Free to download for 48 hours! (Ends Monday 1/26/26 at midnight Pacific.) In “The Match,” Elizabeth thinks that her boyfriend, the detective, may be ready to propose, but when conversation takes an unexpected turn, she must decide how much to reveal about a collection of books and an encounter with the law on a night when life and death hung in the balance….” 4.7/5 stars, 153 ratings.
Free download at https://www.amazon.com/The-Match-ebook/dp/B00CTWYBKC
Journalist Paige Keller returns to Aurum Valley to begin uncovering the secrets of the valley’s history, to the displeasure of those determined to keep those secrets hidden. She discovers the story of Aurelia’s founder, an ambitious young man who returned to the valley to make his home and fortune there, and of a fearless native girl who left her tribe to follow a stranger to a new and unknown life. She discovers the history of a disillusioned immigrant who fled his family’s faith to establish a new religion in the valley, despite suffering a broken moral compass.
In the present, a talented young actress is lured into the lair of a predacious Hollywood producer; the leader of the local church is drawn into a secretive organization with influence deep in the halls of power; a weary environmentalist is inspired to greater sacrifice by an impassioned teenager; a jaded professor is challenged by a precocious new student; an aging sculptress strives to finish her magnum opus while still alive and able; the heir of the valley’s founding family begins building where neither the Church nor the environmentalists want anyone to build—on a hill they all hold sacred.
The Fruit of the Tree is Part III of the acclaimed Idolatry saga, the story of a wealthy young heir and a devout Christian girl who find themselves at the heart of the struggle for the soul of Western Civilization.
5.0 out of 5 stars ~ A modern romanticist epic dramatising the struggle for western civilization
“Superb third entry in this saga, making for a modern romanticist epic on a par with Victor Hugo and Ayn Rand. The author carefully weaves multiple plot threads and larger than life characters centred on a fictional American town – it’s heritage torn between a fundamentalist offshoot of Mormonism, the rational, life affirming spirit of capitalist entrepreneurs, and post modern leftist sects – encapsulating the two and a half thousand year struggle for the soul of what is now termed western civilisation.” ~ Matthew Humphreys
5.0 out of 5 stars ~ A stunning achievement and beautifully written
“Quent Cordair has a great talent for creating compelling characters. Some inspire profound admiration so rarely found in modern literature, others so odious their evil seemed to drip from the page. The Idolatry series is an achievement in laying bare the historical battle between good and evil. Don’t miss all three in the series and you will, like me, be waiting for #4.” ~ John Cerasuolo
5.0 out of 5 stars ~ A tour de force!
“Well worth the wait! The depth and breadth of Cordair’s writing is impressive switching seamlessly between the past and present and with vivid descriptions advancing the story along.
I highly recommend The Fruit of the Tree! I also recommend first reading or re-reading Genesis (book 1) and A New Eden (book 2) in this 5-part saga. There are echoes in The Fruit of the Tree of Genesis and also The Fruit of the Tree follows on directly from A New Eden. I look forward to reading part 4 of the saga which is titled The Tongue of the Serpent.” ~ Godfrey Joseph
5.0 out of 5 stars ~ A Philosophical Epic Gains Momentum
“The Fruit of the Tree, the third book in Quent Cordair’s Idolatry series, drew me even deeper into his centuries-spanning philosophical war between good and evil—between lovers of life and those who seek to destroy that love. This volume brings together questions left unanswered in books one and two and moves the epic conflict closer to a climax. If you don’t fall in love with Paige by the end of this book, you definitely need to “examine your premises.” The main characters introduced in book two are more fully developed, and multiple side stories emerge, all contributing to the central theme. Aurum Valley is becoming ground zero in this epic battle of opposing philosophical forces. Now I have to wait in eager anticipation for book four.” ~ Steve McBride
5.0 out of 5 stars ~ Beautiful Writing
“This book brought me straight back into Aurum Valley with its history, mystery, and slow-building tension that this series does so well. Please know that reading the earlier books in the Idolatry series is needed to fully appreciate The Fruit of the Tree. The writing is gorgeous and super descriptive. The way each storyline unfolds makes the whole valley feel alive in a way that’s almost eerie. Paige’s character arc really stood out to me this time. Her drive to dig up the truth, even when it puts her in danger, gives the book a steady heartbeat to follow.
