The best sci-fi fantasy books that promotes a strong female protagonist in an ascending world

I was recommended this book by someone who compared it to my writing style. “Koontz’s writing in Odd Thomas has a similar tone to your writing,” said the book recommender. To be even slightly compared to a novelist great like Dean Koontz, clearly I ordered the book and devoured it immediately. An easy, exciting, and fun read, Odd Thomas merges dry humor with a loveable, ordinary protagonist who speaks with the dead. It’s insanely cryptic—aka a page-turner—as well as brings abstract elements together in a simple manner, something I’d like to think that I do in my writing. This book helped me to appreciate my own dry humor and writing style, as well as give me perspective on where my book fits in the world of magical realism.

This book is like a reminder of the wisdom that already lies latent within us (by “us” I’m identifying as a cis-gender woman, but that does not exclude anyone else, just helps to clarify). Rather than a gentle nudge, Dancing in the Flames’ approach to uncovering the buried dark goddess in modern culture is more of a slap in the face. A wake-up call that, I personally, have been intuiting for years. Woodman and Dickson weave together true historical accounts and cultural representations of why the dark goddess is essential for human and societal growth. Eerily similar to my highly sci-fi/fantastical book, I stumbled upon Dancing in the Flames while conducting research for my dark-fem-rising story. I hang on every word they write as it 100% rings true for me.

I admire how James Redfield isn’t afraid to put all his woo-wooiness out there into the world. He doesn’t hold back in The Tenth Insight, and presents the information in a fun, fast-paced adventure. I read this book early in my own spiritual quest, and when it came time to close those final pages, I found it difficult; I didn’t want the journey to end. At the time, Redfield’s concepts were just out of reach for me as I was starting to develop the spiritual muscles it would take to flex some of these larger ideas, and years later, I resonate entirely with them. In fact, this book has inspired me so much over the years that I want to write a musical theatre production based off the concepts he presents.

Sometimes something (anything from a book to a person to a song, and anything in between) gives you an extremely uncomfortable, visceral feeling; like a stick jabbing at a part of you that is unfamiliar. This is what Lockwood did for me in No One is Talking About This. The book asked me to push through the impulse to set it down because it made me “feel too much” of this thing that was unfamiliar, but I didn’t. Instead, I leaned into this “feeling” and continued to read. After working through some confusion, I understood the central message of the book. To me, it’s an abstract account of the beauty, treachery, fragility, and strength that is our existence. Lockwood holds the tension of the opposites in this book, straddling reality and the ethereal in a very unique manner.

This book not only changed my entire life, but it has also helped me shape the ending of my own book. Wilson gave me the permission and vocabulary to express abstract concepts that I was carrying around; sacred rage, patriarchal oppression, a lineage of matricidal trauma… big stuff. Rather than a book, Maiden to Mother is a cultural and feminine ancestral movement. By traversing your own underworlds and excavating all of the buried, scorned, traumatized parts of ourselves, we can then begin the healing journey and live honest to our souls. In this non-fiction book, Wilson asks the reader to go where they’ve never gone before, and in return, promises liberation and true joy. She delivers this in a no-bullshit manner. And guess what? It works.