More of the same.
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Mr. Archer is a one trick pony. His successful novels track two individuals through life with notable historical events as a backdrop and with the inevitable convergence of the characters at the end. This follows his successful formula. This however is poorer than "Kane and Able", "The Fourth Estate" "First Among Equals" etc. I do enjoy Archer's inside knowledge of old money, old school ties and political shenanigans but feel have been here before. Very accessible but one perhaps to skip.
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Classic Archer
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Archer can write a gripping story and one wants to keep on reading but I do not think this is one of his best. At the start there are a lot of characters to remember and relate too. There were too many school, college and other ballots here. One tired of them. Why does the villain keep following the two main characters? I would prefer Jeffrey to give us an English story.
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Dissapointing!
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Having read all the Archer novels I have to say it was dissapointing to say the least. Jeffrey Archer is a victim of his own success and the book is not up to the standard of previous novels. For example the classic Kane and Abel, Honour Among Thieves,The Elenventh Commandment and Not A Penny More Or Less, all had a good story and a twist at the end.
The story line is predictable and goes into too much detail in the politics and the workings of the voting system. In addition without giving anything away, there just seemed to be far too many coincidences that it became unbelievable which led to a weak end to the plot.
If there was a positive in the book, the court- case battle was of interest but Archer only gives it a brief consideration.
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More "As the Crow Flies" than "A Matter of Honour...
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Having been a keen reader of Archer novels in the past but totally un-interested in reading his prison diaries, I wondered if any of his novels had passed me by in the last couple of years, so I was delighted when I discovered Sons of Fortune. I think some other reviewers have been slightly harsh but after all, it is a matter of taste. If you compare this book with A Matter of Honour or even the Eleventh Commandment you may well be disappointed, because it's not a gripping chase novel, nor does it hold any of the intrigue of his inside stories of the CIA. It does hold up well against As the Crow flies, however - simply a very good story which you're loathe to put down. Read it - you may well be very pleasantly surprised. I was.
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A Matter Of Taste?
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The book is a complete disappointment! Having read all of Archer's books I come to the conclusion that this must be one of his weakest if not the weakest of all. He is a decent writer of thrillers - "The Eleventh Commandment", "Honour Among Thieves", A Matter of Honour" and even "Shall We Tell The President" are real page-turner, but his sagas are getting poorer and poorer. "Kane and Abel" still was digestible but with many shallow dialogs and boring stuff, "The Prodigal Daughter" though is a complete failure and shows, that Archer has nothing learned. Still, "As the Crow Flies" is an astonishing gripping read but "The Fourth Estate" made the same mistakes in a more convincing story. ("First Among Equals" is somehow out of order - at least it gives some interesting insight in the political life)Now, one would assume he does it better in his sixth attempt to write a real novel, a masterpiece, but far from it! "Sons of Fortune" stays in the sad tradition of the aforementioned (K&A, PD). Worst of all: there is nothing new in the book! Every single idea has been used before: the Parallelaktion, the culprit, the war action, the court room action, the voting, a lot of voting, the auctions, the parties, the financial speculation and so on. Archer is very poor in characterizing people and events; he is strong in creating suspense. Why is it he doesn't stick to the things he can do? Why does he always try to prove himself and overdoes it? Well, the answer possibly can be found in Micheal Crick's fascinating book "Jeffrey Archer - Stranger Than Fiction".
We can't deny the fact, that some people still like Archer's saga-stuff; so maybe it all boils down to a question of taste?
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