“I also loved how the valley’s history slowly shows up through the story itself. The way those pieces surface adds intrigue to everything happening now, especially with the Church, the founding family, and all the behind-the-scenes power plays. Every character has something going on, and even the smaller side stories end up factoring in a huge way.
“By the end, the mystery is thicker than ever, now that I’ve got some answers to questions from the previous book (A New Eden) and even more new questions. It’s one of those books where I finished a chapter and just sat there like… okay, now I need the next part immediately. I’m invested in this series and can’t wait for the next one!” ~ Kim Bromberek
When the many are punished for the sins of the one or the few, individualism dies another death. Moral, principled justice – real justice – requires that each and every individual be judged and treated individually, on their own personal actions and words, and on their own alone. Bigotry and tribalism are worse than lazy: they’re evil and unjust, earning only more and worse of the same in turn. Nativism and racism are civilization killers, innocence killers. America was designed for individuals, for individualism. Our country was built on individualism. We’ve thrived and prospered on treating individuals individually rather than on their place of birth or the color of their skin. Don’t let it go.
Now available in two sizes on watercolor paper ~ from $95.
Buy now: https://cordair.com/treasures-and-gifts/p/immigration-poem
How meekly march the millions
To the statist’s steady drum;
How passively they plod along,
All singing the same song:
Left, right, left, right,
To glory days ahead;
Left, right, left, right,
We’ll go where we are led.
How malleable are the masses
Melted in the master mold,
All tribal tied, wings kept clipped,
From cradle to the crypt:
Left, right, left, right,
We won’t stray out of line;
Left, right, left, right,
Together we’ll be fine.
How blind they go with blinders,
Seeing only what they’re shown;
How deaf they go to strident clones
With scripts and megaphones:
Left, right, left, right,
Divided we would fall;
Left, right, left, right,
Each one is one for all.
How silenced the dissenters
Shuffling towards the killing wall;
The gutters thick with viscous red
Are always needing fed:
Left, right, left, right,
Long trenches being filled;
Left, right, left, right,
Come spring we’ll all be tilled.
How deadly aim the rifles
From the towers high above;
The gates are locked, the keys are thrown,
But how could they have known?
Left, right, left, right,
Around the yard we turn;
Left, right, left, right,
When will we ever learn?
~ Quent Cordair
2025
The fawning of a million stars
Won’t sate the black-holed soul;
The unfilled need for self-esteem
Devours its diamonds whole.
The brightest suns are fed feet first,
Into the maw they go,
While vacuum’s vice slow-squeezes life
From those prostrating low.
The fearful ones come proffering praise,
So desperate for reprieve,
Some dragging offerings to the mouth,
While swearing they believe.
But in they go by ones or tens,
Sucked in without a kiss,
Around the tongue and swallowed down,
Into the void’s abyss.
~ Quent Cordair
3/2/2025
Out of the blue and into the red;
Bureaus are razed for czardoms instead;
Infidels flung on the flag-draped pyre;
Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
Yesterday’s profiteers lined on the wall;
Blindfold executives jeered as they fall;
Cronies and troubadours flock to the court;
Poets and publishers shift to comport.
Tariffs for all who won’t dance for the clown;
Papers are checked by the new tribe in town;
A republic unkept, one best kiss the ring;
The president’s dead, long live the king.
~ Quent Cordair
From the river to the sea, they cried,
This land it must be free.
From the river to the sea, they screamed,
What we demand must be.
The Jordan’s banks will overflow
With crimson current high,
Awash with dead unto the Dead,
Till Galilee runs dry.
From the river to the sea, they cried,
We righteously require
That those within who dare to stand
Against us must expire.
For others bound to other books
Can tolerate no choice;
They must be free to kick and kill,
To throttle every voice.
And so it was, it came to pass,
From the river to the sea,
Once champions of the gunning thugs
Were marched and put to knee—
Lined on the shore, the silenced cried,
Bowed down, awaiting shot—
The river fed, the sea turned red,
The floating left to rot.
~ Quent Cordair
“Silenced,” Copyright 2024, Quent Cordair. All rights reserved.
