A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix

A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix
Release Date: May 17, 2012 (UK)
Publisher: HarperCollins
Rating: Bland

You’d think being a privileged Prince in a vast intergalactic Empire would be about as good as it gets. But it isn’t as great as it sounds. For one thing, Princes are always in danger. Their greatest threat? Other Princes. Khemri discovers that the moment he is proclaimed a Prince. He also discovers mysteries within the hidden workings of the Empire. Dispatched on a secret mission, Khemri comes across the ruins of a space battle. In the midst of it all he meets a young woman named Raine, who will challenge his view of the Empire, of Princes, and of himself. - Goodreads

I've never read anything by Garth Nix before but I had heard amazing things about his series for younger readers. I was really looking forward to this as the premise sounded really good (I'm loving the whole sci-fi trend!) but I was less than impressed.

The world building in this book was good, but it took over the whole novel. The book was one huge info dump up until page 150, when everything started picking up a little bit. Throughout the novel, major events were skimmed over which made the book shorter than it probably should have been.

A new character was introduced at around half way through, which started to make things interesting, however everything soon started being skimmed over again.

I didn't really care for any of the characters because they weren't developed enough. I didn't care whether they lived or died. As a result, I also didn't care for Khemri's relationship with a certain character either because it was dull and rushed.

Also, correct me if I am wrong, but the main character in the book is supposed to have dark skin (I'm not sure if he is black, Asian or some sort of mix), however the model on the cover is definitely not any of those things. Or perhaps he might be, but he is A LOT lighter than Khemri is described in the book. This annoys me, in case you can't tell.

Overall, I was really disappointed with this novel. The setting was fantastic, and I think it could have been really great considering the potential it had. Unfortunately, it was poorly executed and just plain boring.