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Title details for Elisha Barber by E.C. Ambrose - Available

Elisha Barber

#1 in series

by E.C. Ambrose
ebook
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E.C. Ambrose's gritty, sharp historical fantasy series, The Dark Apostle, follows Elisha Barber through a magical reimagining of 14th-century England
England in the fourteenth century: a land of poverty and opulence, prayer and plague…witchcraft and necromancy.
As a child, Elisha witnessed the burning of a witch outside of London, and saw her transformed into an angel at the moment of her death, though all around him denied this vision. He swore that the next time he might have the chance to bind an angel’s wounds, he would be ready. And so he became a barber surgeon, at the lowest ranks of the medical profession, following the only healer’s path available to a peasant’s son.
Elisha Barber is good at his work, but skill alone cannot protect him. In a single catastrophic day, Elisha’s attempt to deliver his brother’s child leaves his family ruined, and Elisha himself accused of murder. Then a haughty physician offers him a way out: serve as a battle surgeon in an unjust war.
Between tending to the wounded soldiers and protecting them from the physicians’ experiments, Elisha works night and day. Even so, he soon discovers that he has an affinity for magic, drawn into the world of sorcery by Brigit, a beautiful young witch who reminds him uncannily of the angel he saw burn.
In the crucible of combat, utterly at the mercy of his capricious superiors, Elisha must attempt to unravel conspiracies both magical and mundane, as well as come to terms with his own disturbing new abilities. But the only things more dangerous than the questions he’s asking are the answers he may reveal.

  • Creators

  • Series

    The Dark Apostle

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 2, 2013

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781101636145

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781101636145
      • File size: 884 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 27, 2013
      Pseudonymous fantasist Ambrose’s version of 14th-century England has an interesting system of magic and is filled with visceral horrors described in graphic detail. Falsely accused of his brother’s death, barber-surgeon Elisha escapes by joining the royal army laying siege to the castle of Duke of Dunbury, where he stitches wounds and performs amputations among the ranks of the king’s foot soldiers. After he meets the alluring herbalist Brigit, he discovers that he is a magus, with prodigious untapped gifts that he must learn to control. The illiterate Elisha is an unusually enlightened hero for the age: he tolerates the romantic affections of a male friend, invents triage 600 years early, and treats wounds with ligature rather than cauterization—a treatment he learned from a Moorish woman two centuries before Ambroise Paré. The novel also suffers from a resolution in which far too many characters are conveniently revealed to be magi; and while Elisha himself is an entertaining hero, the supporting cast is not nearly as interesting.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from July 1, 2013

      When barber-surgeon Elisha Barber's failure to deliver his sister-in-law's child leads to disaster, he accepts an offer to serve as a battle surgeon with a doctor's retinue. He soon learns, amid the blood and gore of combat, just how little control he has over his life and the lives of those he labors to save. But Elisha also discovers that he possesses unearthly powers that might brand him as a witch, and uncovers a strange fellowship whose members possess similar talents. VERDICT Ambrose's fantasy debut depicts a 14th-century England in which magic and fledgling science exist side by side. Elisha's struggle to bring relief to those in need is complicated by his own need for redemption and his innate fear of what he cannot understand. This beautifully told, painfully elegant story should appeal to fans of L.E. Modesitt's realistic fantasies as well as of the period fantasy of Guy Gavriel Kay.

      Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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