Sparrowhawk Book One: Jack Frake

by Edward Cline

Book Overview

A young runaway learns the meaning of honor in a band of smugglers in 17th century England This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1931561001
• Release Date: November 2001
• Publisher: MacAdam/Cage
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Awesome story of values and courage!

This is the story of the intellectual development of a young man- Jack Frake. While it could have happened anytime, this story occurs about thirty years before the American Revolution. While it is not even suggested in this book, by the ideas and actions young Jack takes, one can tell that he will, somehow, in a later book, be a part of the revolution. In addition to this, we see Jack, and his heroes, take deliberate actions to further their values. I can't express how pleasurable, and uncommon, it is to read of heroes who act with principles, integrity, and honesty. The writing also keeps to the high standards by supplying enough details to allow one to imagine oneself in the action, but not so much as to bore the reader. All in all, this is the best novel I've read in quite some time.

Finally...A Book That Inspires

Everywhere I go, every book store and library I walk into, I find myself faced with "important" books, books I "should" read, and books that have garnered all kinds of critical acclaim. All too often, I read these books and end up feeling dissatisfied or depressed. I'd like to blame the authors' writing skills, but that wouldn't be fair, because sometimes, it's only the writer's evocative prose or clever style that gets me to the end of the book. So what is it that disappoints me? It's the pictures their words paint. So many of these "important" books paint pictures of dull, desperate lives, weak minds, and general hopelessness. As accurate as these portrayals may be, I don't need to see them over and over again. Honestly, I'm surrounded by dead-end people, dead-end jobs, and dead-end ideas in my daily life. I fight my own battles against laziness and mediocrity every day.So, where are the books that portray brilliance and worth, instead of just misery and dependence? Look no further than the Sparrowhawk series. In these books, you won't find heroes who deny themselves in hyper-melodramatic self-sacrifice or who wear white robes and fling lightning bolts at their enemies. If that's what you're looking for, go read "Lord of the Rings" again. What Sparrowhawk's heroes display is belief in themselves, indomitable will, honesty, and the courage to strive for greatness in the face of a world that fears, resents, and tries to destroy greatness. I may never have the extraordinary abilities of a Jack Frake or a Hugh Kenrick, but the very idea of them inspires me in a way that no Oprah book has ever managed to do. I wish there were more books like these.

THE SOUL OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION!

"Sparrowhawk" is a thrilling adventure, that reveals the soul of the American Revolution.Book 1 is the story of a young hero, Jack Frake--pauper and son of a prostitute, nurtured to intellectual manhood on the bleak Cornish coast by noble smugglers, whose daring defiance of the Crown and of arbitrary law makes them both heroes and enigmas to those around them.In the furtive underworld of British smugglers, a master of disguise and a merchant with a price on his head struggle to understand what makes them different from the people around them--what brought them together in "a covenant of defiance," "to live free, or die." In Jack Frake they see a younger version of themselves--an outcast who takes sides with them because "a man's life is his own." As the plot unfolds, and a vicious bureaucrat closes in on the gang, the tension becomes almost unbearable--until, in a wrenching climax, the boy's heroes pass on to him their legacy--that someday, perhaps in America, he will find the words to justify their rebellion."Sparrowhawk" is, as the author says, the story of "what kind of spirit makes possible rebellion against tyranny and corruption." Also not to be missed: "Sparrowhawk - Book 2: Hugh Kenrick," whose hero, a young British aristocrat, also rebels against the view that his life belongs to others.And this time next year, look for "Sparrowhawk - Book 3," which shows what happens when Jake Frake and Hugh Kenrick meet in Virginia! (Author Ed Cline has let me read this in manuscript.)

Dreams of Youth

After reading this book I felt as I did after reading "Treasure Island" when I was 10 years old- what an adventure and I wish I could be there! Of course I now know the particulars couldn't exist, but back then the idea that somewhere or maybe it could happen led me to feel excited about my future.And the fact that today this feeling is tied into the American Revolution makes it all the more relevant and intriguing.Let all the nitpickers go pick elsewhere, this book and the upcoming ones are a must read on my list. I wish Jack(and Ed Cline)well.

The Spirit of America in the Soul of a Boy.

Edward Cline's novel Sparrowhawk brings to mind Ayn Rand's dictum, "Just as Man is a being of self-made wealth, so he is a being of self-made soul." This novel is the story of young Jack Frake growing up in early eighteenth century England and the process by which he makes his own soul. The greatest value in the novel lies in the climax, when young Jack Frake observes the fate of the two men who have meant the most to him, one the father he never had, the other an older brother he never had, both of them lost to Jack because of laws that treat people as servants of the Crown. Jack resolves to understand the cause of the injustice brought down upon the men he has admired, and to write it down, and thus reclaim the liberties taken from the best men in England. And so the stage is set for Jack Frake's arrival in America, where, one hopes, he will meet men of like mind and soul. Stylistically, the novel is as pure and clean as the white sails of a great clipper ship. Cline's descriptions of the English countryside and the intimate details of individual life of that time immerse the reader in the physical reality of the time. His dialogue rings true, but is never hard to follow. And of particular note is Cline's riveting and visceral description of old London in all its filthy hectic madhouse magnificence, at once a city awe-inspiring and horrifying, attractive and repulsive, irresistible and repugnant--and exactly the type of place to flash a young boy's imagination with both the brutal and noble possibilities of life. Also of note, some keen action sequences, especially the climactic battle at sea, where Jack Frake fights for and wins more than he can possibly know. This scene is a stirring finale to the novel, and a fitting final tribute to the character of Jack Frake and the possibilities implicit in the soul he has forged through the events of the novel. Sparrowhawk is the novel of a mature Objectivist writing a form of inductive Romanticism, a writer who has found his own voice and given it full flower, a novel containing only dim echoes of Rand and Hugo. I first read excerpts of this novel in the Atlantean Press Review way back in 1994--and can honestly say that waiting this long for the complete story was well worth it! As Jack Frake would say, "Huzza!"