Let the dead bury the dead,
Let the wounded heal behind,
Let the cowards run from courage,
Let the deaf lead on the blind.
Leave the schemers to their scheming,
Leave the plotters to their plots,
Leave the sheep to follow shepherds,
Leave the spiders spinning knots.
Leave the gullible to liars,
Let the liars fear the truth,
Leave the power-hungry preying
On each other, claw and tooth.
Leave the tribal drummers drumming,
Cannibals to eat themselves,
Leave conspiracists conspiring
With the cans on empty shelves.
Leave the fantasies to mystics,
Let the preachers point with scorn,
Leave the critics to their picking
While the clowns keep shucking corn.
Leave subjectivists judgmental,
Leave intrinsicists their airs,
Leave the dreamers to their dreaming,
But invite the one who dares.
Fix your eyes on the horizon,
Take your bearing, plot your course,
Set the village dogs to barking,
Load your gun, spur your horse.
~ Quent Cordair
Copyright 2023
This one is for Andrew and Olivia. Having lost two dear ones to cancer over the past two days—a good friend on Sunday, a treasured performing artist yesterday—I promised that today, in their honor, I would “rail against the ideas and premises that have kept cancer alive, and against those who support, defend, and further such ideas.” Here comes the railing:
The FDA is truly and accurately, without exaggeration, the “Federal Death Agency.”* It’s the Federal Death Agency, the Federal Suffering Agency, the Federal Life-Shortening Agency, the Federal Disease & Sickness Prolonging Agency, the Federal Shackling & Prohibition of Desperately Needed Medicines & Procedures Agency. The FDA, if there were full truth in advertising, would be flying the Skull & Crossbones over their headquarters daily. The incalculable measure of death, suffering, pain, illness, and misery inflicted by this one agency alone is staggering.
And yet the agency itself is not the real problem. The agency is but a predictable, inevitable, logical symptom of the underlying disease, and the cause of that disease is both wholly self-inflicted and wholly curable. The cause of the disease, of which the FDA is a symptom, is 100% man-made. That man-made cause could be cured and eradicated immediately, could be destroyed forever, today—but it won’t be, not today, not tomorrow, not for many years to come, because the majority of men and women are so addicted to the cause, so vested in the cause and dependent on it, they would rather suffer and die themselves than face the responsibility for supporting and defending it. They would watch their own loved ones suffer and die before they would question, examine, reject, and replace the cause of that suffering and death with the only viable alternative—an alternative which already exists. Yes, the cure for the disease, of which the FDA and its horrific effects are but a symptom, already exists.
No one and no agency has the moral right to stand between an individual and his choice of any and every medical option available to him, especially when his life and health are at stake. No one and no agency has the moral right to stand between the inventors, producers, and providers of medicines, medical equipment, and medical procedures, and the patients who desperately want and need those products, procedures, and services, those who are willing, by their own judgment and moral right, to risk trying whatever available option in the face of the alternatives.
Those who believe and hold otherwise, that humans are by nature incapable of making their own healthcare choices, or shouldn’t be allowed to, for altruistic reasons, are operating on the very premises that caused the creation of that murderous entity which is the FDA. Those who hold that the individual’s own healthcare choices should and must be subordinated to the “greater good,” that the good of the individual should be sacrificed to the good of the less intelligent, the less educated, the “less fortunate,” are operating on the very premise that results in the unnecessary suffering and premature death of thousands, indeed millions, including the unnecessary suffering and death of those nearest and dearest to them.
Yes, if not for the philosophical premises of altruism that support the FDA, premises held by most Americans left and right, cancer, along with so many other diseases, would already be well behind us. Andrew Bergman, Olivia Newton-John, and countless others would still be with us today, happily living their lives. For those fortunate enough not yet to have succumbed to Andrew and Olivia’s fate, those who might still believe that the existence of the FDA is in your best interest—please do yourself a favor: think again. Or as Ayn Rand would say, check your premises. Discover the rational, life-saving alternative.
FDA delenda est.
***
*Credit to Harry Binswanger for the accurate epithet. See the article “The FDA is the Federal Death Agency” for further consideration. For the proper, principled approach to defending private medicine, see https://ari.aynrand.org/issues/government-and-business/health-care/ .
As It Should Be 