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Review of "Holy Terrors" by Margaret Owen
I recently finished "Holy Terrors" by Margaret Owen, the last book in her ya fantasy "Little Thieves" trilogy.
In my opinion the book started out somewhat interesting, but around the 70% mark things went downhill. The author brings in different timelines, which doesn't feel grounded in the rest of the series and was pretty confusing to understand.
The main problem I have is that the magic system is poorly developed, and what we are shown contradicts pre-established information in previous books, and even the book itself.
Irmgard von Hirshing turns out to be the mastermind behind the plot, being behind the murders of 13 royals, using them as human sacrifices to create an artificial timeline where she's god-empress.
Turns out that she had perfectly memorized the mark that bind prefects to the Low Gods and allow them to draw on to their powers when she sewed the stolen mark onto Adalbrecht's back in book one, and collaborated with Vanja's warlock brother Ozkar to replicate the mark and alter it so that she had complete control over time.
This explains how the assassin had been able to stop time during the assassinations, but it was stated that Klemens, a prefect had been bed-bound for nearly a week after stopping time for five minutes, so whoever is stopping time for longer than that several times a week has to have the powers of a god.
Based on this information I don't feel it's plausible that all you need to gain the powers of a god is to copy a mark. Prefects have been established to be like warlocks in that their powers come from the gods, who themselves are beholden to human law and have an active presence in the world, so it doesn't make sense that the god of Time would just sit back and do nothing as someone is abusing their power.
Otherwise, that would mean the gods have no control over humans drawing upon their power, which I don't think is good worldbuilding.
During Irmgard's villain exposition she says that after being arrested in book one, she was sentenced with community service in Time's temple, where she learned through scrying that in every possible life where she and Vanja-the protagonist-clashed, Vanja won.
Except it was literally established in the preceding paragraph that it isn't possible to scry into your own timeline, so according to this rule Irmgard shouldn't be able to scry her fate.
Even if we assume this rule allows for Irmgard to see Vanja, it feels too convenient that Irmgard was able to see Vanja's life in such precise detail. For example, in the end of the 2nd book, Irmgard enters Ozkar's shop to buy a ribbon Emeric had donated. Ozkar collects objects of sentimental value and the ribbon was one in a pair Emeric had bought for Vanja. And presumably, Irmgard conveniently knows this from scrying into Vanja's life.
Basically, the worldbuilding around magic is too undeveloped and feels too limitless, making the story less believable as a result, and the multiple timelines feel confusing and hard to keep track of.
That said, one thing I enjoyed about the book is the theme that people are shaped by the choices they make, and if someone had made a different choice and their life went on a different path, they could've turned very different.
Not only are there eight sections in the book, stories that show the outcomes of choices Vanja could have made, windows into lives where, at crucial junctures she made a different choice than she made canonically.
Not only that, but it's revealed that the vicious, power-hungry Irmgard could've been content with being happily married to a man of lower station had she chosen to stay out of her father's plot with Adalbrecht in the first book.
#entertainment
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I recently finished "Holy Terrors" by Margaret Owen, the last book in her ya fantasy "Little Thieves" trilogy.
In my opinion the book started out somewhat interesting, but around the 70% mark things went downhill. The author brings in different timelines, which doesn't feel grounded in the rest of the series and was pretty confusing to understand.
The main problem I have is that the magic system is poorly developed, and what we are shown contradicts pre-established information in previous books, and even the book itself.
Irmgard von Hirshing turns out to be the mastermind behind the plot, being behind the murders of 13 royals, using them as human sacrifices to create an artificial timeline where she's god-empress.
Turns out that she had perfectly memorized the mark that bind prefects to the Low Gods and allow them to draw on to their powers when she sewed the stolen mark onto Adalbrecht's back in book one, and collaborated with Vanja's warlock brother Ozkar to replicate the mark and alter it so that she had complete control over time.
This explains how the assassin had been able to stop time during the assassinations, but it was stated that Klemens, a prefect had been bed-bound for nearly a week after stopping time for five minutes, so whoever is stopping time for longer than that several times a week has to have the powers of a god.
Based on this information I don't feel it's plausible that all you need to gain the powers of a god is to copy a mark. Prefects have been established to be like warlocks in that their powers come from the gods, who themselves are beholden to human law and have an active presence in the world, so it doesn't make sense that the god of Time would just sit back and do nothing as someone is abusing their power.
Otherwise, that would mean the gods have no control over humans drawing upon their power, which I don't think is good worldbuilding.
During Irmgard's villain exposition she says that after being arrested in book one, she was sentenced with community service in Time's temple, where she learned through scrying that in every possible life where she and Vanja-the protagonist-clashed, Vanja won.
Except it was literally established in the preceding paragraph that it isn't possible to scry into your own timeline, so according to this rule Irmgard shouldn't be able to scry her fate.
Even if we assume this rule allows for Irmgard to see Vanja, it feels too convenient that Irmgard was able to see Vanja's life in such precise detail. For example, in the end of the 2nd book, Irmgard enters Ozkar's shop to buy a ribbon Emeric had donated. Ozkar collects objects of sentimental value and the ribbon was one in a pair Emeric had bought for Vanja. And presumably, Irmgard conveniently knows this from scrying into Vanja's life.
Basically, the worldbuilding around magic is too undeveloped and feels too limitless, making the story less believable as a result, and the multiple timelines feel confusing and hard to keep track of.
That said, one thing I enjoyed about the book is the theme that people are shaped by the choices they make, and if someone had made a different choice and their life went on a different path, they could've turned very different.
Not only are there eight sections in the book, stories that show the outcomes of choices Vanja could have made, windows into lives where, at crucial junctures she made a different choice than she made canonically.
Not only that, but it's revealed that the vicious, power-hungry Irmgard could've been content with being happily married to a man of lower station had she chosen to stay out of her father's plot with Adalbrecht in the first book.
#entertainment
source
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