A Confusion of Princes
A Confusion of Princes is a young adult space opera about a distant future empire ruled by telepathic princes and a mind of past emperors. The Imperial Mind, made from former rulers’ thoughts, guides the empire, and every twenty years one of many Princes becomes Emperor. Princes are raised from childhood, trained in bio-technology, mind power, and machines, and sorted into Houses that help and test them.
The story follows Khemri, a prince who finishes his training and thinks he will live in luxury. Soon after leaving his home, he faces assassination attempts. His Master of Assassins, Haddad, warns him of danger and helps him reach the Imperial Mind conduit on Kwanantil 9, a naval training world. The Mind assigns him a special task, and he refuses to join a middle-tier House called Jerrazis.
At the Imperial Navy academy, Khemri endures pranks and punishments. He and his Mekbi troops help repel a Sad-Eye raid, earning medals, while the Commandant grows to hate him. After a confrontation, Khemri kills the Commandant, and the Mind hushes the incident. Because Jerrazis suspects him, he is sent to a remote “supply station” that is really the Empire’s secret Adjustment service. He must either become an Adjuster or be killed.
Khemri undergoes four months of brutal training in four different environments, in a body without his princely advantages. He is then sent to the Fringe to find a temple and access the Imperial Mind as a normal human. There he meets Raine, a stowaway from Kharalcha, who tells him an Imperial ship attacked their world years earlier. They work together to stop pirates by launching a missile to close a wormhole, then escape in a damaged pod. They awaken on a space station in Kharalcha and begin a romance.
Pirates attack again, and Khemri pilots an old Imperial ship to defend them, dying as the Imperial Mind re-establishes contact. He is reborn as a Prince and enters the competition to become Emperor. In the throne contest, Khemri duels his sister Atalin, who is also one of the five candidates. After a series of tests that weed out the other candidates, Khemri and Atalin kill the remaining rivals.
Rather than kill Atalin, Khemri injures her and dies so they die at the same moment, ensuring Atalin’s succession. He asks to return to Raine in Kharalcha, and Atalin agrees. Raine then picks up Khemri, who has become Emperor’s sister-in-law in death and in life.
The world is built on a vast empire with multiple factions and technologies: the Sad-Eyes, Naknuk rebels, and Deaders as rivals; Bitek (biotechnology), Psitek (psionics), and Mektek (machines) as the Empire’s core technologies. The empire also includes 16 priesthoods and a system of Houses that support Prince families.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 06:39 (CET).