A Confusion of Princes
Aurealis Award nominee 2012.
A major standalone space opera, this is Garth Nix’s first novel for older readers since the conclusion of the Old Kingdom trilogy... and it’s worth the wait.
A grand adventure that spans galaxies and lifetimes, A Confusion of Princes is also a page-turning action adventure.
These are the three deaths of Prince Khemri. Told in his own words, we follow him as he trains to become a Prince of the Empire, an enhanced human being, equipped with biological and technological improvements that make him faster, stronger and smarter than any ordinary person. Not to mention the ultimate benefit: should he die, and be deemed worthy, he will be reborn...
Which is just as well, because no sooner has Prince Khemri graduated to full Princehood than he learns the terrible truth behind the Empire: there are a million princes, and all of them want each other dead, because there can only be one Emperor...
Garth Nix
In Garth Nixâs worlds, the dead rarely stay quiet, magic obeys ancient and perilous rules, and courage often looks like a teenager holding a bell, a sword, and the weight of two realms. Best known for the Old Kingdom series, Nix has carved out a space in fantasy literature that hums with mythic resonance and emotional depthâwhere necromancers clash with free magic creatures and heroines face destiny with grit rather than grandeur.
Born in Melbourne, Australia, Nix grew up in Canberra, absorbing stories that blurred the line between the ordinary and the extraordinary. He worked in bookstores, publishing, and even the Australian Army Reserve before turning his attention fully to fiction. That eclectic journey quietly shaped his writingâthereâs a sense in his stories that the fantastical doesnât sit apart from reality, but seeps into it through forgotten doorways and ancient bloodlines.