Rating: 
Summary: A Fairy Tale for Prep-School New Englanders
Review: I was interested by the blurb on this audio CD and so rented it for a long drive. It started off fairly interesting as the initial set of circumstances and setting is well described. After that, it plays like a fairy-tale. The characters are totally one-dimensional and the plot is very contrived. There is one plot turn that is totally preposterous; the author must be out of touch with today's youth or must have been completely out of ideas to advance the plot. Not recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Soap
Review: This book is about as close to a Soap Opera as you can get
without video.
The story is about twin brothers separated at birth and raised
by different families, and it follows their lives through a
series of coincidences that defies imagination. Even the author
reminds us that sometimes a rare coincidence does happen, but
he fails to convince us such a series of coincidences as here
described could actually happen.
The story will appeal to a few, but there is no suspense, no
tension, no surprises, and one page reads like another. It is
just an on-going rather boring story, and people who actually
lived the lives fictionalized here couldn't possibly lead such
dull, predictable lives.
There just isn't much here to engage any serious reader, and
most readers will want to avoid wasting their time with this
one.
Rating:
Summary: Archer misses the mark
Review: Jeffrey Archer's recent legal troubles are well known. Perhaps he needed a quick bestseller to finance his ongoing appeals. That can be the only excuse for such a contrived, almost amateurish effort as "Sons of Fortune". Despite his background in politics Archer makes some careless mistakes of history (Henry Kissinger serving as LBJ's National Security Advisor for one). The timeline of the book is clearly unrealistic, as are many of the twists and turns in the plot. Archer should concentrate on writing short stories where such devices are the norm.
Rating: 
Summary: Archer's creativity is fading out
Review: For those who have read "Kane & Abel" and "As the Crow Flies" -five star novels-it'll be very disappointing to find repetitive elements of these two books in "Sons of Fortune" (e.g., the hero's child suicide and heros' lifelong friends). The plot is weak and utterly unrealistic and the characters are plainly dull, but Archer still manages to make it readable and even enjoyable by means of his unique narrative flair. Also a bit disappointing is the fact that Archer seems to be even more fed up of Britain as he chose to develop the novel again in an American setting, just as he did with "The Eleventh Commandment". I'm still an Archer's fan, therefore I would like him to write another masterpiece based on an up-to-date theme, such as Mr Blair adventures in the UK or the Bush-Gore confrontation to the White House.
Rating:
Summary: Unrealized Promise
Review: When I began Sons of Fortune, I believed that it would be a fascinating tale of brothers separated at birth. Instead, most of the characters were very weak and just barely developed, some mysteriously disappearing prior to the end of the story. The best friends, wives and parents began with promise, only to become mere two dimensional cut-outs at the end. Most of the dialogue is pretty stiff. The build-up to the scene when the men discover that they are brothers presents one of the few real tensions in the story. As it turns out, the "discovery" scene was one of the worst in the book. It was as flat as a can of coke that has been sitting open on a table for a month. The story could not have been less plausible, a state senator, running for governor steps up to act as defense counsel for his gubenatorial rival and in his spare time he is a loving husband and a rock for his daugther. Paleeeze. The tie for the governor's office and coin flip ending was utterly ridiculous. The story did have some interesting moments, such as the men falling in love and achieving some early successes. In the end, this book is fine if you have some time to kill and are in the mood for a bit of mindless entertainment, otherwise I recommend passing on it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Dickens-esque(though not Dickens caliber) Melodrama
Review: Sons of Fortune rates high on coincidences, low on plot, and high on entertainment value. The book begins with two twins being separated at birth. These brothers, not knowing they are borthers, lead parallel lives, sharing the same friends and living in the same city for most of their lives. Much of the novel is drivel that details the brothers lives at boarding school, in college, and their jobs. Amazingly, they are drawn back to Hartford, Connecticut where they become established businessman. Improbably, they both decide to run for governor, and this is when the coincidences start to pile up. Be warned, if you want your books to have a semblance that they could actually happen, stay away from Sons of Fortune. However, if taken as pure, stupid entertainment, Sons of Fortune can be an enjoyable book, and one that's hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Cardboard characters
Review: I've always been a fan of Jeffrey Archer, but I must admit that I'm a bit disappointed with this offering. The characters are cardboard cutouts. Both Fletcher & Nat are tall, good looking, extremely bright, witty, ambitious & with nerves of steel... there is not a single flaw in them! Ralph Ellison is the bad guy - slimy, evil... not a single virtue! And this separated at birth bit... come on, Lord Archer, you could've been a bit more original than that. . 'Kane & Abel', though similar (parallel lives etc.)was a far better book. My favourite remains ,Honour Among Thieves' apart from his early works.
