Book Review: The Philosopher’s Flight by Tom Miller

What the heart loves, the will chooses and the mind justifies.

The epigram appears as a chapter heading, but is as good a description of the substance of this highly original, utterly fascinating bit of alt-history as any I could come up with… In Robert’s world, women have all the strength – the philosophical, magical, strength. Or so common parlance understands things – and the world spins accordingly. Or does it? This is an absolute delight of a story, full of power struggles and personal growth and difficult relationships – and magic. Lots of cool, magically realistic, magic. And the magic isn’t *just* the kind that lets Robert and his mother fly – it’s also the literary kind, which allows the reader to fly right along with them…

Tom Miller is a genius at blending steampunk-like magical tech into a world-coming-of-age story that combines real history with perfectly manipulated bits of story-history that keep things rolling along until – BAM! – they slam up against an obstacle, psychological or physical, that forces the characters and the reader to flip everything they thought they knew on their heads and shift on a dime. To use one of my favorite images, it’s tap-dancing amongst landmines and it makes for an utterly compelling and engaging book. The book took me longer to read than I expected – but in a good way. It’s dense and rich and full of bon mots and witty repartee and surprisingly adept insights into humanity. Miller is definitely one of my new favorites…

My review copy was provided by NetGalley.