"Sparrowhawk" completed!

[Bill Bucko 0]

NEWS BULLETIN:

Ed Cline e-mailed me that this morning, April 27, he put the last finishing touches on the last book, Book VI, of his Sparrowhawk series.

Hurray! Congratulations! And "Long live Lady Liberty!", as Ed would say!

Those who've admired the first 4 books of the series: be sure to also look for Ed's detective novel, First Prize. It is probably out of print, now; but used copies are readily available.

Ed is undoubtably the most accomplished Objectivist fiction writer in the world, today.

[Sam Axton 0]

NEWS BULLETIN:

..."Long live Lady Liberty!",...!

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Here! Here! For Liberty and Ed Cline and "Sparrowhawk." I'm half way through book IV "Caxton". The heros are mature and they are struggling to find the concepts that will push the resisting world forward toward a more mature individual freedom. Jack Frake and Hugh Kenrick are worthy protagonists inspiring a young Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry. I'm very excited that there is a book V and VI and that this experience won't be ending too soon.

The novel is rich with period language and historical facts that describe life in the 1700s. In a bit of irony is it?, Hugh's inventiveness in bringing running water to the house is wonderful and also how speeches and papers had to be transcribed by hand shows just how far we've come technologically but the politcal dialog and powerlusting shows just how stagnant we have stayed.

I read once, someone said to Ayn Rand that these heros in your novels aren't real, they don't exist, they can't exist. And she said something to the effect that the fact that this book was written and published is proof that they are real and that they do exist.

Well I say, the fact that novel "Sparrowhawk" was written and published is proof that these heros are alive today and that this historical novel about the creation of America, the empire, is also proof that great men and women have lived.

Thank you Ed Cline very well done, my tank is full and I'm ready to go.

Sam Axton

[Edward Cline 0]

Hi, All:

Just to update you on Sparrowhawk: I emailed the manuscript of Book 6-War to the publisher yesterday morning (in San Francisco). Book 5-Revolution is officially due out December 7th, this year, and Book 6, December 2006. Jena Trammell, at Anderson College in South Carolina, used Book 2-Kenrick last fall in her world literature course, combined with the Iliad, the Odyssey, and other Greek classics. Book 2 was such a success with her students that she plans to use Books 1 and 2 next fall. Also, I have noticed that titles in the series are beginning to be incorporated in other college and high school literature courses. On the invitation of the Jefferson Library at Monticello, the whole series will be installed there. So much is going on now with the series, that I can no longer keep up with its success. I have received absolutely no "negative" feedback from readers, no furious non-fan mail. Now, I rest, after 13 years in the 18th century, and prepare my mind to write my third Roaring Twenties detective novel.

Thank you all for your comments and enthusiasm.

Ed Cline

[Gideon Reich 0]

Hi, All:

Just to update you on Sparrowhawk: I emailed the manuscript of Book 6-War to the publisher yesterday morning (in San Francisco). Book 5-Revolution is officially due out December 7th, this year, and Book 6, December 2006. Jena Trammell, at Anderson College in South Carolina, used Book 2-Kenrick last fall in her world literature course, combined with the Iliad, the Odyssey, and other Greek classics. Book 2 was such a success with her students that she plans to use Books 1 and 2 next fall. Also, I have noticed that titles in the series are beginning to be incorporated in other college and high school literature courses. On the invitation of the Jefferson Library at Monticello, the whole series will be installed there. So much is going on now with the series, that I can no longer keep up with its success.  I have received absolutely no "negative" feedback from readers, no furious non-fan mail. Now, I rest, after 13 years in the 18th century, and prepare my mind to write my third Roaring Twenties detective novel.

Thank you all for your comments and enthusiasm.

Ed Cline

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Congratulations on your continued success! I have read and enjoyed the first three Sparrowhawk novels and am eagerly anticipating getting the time to read the fourth which I've acquired recently.

However, something has been bothering me ever since I read the first novel. I was initially somewhat taken aback when Jack Frake turned out to be an atheist. I guess I'm not very familiar with the prevalence of certain ideas of the 18th century but I thought that atheism was still very uncommon and I expected your heroes to be deists like many of the Founding Fathers were. Would you care to comment?

Regards,

[Sam Axton 0]

I'm half way through book IV "Caxton". 

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My apologies to Ed and all--I meant Book IV: "Empire ".

[Edward Cline 0]

Congratulations on your continued success! I have read and enjoyed the first three Sparrowhawk novels and am eagerly anticipating getting the time to read the fourth which I've acquired recently.

However, something has been bothering me ever since I read the first novel. I was initially somewhat taken aback when Jack Frake turned out to be an atheist. I guess I'm not very familiar with the prevalence of certain ideas of the 18th century but I thought that atheism was still very uncommon and I expected your heroes to be deists like many of the Founding Fathers were. Would you care to comment?

Regards,

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[Edward Cline 0]

Congratulations on your continued success! I have read and enjoyed the first three Sparrowhawk novels and am eagerly anticipating getting the time to read the fourth which I've acquired recently.

However, something has been bothering me ever since I read the first novel. I was initially somewhat taken aback when Jack Frake turned out to be an atheist. I guess I'm not very familiar with the prevalence of certain ideas of the 18th century but I thought that atheism was still very uncommon and I expected your heroes to be deists like many of the Founding Fathers were. Would you care to comment?

