The Fourth Estate

Rating:
Summary: Brainless and predictable
Review: This was engaging enough to keep me reading the entire LENGTHY book, but that is the best I can say for it. It is a good premise, but after awhile, it is hard to care about either of the two main characters. Plus, the story gets so redundant that I kept reading, waiting for the amazing plot twists. Didn't happen.

Rating:
Summary: Pages 100-680 could have been abridged into 100 pages
Review: Lubji's transformation into Player and Armstrong all made sense. But then Armstrong's character was divorced from early development. From clever and observant and linguistically talented, Armstrong became an ill-mannered boor with Henry VIII's eating habits . . . all without explanation. Great opportunity for character exploration was sacked. Keith was never a mystery, driven with an occasional hormonic urge. There was no need to jump back and forth between the early decades of their lives. I kept on looking for the purpose of the jumping around but there was none to be found. Crisp but empty. The only good lesson was about bargaining around page 48. I finished it only because I'm compulsive. After all that disappointment, cutesy ending was insulting. Those of us who survived deserved more. Lazy, lazy work.

Rating:
Summary: A good story from a great story teller.
Review: Although not one of Mr. Archer's best, I still thought it was a very good book. I would certainly recommend it for all readers, weather you are an Archer fan or not. I thought the ending was good (it was a typical Archer twist).

Rating:
Summary: Too long and too repetitive
Review: I really thought this book was going to put me to sleep, but I saved some money on nydol. The topics were repeated and boring.

Rating:
Summary: A well written saga of 2 media mongul fighting for the world
Review: This is a well written saga of 2 men who grew up in very different environment but eventually became the 2 most prominent News tycoon in the world.While trying to dominate the News World , they stake their entire career plus the mortgage of their futures in this diabolical Power Game ! Damn good read !

Rating:
Summary: Ingenious plot; mesmerizing characters; unusual format
Review: Seldom have enjoyed a book as much in which the main character was not female!!!! The major players in this story are at once, charming, repulsive, admirable and dispicable. Always kept me guessing. The plot exceedingly well laid as it plays across world history. My first Archer novel, definitely not my last.

Rating:
Summary: Best book I have ever read.
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. the character are well defined and very interesting. A real page turner.

Rating:
Summary: The only good thing about it was I finished
Review: After reading Honor Among Thieves (my first Archer book), I was extremely disappointed with this book. Half of the book was irrelevant. Now reading Kane & Abel and it is amazingly similar - although so far much more to the point.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent character development leads 4th Estate.
Review: Archer creates two very different, yet equally intriguing media moguls in the making. Rarely have I encountered such detailed and involving character development. The build up and treatment are excellent, yet the ending veers so far from the reality I was left unfulfilled. I only hope a true autobiography of the two gentlement is written so that the real truth be known.

Rating:
Summary: Trash, but passes the time
Review: There could have been so much more here, there could have been three novels, if Archer understood what characters were. (And yes, everyone else is right, the ending does stink)