HEALER MAGIC

Healer Magic by Laurence Dahners
Narrated by Jocelyn Duford
Book 3 in the Tales Of Simple Magic series
Genre: progression fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Healer Magic:

Magical ability is rare, but Ky Vaux — a peasant boy from a poor family — can not only mend and make, but he’s extremely powerful and working toward his dream of becoming a healer.

Though everyone's working, Ky’s gift of magic is now the main support for Ky, his mother, his sister, his aunt and his cousins. Plus, they support a large number of people who work for the family.

But for Ky, taking care of his family’s no longer enough. Now, he’s doing his best to help others: The poor, the sick, the deformed, and the victims of a blizzard which collapsed homes all around the city.

Plus, the cold's endangering everyone, especially the poor.

Source: Info in the "About Healer Magic" was taken from amazon on 26/04/2025.

Buy Link(s):

 

My Thoughts:

Another chunk of a bigger book.

Like the first two books, this too ended in a cliffhanger.

Still a wonderful read! I just didn't like the waiting for the next book.

As the title implies, Ky has progressed to healer stage of his magic progression.

Surprisingly, unlike the previous books, I didn't feel that the book required me to dumb down my intelligence to enjoy it! Or maybe, the author is just getting good at training the readers to ignore those things. Maybe...

As usual, Jocelyn Duford did a fantastic job of bringing this book to life!

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4.5
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 3
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = (7 hours and 50 minutes listening time)
Plot = 2.5
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Tales Of Simple Magic Series:

 

Meet The Author

About Laurence Dahners:

Amazon best-selling Science Fiction writer, Laurence E. Dahners, is a former orthopedic surgeon who has written over fifty books, including eighteen in the popular Ell Donsaii series. He writes optimistic stories in which science solves problems rather than bringing on dystopias. His favorite writing strategy is to imagine, “what if,” some advance (such as teleportation, reactionless drives, stopping time, etcetera) were possible, what changes might be wrought in our world?

How might our hero utilize such an advance?

Who might stand to lose from the introduction of such changes and how might they strive to resist its introduction?

He loves to write such stories and hopes you’ll enjoy reading them.

laury.dahners.com | twitter | facebook | audible | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Jocelyn Duford:

Jocelyn is a professional actor and director of theatre and she uses these skills to bring emotion, nuance, and clarity to any production. She is an award-winning stage actor that can perform a wide range of characters. She also has experience as a high school and middle school classroom teacher, providing the voice of engaging, accessible authority. She currently teaches acting and voice lessons at a private music school in southern NH.

website | facebook | instagram | linkedin | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The print book/ebook and/or audiobook were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

MAKER MAGIC

Maker Magic by Laurence Dahners
Book 2 in the Tales Of Simple Magic series
Narrated by Jocelyn Duford
Genre: progression fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Maker Magic:

Magical ability is rare, but Ky Vaux — a peasant boy from a poor family — can not only mend and make, but is extremely powerful and hopes to fulfill his dream of working as a healer.

Ky’s gift of magic is now supporting Ky, his mother, his sister, and even his cousins.

But for Ky, taking care of his family isn’t enough. He wants to help others, the poor children of the city and those who're being tortured by a sadistic noble …

Source: Info in the "About Maker Magic" was taken from amazon on 26/04/2025.

Buy Link(s):

 

My Thoughts:

Middle chunk of a bigger book.

As expected this book ended in a cliffhanger. However this cliffhanger is better than the first book because it ended in a high note and also kind of closed the dilemma in this stretch of their lives.

Like the first book, this one also requires you to dumb down your intelligence for the story to make a little bit more sense.

Still a wonderful read! I just don't like cliffhanger endings and dumbing downs.

Jocelyn Duford did a wonderful job of bringing this book to life!

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4.5
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 3
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = (8 hrs and 33 mins listening time)
Plot = 3
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Tales Of Simple Magic Series:

 

Meet The Author

About Laurence Dahners:

Amazon best-selling Science Fiction writer, Laurence E. Dahners, is a former orthopedic surgeon who has written over fifty books, including eighteen in the popular Ell Donsaii series. He writes optimistic stories in which science solves problems rather than bringing on dystopias. His favorite writing strategy is to imagine, “what if,” some advance (such as teleportation, reactionless drives, stopping time, etcetera) were possible, what changes might be wrought in our world?