Rating:
Summary: A wasted effort
Review: Jeffrey Archer had squandered his opportunity if he wants to make a comeback after his prison term. While stories of twins separated at birth and unwittingly compete with each other is cliche, there is still scope enough to be explored to make a worthwhile novel. This was not done in Sons of Fortune.The publisher's extract from the inside fold of the hardcover flap was promising enough - twins separated, falling in love with the same girl yet never meeting until one defends the other in court and both end up running against each other for state governor. Peter Cartwright became Fletcher Andrew Davenport, separated from his brother Nat. One terribly handled aspect of the novel was the introduction and fade-out of important characters. In the beginning, Ms Nichols, who was hired as nanny prior to Mrs Davenport's delivery, and Mr Davenport, who confirmed the swap, played crucial roles in the development of the story. After a fairly well-done introduction, their characters became inexplicably missing from the later parts, no fade-outs, nothing. This is inconsistent with the roles they took in the beginning, both had high stakes in the deception, and did not do justive to Mr Davenport who was not someone content to be in background without showing some interest in his "son"'s (Flether) future, either with respect to the family-owned pharmaceutical firm he married to or the fact that he and his wife tried very hard to produce an offspring. In contrast, the hopes and expectations of Nat's parents continued to be addressed in the continuing saga. In terms of character development, the author tried to be fair to both twins, but it was obvious that Nat got the much better end of the deal - scholarship, leading role in Shakespeare's play, the draft service in Vietnam and war hero, and to irreversibly tilt the balance, numerous love affairs in Italy. Fletcher had to make do with patronage from a veteran senator. The author might have drawn from his past novels on American politics, namely, the Prodigal Daughter. However, Sons of Fortune was much less vicious and dirty, and the villain of the piece, Ralph Elliot, was never given a chance to speak for himself, always being referred to in third party terms. He was hardly a silhoutte, much less a character, another weakness in this novel. The author did make a tantalising gap in the story, to be filled up later in the novel at "appropriate timing" and supposedly lead to the death of Luke, son of Nat Cartwright. This death was pathetic though, and the complete failure of characterisation in the story - nothing in the story could give justification of Luke's death, unlike the suicide of the son in As the Crow Flies. The ultimate letdown of the novel was in final resolution of the gubernatorial election between the two brothers. Here, the author repeated practically verbatim what he had written in First Among Equals. In all fairness, the book, on its own, had some value in being read to idle time away, and deserves more than 1 star. I was going to give this 1.5 stars if I could, but it doesn't really deserve two stars.
Rating: 
Summary: A COMPELLING READING
Review: Ace voice performer Paul Michael gives a compelling reading to British author/politician Jeffrey Archer's latest foray into the lives of men and a nation. Action begins in Hartford, Connecticut, when twin brothers are born and then abruptly separated. It is the 1950s, and one boy, Nat Cartwright, is sent home with his mother, a school teacher, and his insurance salesman father. Apparently beginning life on an entirely different path, his brother, Fletcher Davenport, becomes the son of a wealthy man and his society wife. As the years pass, Nat attends a state university which he leaves to serve in Vietnam. Upon the end of the war he returns to college to earn an MBA. Fletcher, on the other hand, has gone to Yale where he earned a law degree. Success as a criminal lawyer comes easy for him, as does a later Senate race. Each survives the ups and downs that life has to offer before they both contemplate running for governor, still totally unaware that they are brothers. Will they discover the truth and, if so, how will they be affected? - Gail Cooke
Rating: 
Summary: Oh my, how do you not have your facts checked . . .
Review: Mr. Archer has been a favorite author of mine. There was never a doubt, when this book came out that I would buy it. But, while this book should have been great by previous Archer novel standards, this one falls way, way short. Full of outright errors and silly plot twists that stretch the story's credibilty to the breaking point, "Sons of Fortune" should at a minimum been proof read for accuracy. An example of a classic error is on the last 2 pages when a coin flip, using a "silver dollar" claims to have the 35th president on it. Sorry, Mr. Archer, JFK is on the 50 cent piece! How does this type of error get past the publisher? If you want other examples of mis-steps - ask the question why on the final ballot from the last town in CT is there only a vote for Governor - what about the Presidental race and other local issues? Were there separate ballots for each election? Ridiculous - Mr. Archer - please try again to get back on track with your next book.
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