"A government big enough to give you
everything you want is strong
enough to take
everything you have." Thomas Jefferson.
Award winning author James R.
Olson has crafted
a novel warning America about
a government
out of control-an insatiable
monster devouring
our resources and our freedoms.
Oppressive
laws and regulations are forcing
businesses
to outsource jobs, or relocate
entirely to
less restrictive countries. Millions
are
unemployed as the middle class
is fast slipping
into poverty, leaving only two
social groups;
those dependent on government
handouts and
those bled dry to pay for social
programs.
Only one man has the courage
to stand against
the establishment. Businessman
Theodore Winston
Hale commits his considerable
fortune to
establishing the American Party
and financing
his own Presidential campaign.
He reaches
out to a desperate nation with
his message
that more laws, more regulations,
and more
government is not the answer
because an intrusive
Federal government IS the problem.
The powerful elite controlling
the nation's
political machinery don't consider
Ted Hale
a threat to their power base
until the American
people begin responding to his
message. Then
they fight back with every dirty
weapon in
their arsenal. When those tactics
prove ineffective
in slowing Hale's momentum, the
opposition
turns to the ultimate weapon-assassination.
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Reader Reviews of An Eagle Unchained
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"A top pick for fiction libraries everywhere. (May 6, 2008 )
The Government has spun out of control -
everything that is feared in the modern day
just grows worse and worse as the days go
by - "An Eagle Unchained" is a
story of one man and his associates standing
up to the oppression that's destroying their
country. Business man Ted Hale announces
his candidacy for the Presidency in a last
ditch effort - at first, his opponents view
him as a non issue, but soon Hale gains momentum,
and there seems to be methods set in motion
to eliminate Hale's potential. "An Eagle
Unchained" is a deftly written account
of America falling into a dystopia - and
that there is still potential for them to
recover even at it's worse, as an optimistic
turn of events. A top pick for fiction libraries
everywhere". - Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
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Libertarian Idealism down your throat (April 22, 2008)
In the mother of all contrived
scenes, Theodore
Winston Hale, a small town boy
from Wisconsin
with an aristocratic name, survives
an assassination
attempt thirty minutes prior
to debating
the Democrat and Republican candidates
for
President. The scene has to happen
so the
author can display his super-hero
candidate's
unflappable courage while it
also parrallell's
a true-life incident of Teddy
Roosevelt,
the protaginist's namesake, who
too survived
an assassin's bullett while making
a speech.
In both cases, TH and TR made
sure they finished
their public duties prior to
racing off to
the hospital to remove bullets
or possible
shrapnel. Neither one of them
would want
to look like a sissy.
Can one really believe a Presidential
debate
would go on after a bloody attempt
on the
life of one of the candidates?
That chapter,
though well written, was so unconvincing
I put down the book for a month.
On the other hand, the chapter
on the sniper
was spectacular; the sentences
ripe with
imagery, the scenes concise,
and the rythm
of the words made music. Olson
is at his
best in that chapter, clearly
demonstrating
his ability as a craftsman. Hopefully,
in
his next book we'll see more
of this type
of writing.
"An Eagle Unchained,"
is too focused
on creating a utopian Libertarian
candidate
in Teddy Hale. Having experience
running
a corporation and running for
high office,
I can tell you I never met a
person like
Hale. He doesn't exist. Businessmen
all have
skeltons in their closets, they've
all tried
to influence somebody, they've
all tried
to push public sentiment in their
favor.
Why do you think Rotary Clubs
were invented?
Getting dirt on any business
person would
not be difficult, since, if they're
not sinning,
you can bet that one of their
department
heads is. In Teddy Hale's case,
he's just
too damn perfect to be one of
the wealthiest
business people in the world.
You don't push
your product all over the world
without rolling
over a few people and making
enemies. Just
ask Bill Gates.
My hope is that the truly gifted James Olson
concentrates on writing a good old fashioned
story the next time around, one with realistic
and believable characters. "An Eagle
Unchained," comes across like a playbook
for the Libertarian Party members, a book
of political fantasy for all those to the
far right of Sean Hannity. - gary mack (shelby township, Mi)
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"IF ELECTIONS COULD CHANGE ANYTHING THEY WOULD
BE ILLEGAL, (April 12, 2008)
Apparently there are still romantics
that
believe that one could (to put
it in Leonard
Cohen's words) "change the
system from
within". James Olson is
one of them.
And no one can hold it against
him I guess.
Welcome to the world of Theodore
Winston
Hale, billionaire, TV network
and newspaper
mogul and patriot. He decides
to create a
third party from scratch (the
American Party)
and keep it out of special interests
pressures
(there should have gone the elections)
and
Washington lobbyists (there should
go both
Houses). Yet, Hale survives all
that (and...more)
and gets to make his mark.
