Elisha Barber

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.

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.

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