The Philosopher’s Flight
by Tom Miller
Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: February 13, 2018
From Goodreads:
Eighteen-year-old Robert Weekes is a practitioner of empirical philosophy—an arcane, female-dominated branch of science used to summon the wind, shape clouds of smoke, heal the injured, and even fly. Though he dreams of fighting in the Great War as the first male in the elite US Sigilry Corps Rescue and Evacuation Service—a team of flying medics—Robert is resigned to mixing batches of philosophical chemicals and keeping the books for the family business in rural Montana, where his mother, a former soldier and vigilante, aids the locals.
When a deadly accident puts his philosophical abilities to the test, Robert rises to the occasion and wins a scholarship to study at Radcliffe College, an all-women’s school. At Radcliffe, Robert hones his skills and strives to win the respect of his classmates, a host of formidable, unruly women.
Robert falls hard for Danielle Hardin, a disillusioned young war hero turned political radical. However, Danielle’s activism and Robert’s recklessness attract the attention of the same fanatical anti-philosophical group that Robert’s mother fought years before. With their lives in mounting danger, Robert and Danielle band together with a team of unlikely heroes to fight for Robert’s place among the next generation of empirical philosophers—and for philosophy’s very survival against the men who would destroy it.
NetGalley and Simon & Schuster provided me with an eGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I really wanted to like this book. The premise was exciting. It took a very different spin on the magic and fantasy genre. But in the end, it just didn’t do a lot for me.
Essentially, The Philosopher’s Flight is a story of overcoming discrimination. It was a novel idea that in the universe of this book, women were the true power, but the fact that the one trying to overcome discrimination was a white male made it ring false.
A few of the characters were really well done, but the majority of them blended together in a faceless crowd of extras. Even the ones that stood out from the crowd, I didn’t really like. I really like to see flawed characters, but these just seemed whiny and incapable of making a smart decision.
Each chapter opened with a passage from the Philosophical world. Some of the passages were even attributed to characters in the story, probably even that chapter. It was a nice touch, but at the same time, the passages were dated into the future. It took away some of the suspense. How can I be worried about ‘John Smith’ being in mortal danger when I already know he wrote a book three years from then?
The redeeming qualities of this book are the world-building and the magic system. Both are extremely well done. The world is a great mix of fantasy with historical-fiction. The magic system is familiar enough to be comfortable, but different enough to remain unique. Despite a luke-warm impression off of this book, I think I’d read another book set in Tom Miller’s world.
Interesting. To be honest, this just didn’t grab my attention enough to request it. And the reverse discrimination idea is interesting but I can see why it didnt work for you. Oh well, on to the next!
That’s right!
And I agree that the world where women were the power was definitely interesting. I’d like to see a story in that world that isn’t about a man trying to overcome that. Maybe a story where the women are the power, but men don’t believe it yet. And the whole time women are saving men’s lives. A whole bunch of Lois Lanes swooping down to save all the Supermans!
Just read it. I liked it, but was not impressed that for a world where women have so much power, the book didn’t (as far as I recall) even pass the Bechdel test.