E.C. Ambrose - AKA Elaine Isaak - is probably the hardest working and most generous author I know. I initially met her at a Broad Universe reading at a Boston area SF&F con and over the years, she has become a mentor, cheerleader, and friend.
This is what I mean when I say generous: At the begining of the pandemic, I had already been struggling for over a year with the worst case of writer's block I had ever experienced. Elaine started a weekly zoom meeting with me and several other writers and over the past 2+ years, we've been working through craft books and encouraging one another in gentle (but persistent) ways to move forward.
I can honestly say I would have given up on the multiverse novel (and perhaps writing at all) long ago if it hadn't been for Elaine.
In addition to being a wonderful human, she is also a talented and endlessly creative writer. She has written dozens of novels over multiple genres and I have read and loved nearly all of them. She describes her work as "knowledge-inspired adventure fiction" which definitely encompasses all of her writing.
Here are brief blurbs of her novels and novellas. (And as you can see, she is truly prolific with a work ethic that continues to inspire me.)
The Singer's Legacy, a traditional fantasy generational saga in which the solutions of one generation become the problems of the next.
Tales of Bladesend, epic fantasy novella series in which the heroes of the demon war believe their battles are won…until they try to go home.
The Dark Apostle series, dark historical fantasy about medieval surgery, in which a 14th century barber surgeon learns diabolical magic to confront a tyrant, but the cost may be more than his soul
The King of Next Week, in which a Civil War veteran sails to coastal Africa with a cargo of ice and returns with a Djinn wife
The Bone Guard archaeological thrillers: if Indiana Jones had served in special forces. Opening with The Mongol's Coffin: a deadly race to follow a musical map to Genghis Khan's tomb
The Forest of Bone, Kindle Vella serialized epic fantasy novel about treacherous gods, shapeshifting spies, and a secret rising from the dead.
Drakemaster: epic historical fantasy set during the Mongol expansion; a desperate chase across Medieval China to locate a clockwork doomsday device.
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And here's more about her newest, DRAKEMASTER
During the Mongol invasion of China, a Lithuanian bellmaker and the Mongolian scout who enslaved him race to stop the deployment of a clockwork doomsday device.
Two hundred years ago, astronomers and geomancers collaborated to create a new technology, a way to draw down the energy of auspicious stars to regenerate the slowly depleting power of the land where they had lived for thousands of years. But the bureaucrats overseeing the process realized that the device could also be used as a weapon, to the benefit of the Son of Heaven, the emperor of China, and the inventors concealed the device rather than allow that to happen.
When the plans are discovered during the Mongol invasion, it sparks a race to find the device—to stop it—or to set its dreadful power free. The quest will unite, and divide, six people who see the device as the solution to their own problems: a dancer whose grace hides deadly skills; the last warrior monk of a ruined temple; an astronomer's daughter forced to submit her mind to her beauty; a Jewish student lost without his community; a Mongolian scout desperate to remove the name of "traitor"; and a Lithuanian bell-maker who believes that casting weapons for the enemy might win him his freedom and let him go home.
“I’ve long admired E.C. Ambrose’s thriller and mystery work, but “Drakemaster” is a huge cut above. Taking place in China in 1257 A.D., “Drakemaster” is a superbly researched and well-written epic fantasy taking place in a realm most of us know little about, but Ambrose is an expert guide to this mysterious and troubling world, starting with a first chapter that will leave you breathless. Expertly researched with unforgettable characters and superb writing, this is one not to be missed.”
---- Brendan DuBois, award-winning and New York Times bestselling author