Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

This is a biography of Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind SpaceX, Tesla Motors and SolarCity. It was the first full-length book on its subject, and Ecco published it in May 2015, when his companies had not yet proved they would last.

The account starts with a hard childhood in Pretoria, South Africa. It then follows Musk to Canada at seventeen and on to the United States. From there it moves through his business career: Zip2, an online banking venture that became PayPal, and then the rocket and car companies and the solar one.

Ashlee Vance is a technology journalist who had covered Silicon Valley for two decades. He spent more than thirty hours talking with Musk and interviewed close to three hundred other people: relatives, executives, engineers and many former employees. The book is unauthorised. Musk gave interviews but had no say over what was printed.

That independence shapes the tone. The book is a work of reporting and is candid about what Musk's methods cost, setting the punishing demands he places on the people around him beside the engineering he drove. It suits readers who want the business and personal history of a technology founder told from many sides.