A Confusion of Princes

#850
Title: A Confusion of Princes
Author: Garth Nix
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Year: 2012
337 pages

I enjoyed this freestanding novel, a coming-of-age story with nods to other juvenile science fiction and not a little of the end of Robert Charles Wilson's Darwinia. However, Nix is somewhat out of his element in science fiction, and his lack of facility sometimes shows. Though this story isn't picaresque, it feels like it is in that elements don't always seem to have adequate explanations and aren't all well-integrated into the ploy. This looseness of weave contributes to the feeling that it's a video game script (and indeed, there's an associated video game). It sprawls a bit, but I can live with that, and it's fun to see Nix stretch.