When evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins (The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, The Extended Phenotype, Climbing Mount Improbable), widely regarded as one of the world’s great thinkers, writes a new book, it is probably worth reading. Flights of Fancy is a book about flight in the broadest sense, movement through the air, escaping gravity to the extent possible. It is not a technical book and lacks aerodynamic equations; all of the principles necessary to understand unpowered and powered flight are presented in an intuitive way that is easy to understand. Birds, the premier living flyers, feature prominently, but Dawkins’ treatment is eclectic, and we meet everything from dandelion seeds to Pegasus, the Roc, Icarus, Leonardo da Vinci’s “ornithopter,” and the Gossamer Albatross. The illustrations by Jana Lenzová are attractive, often whimsical (though generally accurate), and add
much to the book.