Space Station, super sonic jets, moon landings. The future seemed to be in space, it sure was in my imagination. Space stations, moon bases, permanent habitats on Mars. The space shuttle was just the beginning and I dreamed big.

Then, the shuttle exploded. A fluke, right?

Fast forward to 2017. The space shuttles are retired. The ISS is the size of a double wide trailer and about as interesting. The USA can't even get an astronaut there without getting the Russians to allow a trip on their fleet of rockets that aren't any different from the one's in 1970. The super sonic jets have been retired and no one has landed anything on the moon in the last couple of decades except China and their lander performed its mission of making it there and then going to sleep forever.... What happened? We all have cell phones and the Internet and so what. We know all about "famous" people" in entertainment news and the world looks more and more like "Brave New World" everyday. In the 1970's we dreamed of Mars and beyond, now we are consumed with consuming. So depressing.

I only knew about Mr. Musk or SpaceX or Tesla in a vague way. But my 15 year old became enamored with Tesla's electric cars and who am I to argue? I got her this book. I always read everything I get for her so we can discuss it (but mostly she just nods her head...) but I've finished this book and I don't think she started....

I have a man crush on Elon Musk.

The book's writing is solid, but kind of plainly told. Maybe the author didn't want to oversell the drama, so that's OK.

But this story of Elon Musk, SpaceX and Tesla is something taken directly out of an Asimov book. If I wrote this book as fiction 15 years ago, no one would buy it. How will it all really end? Will Elon Musk pull the Earth out of its funk and restart the future? Hokey, I know, but that is his goal. He is doing things that very smart people have said for 20 years are not possible. I now see that the dreams we had have always been possible, we just stopped dreaming and did other things.

In 20 years, someone will write the next and pretty much final chapter of this story. Now that, COULD be an even more interesting book.....

Having said all that, I gave the book a 5 star rating, not because the writing is perfect or the story told completely, but just because the story and Elon Musk are amazing and the stuff of my dreams.

Amazon Customer

Amazing book (hardcoverver/paperback)

Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2021

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The book is amazing! I got the paperback about a year ago, but I decided to buy the hardcover too. I must say that I was unsure about buying the hardcover because there were very few (if any) reviews regarding it. The paperback is great, without a doubt, but I would definitely suggest you buy the hardcover version over any others.
Another thing I want to mention is that the image on the back of the hardcover is not the same as the paperback's (All the images I posted were of the hardcover, just for the record). The hardcover's features a picture of Elon Musk, while I believe the others have a book description/book reviews in it's place.
Lastly, I would like to say that the book is the perfect gift for Elon Musk fans and young engineers. As a thirteen-year-old, I would say that I thoroughly enjoyed it and I would definitely read it again. It is the first thing that I would suggest to someone who has similar interests and is by far the best nonfiction book I have ever read.

Michelle

Musk is problematic as a hero, hard to admire

Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2018

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'Santa' bought this for my 10yo daughter to read and I read it myself, being interested in Tesla and SpaceX and Musk in general. However, I found myself conflicted and liking Musk less and less the more I read.

In Musk's world, my daughter would struggle to exist. It's a man's club. All the early team members were men. And the one woman who asked for a raise was fired. (The men, by comparison, all got raises.)

I'm about the same age as Musk and I could never be Musk even though I have a similar capacity for innovation.

In my Fortune 500 days a VP tried to fire me as a cost savings measure. Except I had key certifications and expertise in mandatory regulatory compliance so the company had to keep me. I was punted to another group to get my costs off the VP's budget. At which point I had a better boss, but left the company anyway. Like Musk, I could make something out of nothing. I could bring groups together, identify resources and hack bottlenecks. But it didn't matter. I was the wrong gender.

So I could never be Musk. I felt that acutely as I read. I'm a woman, and for my generation, gender was difficult to overcome. I hit the glass ceiling and it never cracked for me. Yet I could give speeches at national organizations and get five different job offers. I could never reconcile that.

For as much as Musk is a genius, he is still very much a product of a patriarchy that actively works against women. He is still very much a product of a culture full of privilege for white men that has little interest in diversity. American Business hasn't evolved. It's still a one note choir that ignores the rest of the scale. And Musk doesn't seem to have any awareness of this. He's blind.

Musk also wants to take us to Mars, but, as I read, I found myself asking, what's the point of going to Mars if our culture can't figure out how to sustain a planet or incorporate a diverse population? If we don't change, Mars won't save us. I wonder if Musk is tackling the wrong issues. Rockets are nice, but if they are exporting misogyny, racism and greed...what's the point? Who are we going to save?

As for my daughter, I'm in no hurry for her to read this. I don't think she would find it particularly inspiring and I'm not sure that women in her generation get to be Musk either.

Top reviews from other countries

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jacques thouin

good easy read

Reviewed in Canada on September 8, 2021

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gave the book to my grandson and he liked it

Julia

Best idea ever

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 18, 2019

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Elon Musk is today's most successful entrepreneur, and his story is worth telling. It is wonderful that this book is written in a language that kids can understand too and inspire them to dream big, follow their dreams.

I bought this in hopes that my slacker nephew might care about other things in life than smoking, drinking and ahem...physical interaction (he's 15...) but he's too far in his own millenial delusions about life to care about such a wonderful book. Heck I'm even surprised he didn't slap this book right back at my face. But other than that, this should be a must read for young entrepreneurs.

Muhammad Abdullah

Inspirational :)

Reviewed in Germany on May 30, 2022

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A must read for youth