Regards,

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HI, Gideon:

Yes, Jack Frake is an atheist, but it is such a "non-issue" to him that he would not broadcast the fact (I just reread the "Ayn Rand Letters" {Berliner}, and she makes the same comment to someone on the subject). Also, in that period, if one was an atheist, one kept it under one's hat, so to speak. Jack adopts my own approach to the subject (and so does Hugh Kenrick); I am not fundamentally an atheist, although I, like everyone else, is born one; I can't be bothered arguing about God or the afterlife or any mystical creeds or notions with anyone anymore. There are too many important other matters to cogitate. If you've read the first three Sparrowhawks, you'll have noticed that the only sympathetic priest or parson appears in Book 1. All the rest throughout the series are real stinkers.

Cheers, Ed Cline

[Brian Smith 0]

I just received an email reminder from Mr. Cline's publishers that the last book in his wonderful Sparrowhawk series: "War" will officially be released this Thursday, Dec. 7th!

I have been looking forward with great anticipation to this novel and have had it on pre-order at Amazon.com for quite a while now. Everyone who has read this series will likely have placed their orders already as well. And for those who have not read the series yet, I cannot offer high enough praise for Mr. Cline's literary talents. His stories are well worth your time. Your mind and soul will thank you for reading his work.

While "War" is identified as the last novel of the Sparrowhawk series, the Press Release attached to the email from the person at MacAdam/Cage did include one tidbit that caught my attention: "[Mr. Cline] lives in Virginia where he is at work on the companion to the Sparrowhawk series."

This is the first I have ever heard of such a "companion" work. As such, I am very curious as to its nature and content. For instance, is it a work of non-fiction? Or is it an expansion of the fictional world of Revolutionary America he has created?

Regardless, it is very good to know that there will be more work coming from Mr. Cline.

[Carolyn Buby 0]

I also have had the latest Sparrowhawk book on order from Amazon, but received a notice from Amazon that release might be delayed for perhaps weeks. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to reading the last of this entertaining and well written series, and read the first five with fascination. BTW, I feel the need to have a dictionary on hand to read it--a compliment to the vocabulary and literary abilities of the author, Edward Cline. Congratulations, Mr. Cline, on producing some really excellent literature, and an enlightening dramatization of the ideas giving rise to the American Revolution.

[bignosedcopperking 0]

The fruit gardens of the worlds are so vast--no matter what people say ...

I remember in Second Renaissance Books catologues, the name, SparrowHawk. That's how long ago I heard of the name, and I've been getting acquainted with other books. I didn't know, or I haven't been able to recall that these books deal with 18th Century America. You see, for years now I've known that one day I would have to write--maybe at sixty--a book about the American Revolution.

Perhaps I will not have to. I haven't read these books. But now I have to.

There are three books that should occupy my time for the next fifteen years or so. Besides these, I definately envision one about Plato and Aristotle; this is a must if I live long enough.

And everyday I would like to write others, like perhaps one on the French Romantics, or Edmond Rostand. Or even a just, fictionalized, dramatization of Ayn Rand's life, not requiring so much the events of her life reported about in other biographies, but more of a thematic-intellectual biography.

Anyways, I'm inspired, thanks to all the commentators, to save to buy these books. It's always a good thing when someone eliminates the need to do work one has felt needed to be done, so that one can concentrate on perhaps more enjoyable endeavours. Because it was really only the experience that I longed for, to live in that glorious age.

I'm confident these books will turn out to be good.

Thanks,

Jose Gainza.

[stellavision 0]

I also have had the latest Sparrowhawk book on order from Amazon, but received a notice from Amazon that release might be delayed for perhaps weeks.

I just put it on order at Amazon yesterday -- the listing said it was due to be shipped January 9th. Can't wait!

[Bill Bucko 0]

... It's always a good thing when someone eliminates the need to do work one has felt needed to be done, so that one can concentrate on perhaps more enjoyable endeavours...

You do NOT repeat NOT have a DUTY to write about the American Revolution, Ayn Rand, Aristotle, Rostand ... or anything else!

Please read Ayn Rand's essay, "Causality versus Duty."

If you aren't writing for YOUR OWN pleasure, to serve YOUR OWN DEEPEST PERSONAL values, then that's a huge warning sign you need to stop and rethink what art is for ... and what your own life is for!

Howard Roark would have walked across corpses, to create his buildings, his way. Be GLAD not to have to build a building?!? Such an idea would never have entered his mind.

[RickWilmes 0]

I did not know this thread existed. I have read the first four books and I will be reading Revolution next. However, I am not going to read it now. I am waiting until I take my next vacation to Hanalei Bay, Kauai. I did the same thing when I read the Fountain Head. Pure pleasure at its best.

So far Jack Frake is my hero, more so than John Galt. Maybe I will discover the reason why when I read Revolution.

[Bill Bucko 0]

From the thread on Sparrowhawk, Book 6:

Here's a graphic I prepared (the title is taken from an unpublished Chess Hanrahan detective novel of Ed's):

Honors Due

[Jim A. 0]

Well, I'm going to have to pick-up the Sparrowhawk series as well.

I enjoyed Edward Cline's mystery novel First Prize, and wish I hadn't loaned it to someone who, sadly, had had a brain injury after a car accident, if the book is actually out-of-print. I haven't seen this lady for years, but I hope she enjoyed the book. I should be able to find another copy. I especially enjoyed the section of the book, about three pages, presenting the murder victim's struggles as a writer.

Regarding Sparrowhawk: it's very rare we have any good literature dealing with the American Revolution. I've heard people talk of the series by John Jakes, but frankly, even though I've never read those books, they sound like a series of Revolutionary soap opera--not something our generation today needs to read, if that is so. But I should sample it.

And I should certainly sample Edward Cline's series; it sounds much more promising.

[Charles T. 0]

I recommend Fred Weiss's online store, The Paper Tiger, for purchasing the Sparrowhawk books.

He has a deal that includes books 1,3,4, and 5, all autographed by the author, for $75 + shipping. Mine just arrived yesterday.

www.papertig.com