The Book of Flying

Rating:
Summary: Magnificent Adventure
Review: Pico, an orphan raised by a librarian in the City by the Sea, is a lonely poet that has been sustained all his young life by stories and books only he has ever appreciated. When love come to him at last, it is for a winged girl, the ethereal Sisi. It is a relationship forbidden, spurned because he is wingless and so he sets off on a magical quest to the fabled Morning Town to gain his wings in order to win the heart of Sisi.
Along the way, Pico has amazing adventures and meets fantastically strange characters. A robber queen, a lonely minotaur, a dream seller. Each have a story to tell and a lesson to teach.
Pico serves his story to each he meets, all the while keeping it as a mantra for his un-ending resolve to win acceptance and love. At the end of his journey, he has learned to kill, to love, to persevere, to fly.
Miller's impressionable debut novel is a coming-of-age story, a mix of fantasy and contemporary detail that flows from page to page. A book about books, it is a magnificent adventure that dares our own imagination to take flight, and in doing so, to discover ourselves.

Rating:
Summary: Flight of Fancy
Review: I'm dreaming of a city...

Thus begins The Book of Flying, the book about books, the story about stories. It tells the tale of Pico, the sad poet and his adventure to gain wings. He tends to the same routine daily, tending the library no one visits except cats, visiting the sea to watch the winged ones in their flight and returns to write poetry that he ties with ribbon and then runs to the winged ones' towers to slip it under a certain door. Heart pounding, he returns to his library.
For Pico is in love with a winged girl.
But their love is forbidden, and when one day he is caught kissing her, she is taken away. But one day he finds a hidden scroll that tells of a city, far away, that holds the Book of Flying. And so he sets off to find his wings.
On his epic adventure he meets many strange people and sees strange places; the Robber Queen, a lonely Minotaur, a city in the mountains and even himself. Each person has a story to tell, and each story will arrest your interest and capture your imagination. And ultimately, it will inspire you.

Don't let the ugly cover dissuade you from this book, nor the childish Roald Dahl style pictures turn you off. This book is beautiful, sometimes strangely so, but always magical and addictive. It is not a book to be read lightly as it can be vulgar and horrible despite the magical atmosphere, and sad prose. It is the perfect book for a poet. I really love this book, and I can see myself reading it over and over again, and though my family will most likely mock my taste, it will still inspire me as it has before. Pico is the sweetest guy ever, he is sensitive and loyal. I felt a strange kinship with him, especially when, lost and stranded, he leaves behind everything he owns-except his book of poems. If you love poems and stories, this book is the perfect addition to your treasury. It is, you see, pure magic.


Rating:
Summary: The power of the imagination
Review: Keith Miller's The Book of Flying is a beautiful ode to the power of the imagination expressed via the printed page. If you've heard of Northrup Fry's Educated Imagination then this book's essence will have resounding power for you. It's poetical, magical, and completely beguiling. Savor it.

Rating:
Summary: flat despite imaginative content
Review: Miller creates imaginative settings and many idiosyncratic characters in a manner reminding me a bit of Mervyn Peake, but unfortunately the Peake novel this most closely resembles is Titus Alone, the aimless and disappointing third novel of the Ghormenghast trilogy. Miller's characters are never developed enough for one to care deeply what happens to them, and their dialogue is stilted and pretentious. They respond deeply to each other's stories and predicaments, but this isn't a substitute for getting a response from the reader.

Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Book, The Ultimate Story
Review: There has never been a book, poem, story, or anything of the like which has touched me in the way "The Book Of Flying" has. It reaches out to all people of all types and discribes a story so beautiful, so painful, so out there that at the same time its the most down to earth thing you ever could here. The writing is beyond this world, it enraptures you, like the whole things the most beautiful of poems, me-being a writer myself, have been deeply inspired by Keith Miller's writing in this novel. I have read the book 7 times now, each time being better then the last, each time crying when its sad-laughing when its happy, and still I cant seem to get enough of it. I love this book so much that I cant even read another without putting this one down for awhile first-i even reflect back to it in everyday life, and the thousands of lessons and stories it gives off. I love this book, it definately gives you wings, and is the most ultimate of stories. The Book Of Flying is a must read for everyone, everywhere.

"twilight is the hour i love" he told her "the hour where nothing is quite itself, all things teetering at the edges of their names. Here I can be alone and a stranger to myself"
-Keith Miller "The Book Of Flying"

Rating:
Summary: Miller gives you wings!
Review: This book is, without a doubt, the single most fantastic, most beautiful, most engaging, most simply PERFECT book I have had the unadulterated pleasure of losing myself in for YEARS. It is the quest of quests, the poem of poems, the STORY OF STORIES. You need only melt into the first sentence, and already your wings begin to grow...

Rating:
Summary: This debut novel "flies high"
Review: This is, by far, one of the best books I have read in a while. The story is so creative and detailed and it's so easy to lose yourself in the life of Pico. I recommend it to anyone who is bored with the same old story lines.

Rating:
Summary: engaging fantasy with a deep message
Review: Wingless librarian Pico is a loner who finds life worth living only in the books that he devours insatiably. He especially finds release from his mundane forlorn existence with stories of daring do and adventures of love. Alas his dream is to star in such a tale, but knows this will never pass.

While strolling by the sea, Pico rescues the drowning winged Sisi. They begin seeing one another and quickly fall in love. However, one of the worst taboos that can never be broken is a relationship between winged and wingless. Despondent, Pico learns of the existence of an ancient manuscript THE BOOK OF FLYING that provides detailed instructions on how the land bound can grow wings. However, to obtain the tome, Pico must journey through the dark forest of monsters some disguised as cute and pretty, who will do anything to divert the lad from attaining his dream.

This is an engaging fantasy with a deep message that works on most levels though at times Keith Miller becomes too flowery with his prose. The story line is delightful as the lead couple come across as Romeo and Juliet. As the hero now has a cause to live life to its fullest (one of several solid ideas fostered within the tale), he must contend with vile cretins including some that seem human in appearance, but all share in common that they feel genuine. Fans will enjoy journeying through Miller's Mythos that hopefully will have future treks.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: engaging fantasy with a deep message
Review: Wingless librarian Pico is a loner who finds life worth living only in the books that he devours insatiably. He especially finds release from his mundane forlorn existence with stories of daring do and adventures of love. Alas his dream is to star in such a tale, but knows this will never pass.

While strolling by the sea, Pico rescues the drowning winged Sisi. They begin seeing one another and quickly fall in love. However, one of the worst taboos that can never be broken is a relationship between winged and wingless. Despondent, Pico learns of the existence of an ancient manuscript THE BOOK OF FLYING that provides detailed instructions on how the land bound can grow wings. However, to obtain the tome, Pico must journey through the dark forest of monsters some disguised as cute and pretty, who will do anything to divert the lad from attaining his dream.

This is an engaging fantasy with a deep message that works on most levels though at times Keith Miller becomes too flowery with his prose. The story line is delightful as the lead couple come across as Romeo and Juliet. As the hero now has a cause to live life to its fullest (one of several solid ideas fostered within the tale), he must contend with vile cretins including some that seem human in appearance, but all share in common that they feel genuine. Fans will enjoy journeying through Miller's Mythos that hopefully will have future treks.

Harriet Klausner