Summary and Opinion of Sidney Sheldon's "Master of the Game"
Sidney Sheldon is a superb author capable of fabricating plots as intricate as a spider's web. Master of the Game entices the reader, keeping them eagerly rolling their eyeballs over word after word, flipping page after page into the wee hours of the morning.
The book is a tale of a young Scottish teenager who ventures down to South Africa in 1883, and wrenches from the barren earth a fortune in diamonds. He is swindled by his business partner, Saloman Van Der Merwe, but with his wits and bravery defeats his ex-partner and with his money builds up a massive conglomerate. Bantu tribes murder his son, and he suffers a stroke, leaving his wife to head the company. His wife Margaret heads the company, but it is his daughter Kate that is as driven and passionate as him and builds the conglomerate into an even larger one. She is a shrewd business woman and manipulates the lives of her offspring. Because of her passion for her company, she wanted her son to also work in it and build it up, however he did not want to- he had a passion for the arts. He was a talented painter and he could have gotten far if Kate had not paid off a Parisian critic to insult him so deeply that he could never be an artist, ever. Kate manipulates her son into marrying a German girl named Marianne so that she could merge Marianne's father's company with her own. Marianne had a condition that could possibly kill her if she had babies, but Kate kept that a secret from her son and Marianne had twins, and died. Tony found out and shot his mother, but she did not die. He had a lobotomy and went to a sanitarium and the twins turned out to be equally beautiful, but very different. One, Eve, was conniving, jealous, greedy, and promiscuous, and the other, Alexandra, was sweet and loving. Eve attempts to kill Alexandra many times but is unsuccessful and she makes them look like accidents. She also deals drugs and sleeps with many men, and blames it all on Alexandra. Kate finds about Eve's tricks and lies
The book is a tale of a young Scottish teenager who ventures down to South Africa in 1883, and wrenches from the barren earth a fortune in diamonds. He is swindled by his business partner, Saloman Van Der Merwe, but with his wits and bravery defeats his ex-partner and with his money builds up a massive conglomerate. Bantu tribes murder his son, and he suffers a stroke, leaving his wife to head the company. His wife Margaret heads the company, but it is his daughter Kate that is as driven and passionate as him and builds the conglomerate into an even larger one. She is a shrewd business woman and manipulates the lives of her offspring. Because of her passion for her company, she wanted her son to also work in it and build it up, however he did not want to- he had a passion for the arts. He was a talented painter and he could have gotten far if Kate had not paid off a Parisian critic to insult him so deeply that he could never be an artist, ever. Kate manipulates her son into marrying a German girl named Marianne so that she could merge Marianne's father's company with her own. Marianne had a condition that could possibly kill her if she had babies, but Kate kept that a secret from her son and Marianne had twins, and died. Tony found out and shot his mother, but she did not die. He had a lobotomy and went to a sanitarium and the twins turned out to be equally beautiful, but very different. One, Eve, was conniving, jealous, greedy, and promiscuous, and the other, Alexandra, was sweet and loving. Eve attempts to kill Alexandra many times but is unsuccessful and she makes them look like accidents. She also deals drugs and sleeps with many men, and blames it all on Alexandra. Kate finds about Eve's tricks and lies