How might our hero utilize such an advance?

Who might stand to lose from the introduction of such changes and how might they strive to resist its introduction?

He loves to write such stories and hopes you’ll enjoy reading them.

laury.dahners.com | twitter | facebook | audible | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Jocelyn Duford:

Jocelyn is a professional actor and director of theatre and she uses these skills to bring emotion, nuance, and clarity to any production. She is an award-winning stage actor that can perform a wide range of characters. She also has experience as a high school and middle school classroom teacher, providing the voice of engaging, accessible authority. She currently teaches acting and voice lessons at a private music school in southern NH.

website | facebook | instagram | linkedin | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The book/ebook and/or audiobook were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

TELEKINETIC

Telekinetic by Laurence Dahners
Book 1 in the Hyllis Family series
Narrated by Christopher Lane
Genre: post-apocalyptic dystopian fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Telekinetic:

The collapse of civilization has reduced their people back to iron and horsepower. The Hyllises tend to inherit “tele-talents” such as telekinesis and teleportation. Tarc Hyllis’ mother (and his grandfather before her) could “feel” things with their talent. They became healers because they could feel inside their patients, which frequently let them diagnose the underlying causes of an illness. Having made a diagnosis, unfortunately, there was often little they could do to treat a problem. Tarc’s father can “push” objects with his mind, but, because he can’t feel inside anything, he doesn’t know where to exert force in order to help to treat his wife’s patients. Tarc’s just gaining the ability to do both of these things. The combination of these two powers will let him both diagnose a physical problem such as internal bleeding, and then stop that bleeding by applying pressure inside the patient. His mother finds this development extraordinarily exciting. She has too often had to watch her patients die for lack of an effective treatment. Then some strangers show up to scout the town where the Hyllises live. They plan and initiate a violent takeover. Could Tarc’s powers, weak as they are, play a role in resisting this invasion? It turns out he can guide a knife after it’s thrown…

Source: Info in the "About Telekinetic" was taken from amazon on 03/05/2025.

Buy Link(s):

 

My Thoughts:

This is the first book in the Hyllis Family series, that means that this book is an introduction to the world of Tarc.

I didn't like the back and forth of the timeline. But I guess it is necessary to make a point that this is not an alternative medieval fantasy but a post-apocalyptic one.

Although the book ended the dilemma in the current book it also pointed towards the beginning of the the next book. It means it has a cliffhanger ending. I do not like cliffhangers and that is the main reason that this book will never get a 5 out of 5 rating from me.

The kindle cover art is appropriate to the story but it is not a "buy me!" cover. I'm a visual reader. Cover art is a big part in my reading choices.

I've listented to Christopher Lane before but this is the first audiobook where I actually finished the book. He did a pretty good job of bringing the world of Tarc to life!

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 3.5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 3.5
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 3.5
Pace = (7 hrs and 33 mins listening time)
Plot = 3.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Hyllis Family Series:

 

Meet The Author

About Laurence Dahners:

Amazon best-selling Science Fiction writer, Laurence E. Dahners, is a former orthopedic surgeon who has written over fifty books, including eighteen in the popular Ell Donsaii series. He writes optimistic stories in which science solves problems rather than bringing on dystopias. His favorite writing strategy is to imagine, “what if,” some advance (such as teleportation, reactionless drives, stopping time, etcetera) were possible, what changes might be wrought in our world?

How might our hero utilize such an advance?

Who might stand to lose from the introduction of such changes and how might they strive to resist its introduction?

He loves to write such stories and hopes you’ll enjoy reading them.

laury.dahners.com | twitter | facebook | audible | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Christopher Lane:

Christopher Lane has received four Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine as well as four Audie Award nominations. His narration of Charlie Wilson's War earned him an Audie Award for unabridged nonfiction for in 2004. He performed and directed for the stage for twenty years in Washington, D.C., and he has been a teacher of acting for Boston University's School of Theatre Arts. He now makes his home in Rhode Island.

goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The book/ebook and/or audiobook were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.