As Fate Decrees.

Lori A. Dunn is a ESL teacher, instructional designer, and freelance
writer in New Westminster, B.C.

Bridger’s story is a fantasy that crosses time from Ancient Greece during the days of the Olympian gods to modern-day Athens. The story revolves around the slave Amarantha, bought by an enigmatic master who trains her in fighting and warfare until her skills are perfected. The day arrives when her master reveals that he is Ares, the god of war, and reveals her fate: to become the Champion of Olympus, bound to fight their battles in the mortal realm forever. Over the centuries, Amarantha is ripped from her resting place time and again to find herself in a bodily host in the age where her challenges lie, and the Champion must discover and solve the problem that has brought her there, or die forever in the attempt.

In a parallel story set in modern-day Greece, cultural terrorists are attacking the seats of power of the ancient gods. Alexandra is a scholar and activist who hopes to get to the bottom of the source of the attacks. The two heroes’ lives collide and the fate of the gods of Olympus is once again in the hands of the Champion, as their immortality is challenged by the realities of the modern day.

As a whole, the story is a sketch of a potentially larger, longer epic, one that would be brazen and exciting were it completed. However, as the story exists, it’s threadbare and moves far too fast, giving this potentially satisfying tale of the fate of Ares’ Champion a cursory treatment. Bridger’s prose style is compelling but brief, sending the reader through the plot at a breakneck speed. Overall, her style is reminiscent of the classic legends of the Olympian gods, passed down through the ages, and as impersonal as those tales.