Pinterest tracking pixel
If you are having difficulty navigating this website please contact us at member.services@bookofthemonth.com or 1-877-236-8540.
Oops! The page didn’t load right. Please refresh and try again.
All booksFantasyThe Philosopher's Flight
The Philosopher's Flight by Tom Miller
Fantasy

The Philosopher's Flight

Debut
We love supporting debut authors. Congrats, Tom Miller, on your first book!

by Tom Miller

Quick take

In an alternate world where only women are strong enough to wield magic, a gifted boy goes where no man has gone before: Radcliffe, a prestigious female-only school of sigilry.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_400

    400+ pages

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_Feminist

    Feminist

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_LightRead

    Light read

Synopsis

A thrilling debut from ER doctor turned novelist Tom Miller, The Philosopher's Flight is an epic historical fantasy set in a World-War-I-era America where magic and science have blended into a single extraordinary art.

Eighteen-year-old Robert Weekes is a practitioner of empirical philosophy—an mysterious, female-dominated branch of science used to summon the wind, shape clouds of smoke, heal the injured, and even fly. Though he dreams of becoming the first male to join 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.

In the tradition of Lev Grossman and Deborah Harkness, Tom Miller writes with unrivaled imagination, ambition, and humor. The Philosopher's Flight is both a fantastical reimagining of American history and a beautifully composed coming-of-age tale for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider.

Read less

Member thoughts

All (3461)
All (3461)
Love (1517)
Like (1481)
Dislike (463)
3754 ratings
  • 40% Love
  • 39% Like
  • 12% Dislike
    Fantasy
    • Kaikeyi
    • Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance
    • The Book of Magic
    • Thistlefoot
    • The City We Became
    • Piranesi
    • The Rules of Magic
    • A History of Wild Places
    • Gods of Jade and Shadow
    • The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina
    • Half Sick of Shadows
    • The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
    • Ariadne
    • Circe
    • The Cartographers
    • Sourdough
    • Spinning Silver
    • Fate of the Fallen
    • Ninth House
    • Practical Magic
    • A River Enchanted
    • A Fire Endless
    • The Stardust Thief
    • Siren Queen
    • Darling Girl