Three stars for word-craftsmanship
and the
will to keep hoping for this
democratically
painted Media-Oligarchy to work.
Case in
point: Hilary Clinton did not
get green-lighted
to run for President until she
abandoned
her universal health plan and
bended to the
private HMO's pressure. Thus,
one star withheld
for political naiveté.
I used to like Jack Ryan but then I realized
that he would have send the troops in harm's
way to make profits for his Oil Industry
cronies. The anti-Clancy writer of American
politics has emerged. " - NeuroSplicer (Freeside, in Orbit)
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"A Very Good Novel With a Message, (April 5, 2008) This is a very entertaining
novel with a much needed message.
The story features Theodore Winston
Hale.
He is fed up with the bloated
government,
wasteful spending and reduced
freedoms perpetuated
by career politicians. He wants
to do something
about it and has the resources
to do so.
Hale is one of the wealthiest
people in the
country and counts some newspapers
and a
TV network among his holdings.
This makes
him uniquely capable of taking
on the entrenched
bureaucrats and politicians in
the Democrat
and Republican parties.
There are many twists and turns
and the story
will surely keep one interested
for the entire
ride.
Some of the ideas that he puts
forth, while
not original, have great potential
to improve
our current situation. To avoid
giving away
too much of the story, I will
not go into
detail. Suffice it to say, he
has plans that
will greatly enhance freedom
for Americans,
eliminate the national debt,
and greatly
improve life. One can only wish
that there
was a real leader like the fictional
Hale.
There are a few problems with
the book. They
don't detract greatly from the
book, but
it would be good if they were
corrected for
future printings. There are a
few typos and
two misused terms. A good editor
would tighten
this up and make it even better.
One other problem is the discussion
of a
Constitutional Convention. I
think that the
author should brush up a bit
on Article V.
It seems like he is a bit confused
about
the convention method of amending
the Constitution.
The Congress does not call a
convention.
The state legislatures can do
that. All that
Congress needs to do to propose
an amendment
is to pass it with a 2/3 vote
in both houses.
The convention method is in place
to bypass
Congress when it is unresponsive
as it usually
seems to be.
The other issue is more of a
philosophical
one. Although Hale seems to have
quite a
libertarian approach to problem
solving,
he is utterly inconsistent in
two areas.
First, although he wants to eliminate
several
federal agencies, the IRS is
not one of them.
He seems to think that the income
tax is
the only way to generate the
revenue that
the government needs to perform
its necessary
functions. That ignores both
U.S. history
and current ideas. There was
no income tax
before 1913. There are other
ways of obtaining
money. A current proposal that
Hale should
consider is the fair tax idea
(see The FairTax
Book: Saying Goodbye to the Income
Tax and
the IRS). The other one is that
Hale does
not seem to see a problem with
farm subsidies.
That is totally at odds with
the rest of
his philosophy.
In spite of the issues mentioned above, this
is a great story and is well written. I recommend
it." - S. Peek (Montana, USA)
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"Vote Theodore Hale, March 30, 2008
Theodore Winston Hale. What a character,
I'd vote for him, are there any men like
him in America? I wonder..... A quite magnificent
novel from James R Olson that was oh so close
to achieving the Ken Scott, five star accolade.
Olson has researched his book well, the characters
are good and he gets right to the heart of
what's wrong with the major governments and
so called `developed nations' of the world.
The problems he describes so vividly and
accurately mirrors for example, the problems
the United Kingdom is experiencing right
now. I won't go into detail, it'll spoil
the story, but he calls it a wake up call
for America in the back book blurb. Yes,
it's a fiction novel but the messages are
loud and clear. And the book is a real page
turner and the type of novel with so many
`turns' you keep guessing and guessing but
invariably you get it wrong time and time
again. A small criticism perhaps? Theodore
Winston Hale is too nice, too perfect and
at times I wanted to hit him. Still... that's
what a good writer does, wrestles with your
emotions. And there is no doubt Olson is
a good writer. Not quite sure if this is
Olson's debut, if it is... congratulations
Mr Olson on a fine piece of writing and a
great yarn." - KEN SCOTT author "Scotty" (Spain)
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"5 STARS!
Does your vote really make a difference?
(March 25, 2008)
When you read An Eagle Unchained
by James
Olson, you begin to see that
it can. The
book reminds us of the wasteful
spending
of our government and that we
are the ones
that let it continue. It takes
a successful
business man Ted Hale, who has
always worked
hard, to change the system of
things. He
decides to run for president
under the newly
formed American Party and we
find out how
far the other parties will go
to keep him
from succeeding. The career politicians
are
not in favor of the drastic changes
that
are needed to fix big government.
