Danny C. Estes’ first installment to his saga, Lord Athina, is quite unlike anything else you might read today. We start our journey in ‘our’ world with forty-one-year-old Jim Sanders. Jim is a bit down on his luck, stuck in traffic and grumbling about all the things that are pushing his buttons lately. That doesn’t last long, however, as Jim soon finds himself staring down death via metal piercing his minivan. In a sense, Jim does die and he finds himself wandering a plane of nothingness only to be pulled into a strange reality. He’s confused, he doesn’t know what’s going on and all he knows is that everything about him feels different somehow. His body hurts, but not where the metal pierced him and not in a way he’s ever experienced before. That’s because Jim’s soul has been pulled into an alternate reality and promptly plunked into the body of a young woman who is giving birth.

Estes does a great job showing Jim’s confusion towards his new situation. He very much thinks and feels like a man, however his body is completely changed. He’s also been transported to a seemingly alternate world where the people are living in an age of renaissance or medieval time. Not only does Jim struggle to understand what has happened to him he’s in a panic and completely out of his element. For six agonizing days as Jim’s body recovers from the trauma of childbirth his soul approaches recovery of his situation. On the final day he is greeted by a wizard who explains what has happened. The world Jim is now in has magic and this wizard had very much wanted to bring a soul back to the body of Lady Athina, however he wasn’t bargaining on Jim’s soul being the one he grabbed.

Jim is confused and you can feel his anger, confusion, frustration and helplessness oozing through every page. For a first volume in a saga Lord Athina does a fantastic job setting the scene. We learn about the world our protagonist has found himself in and we get a grasp on how the politics and monetary transactions work. Estes sets up a great story line with enough intrigue and betrayal to keep any reader happy. Nothing feels over the top and where some authors can spoil the whole idea of magic, Estes peppers it into his story just right.

Jim must get accustomed not only to this strange world where he’s found himself in a precarious position but he must also become accustomed to the body of a young girl. His male ego and libido do nothing to help his plight which can be a bit cumbersome to read. Jim finds almost all the women we meet in the story attractive and wants nothing more than to have his way with them.

Aside from minor grammatical issues and the extensive obsession Jim has with breasts, Lord Athina crosses boundaries and perspectives unlike other tales in the fantasy realm. It’s definitely a treat to read.

Pages: 226 | ASIN: B00DT0C1DC