Whether set in an imagined sci-fi world or our own Earth, tales of adventure and exploration are often some of the first stories that draw us into reading. While unlikely heroes are a beloved trope, there is something thrilling about diving straight into adventure with swashbuckling pirates, intrepid explorers, and rugged travelers. However, the most popular of these stories overwhelmingly feature men as the captains and commanders leading the charge, with women relegated to the periphery as wives or damsels in distress. Here are seven novels that flip the script, telling the stories of valorous and crafty women at the head of expeditions and helm of ships.
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Mary Robinette Kowal sets the stage for a dire climate crisis scenario in The Calculating Stars. She begins her tale with the landing of a deadly meteorite, which sets off a series of natural disasters and environmental changes dramatic enough to end life on Earth. When a group of astronauts are selected to begin a space colony, women are excluded from consideration — that is, until mathematician and former pilot Elma York has something to say about it. The Calculating Stars is not only a story of crisis survival, but of women’s power to assert themselves as scientists and pilots, even against sexist standards designed to disregard them.
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
The two women at the heart of Great Circle are Marian Graves and Hadley Baxter, the former a pilot born in the early 20th century and raised in Missoula, Montana with a dream to circumnavigate the globe, and the latter a struggling actress hoping to revive her Hollywood image by starring as Graves in a biopic. Despite the century between them, Shipstead manages to interweave their life stories, unfolding each on the page to show the ambition and hunger for self-determination they share.
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
Set in the British colony of Valparaíso Chile in the late 1840s, Daughter of Fortune follows a Chilean woman, Eliza Sommers, as she is raised by a pair of Anglican siblings. After a scandalous affair with a young Chilean man, Eliza follows her lover on his quest for gold in California, but soon finds herself bound up in adventures that evoke a passion beyond the romance she first pursued. In a series of disguises and ploys, and among a diverse cast of characters, Eliza travels far and builds a life uniquely her own.
Heresy by Melissa Lenhardt
Excitement comes from all angles when two women in the American West lose their ranch and form a ragtag, all-female gang. Margaret Parker and Hattie LaCour traverse the West to pull off heists throughout Heresy, sharing the spoils of their crimes not only among themselves, but with the surrounding community to keep them mum. Even with their successes, secrets and threads of tension within the group, as well as a rival all-male gang who often are rewarded the credit for the women’s heists, bring stirring twists to Lenhardt’s novel.
The Wolves of Winter by Tyrell Johnson
In the middle of the bleak Yukon landscape, and an even bleaker post-apocalyptic world ravaged by war and disease, Lynn McBride must do whatever she can to survive. Whether learning to navigate her environment, or the dynamics of those she encounters in her small compound’s community, mystery and suspense are abundant. Lynn’s grit and determination to save herself and those she loves drive the story of Wolves of Winter.
The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra Magpie Earling
In a work of historical fiction, Earling imagines the finer details and intricate inner world of the iconic figure of Sacajawea. She writes Sacajawea’s story in a mix of factual accounts and fictional narrative, all in lyrical prose, telling of the trauma of colonial violence inflicted upon this woman and her tribe, and her journey through the wilderness with those who abducted and enslaved her. Far beyond the single narrative of Lewis and Clark’s journeys, The Lost Journals of Sacajawea sees their expedition as only one chapter of Sacajawea’s story of survival.
The Fossil Hunter by Tea Cooper
One mysterious artifact brings characters Mellie Vale and Jane “PJ” Martindale together across time in The Fossil Hunter. Just returned from WWII, PJ investigates both the gorge in which a fossil at the London Natural History Museum was found, and the strange disappearances that occurred there. In a time long before PJ, Mellie’s story as an amateur paleontologist determined to prove the existence of sea dragons may seem a world apart, but what is uncovered in the geography and history of the land provides a new perspective.
The women of these seven stories face challenges of all natures, from harsh and unknown physical environments to oppressive gender roles and expectations. One common thread among them is their determination and nerve, traits with which they assert themselves as powerful leaders, skilled adventurers, and tough survivors.
Learn about more titles that will have you adventure-ready here!
Find other empowering stories of womanhood on our Bookshop Bookshelf