Hale takes
a look into the redundancies
of the ABC agencies
(EPA, IRS, and FDA) that cost
taxpayers billions
of dollars. He sees that every
day Americans
get new rules and regulations
that chase
American companies out of this
country and
that as long as there are career
politicians
Americans will have waste. Hale
knows that
it will take Americans coming
together and
taking charge of their own future
to return
this country to the way of our
forefathers
and he is ready to lead the way
with his
own money and common sense ideals.
***** I couldn’t put it down. This book reminds
us that we have become lazy as Americans.
We tend to vote for the lesser of two evils.
We allow our politicians to add BILLIONS
of pork spending to our legislative bills
so they can get re-elected. They spend more
time trying to get re-elected than they spend
running our country. I would be in favor
of the changes written about in this book.
I have to balance my budget, so why do we
allow the politicians not to balance theirs?
This book gets my vote." ***** HUNTRESS REVIEWs Reviewed by Paul Stabler.
Posted: http://www.huntressreviews.com/fict.htm
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A powerful, dynamic read, March 11, 2008
By Susanna Hutcheson www.powerwriting.com
A government out of control is
not so far
fetched. And that's exactly what
this new,
exciting novel is all about.
On business
man has the courage to do something
about
it. That's the essence of the
book. He starts
a new party and even finances
it. At first,
the government doesn't consider
him a threat.
Soon they learn that they should.
Highly recommended.
-Susanna K. Hutcheson
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"The answer to the problem is not larger and
more intrusive government;because big government
is the problem (March 24, 2008)
James Olson has written a book
that tells
a great story of what one man
did, to do
something about how the country
has been
hijacked from the people and
turned into
personal domain for career politicians
and
bureaucrats. This novel is more
than simply
a story to be read and dismissed
as nothing
more than fantasy. Olson has
an uncanny ability
of looking at the things he sees
wrong and
that are hampering America from
continuing
to grow in the way that the founders
visualized;and
in fact was succeeding wery well.He
has taken
what he sees must be done and
and incorporated
these ideas into a platform to
run on as
President. To do this,he sees
that this cannot
be accomplished through the established
parties;therefore
if the changes are to be made,he
must form
a third party and run for President
himself.
The original founders of America
saw the
problems inherent in government
losing sight
of the people it was intended
to serve,and
created the three levels of government.
While
the Senate and Congress tends
to be susceptible
to control by political parties;
with the
Presidency ,it is possible,though
extremely
difficult,fot one to become President,by
taking his ideas to the people
directly.It
has been attempted before, most
recently
by Ross Perault.All that has
to happen is
for enough people to decide they
have had
enough, and are willing to do
something about
it. That is exactly the premise
of Olson's
book.He has identified 3 main
things that
need to be done to get America
back on its
intended course and there is
little doubt
that enough people would agree
with him.
These people will come from that
large volumn
of people who don't bother to
vote at all,and
believe nothing changes with
either party
onceelected ;as well as many
from the old
established parties that serve
themselves
and only think about the voters
at election
time;and again,hae had enough.
You might wonder why some old
guy from Canada
is reading and writing about
this book. If
you've ever wondered about what
happened
to those people of Canada who
America you
got along with so well;it's for
the same
reasons Olson outlines in this
book. Politicians
here,are forever promoting Anti-Americanism
and this is continually spouted
by the government
owned CBC.
Party politics,liftime appointments
of our
Senators,Judges,career politicians
and entrenched
public servants,have created
a system of
big government even more intrusive
and socialist
than in the United States. One
big difference
though,is that there is no possibility
to
elect a Prime Minister in a parliamentary
system independent of the political
parties.
The Prime Minister is "chosen"
from the Party with the most
elected members.
At times ,no party wins a majority
of members
and then the worst of all worlds
happens;"minority
government" ;like we have
today.
A lot of the things Olson finds
problems
with in America are similar in
Canada,as
I have mentioned in "While
Cannad Slept"
by Andrew Cohen which I reviewed
on February
24,2008. This book was written
in 2003,and
things haven't changed,except
for the worse.
So,unless you are a politician
whose interests
are more into hanging on to his
job,than
serving the people,or some bureaucrat,who
again,is intrenched in a job
for life,whether
he is performing well or even
needed,you
should find many ideas in this
book that
agree with what you have been
thinking ,for
a long time.What is refreshing
with this
novel is that it makes you think
that there
is a real possibility that something
can
be done about it.
A great read for anyone who follows politics
and particularly for someone who thinks that
"there's no point voting;the government
is going to win anyway". - J. Guild (Toronto,Canada)
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