E. C. Ambrose

E. C. Ambrose is the pen name of American writer Elaine Isaak, an author of historical fantasy with a background interest in archaeology and art. Before adopting the Ambrose name, she published fantasy under her own name, including The Singer's Crown and its sequel The Eunuch's Heir. As E. C. Ambrose she is best known for The Dark Apostle, a series set in 1340s England and continental Europe that follows a barber-surgeon drawn into a world of magic and conspiracy, beginning with Elisha Barber and continuing through Elisha Magus, Elisha Rex, Elisha Mancer, and Elisha Daemon; a companion novella, The Grail Maiden, revisits the same world's Templar-era past. She later turned to the Mongol invasion of thirteenth-century Asia for Drakemaster and its Tales of Bladesend sequels, pairing a Lithuanian bellmaker with a Mongolian scout against a clockwork doomsday weapon. Her novels blend closely researched historical detail with dark, character-driven fantasy.