Heir Apparent

Rasmussem Corporation #2

by Vivian Vande Velde

In Heir Apparent there are as many ways to win as there are to get killed. "A stylish tale [that] addresses both fantasy gaming and censorship." ( New York Times Book Review) From Edgar Award–winning author Vivian Vande Velde comes a rollicking story that puts a high-tech twist on the classic medieval fantasy-adventure. In the virtual reality game Heir Apparent,   there are  way  too many ways to get killed—and Giannine seems to be finding them all. Which is a shame, because unless she can get the magic ring, locate the stolen treasure, answer the dwarf's dumb riddles, impress the head-chopping statue, charm the army of ghosts, fend off the barbarians, and defeat the man-eating dragon, she'll  never  win. And she has to, because losing means she'll die —for real  this time. Junior Library Guild Selection * New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fiction, Adventure, Middle Grade, Teen

352 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Vivian Vande Velde (born 1951, currently residing in Rochester, New York) is an American author who writes books primarily aimed at young adults.

Her novels and short story collections usually have some element of horror or fantasy, but are primarily humorous. Her book Never Trust a Dead Man (1999) received the 2000 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Novel. She says that she really likes to write for children. She likes to do school talks to children. She does many book conventions and also gives writing classes.

Reviews

[cc · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really don’t think you guys understand how much I mean it when I say: This is seriously one of my favorite books of all time.

I read it for the first time when I was in middle school and I’ve read it several times since. Even now, at the geriatric old age of 24, I still absolutely adore this story. It’s everything I want, ties in so beautifully with some of my most excitingly dramatic fantasies, and I JUST WANT IT TO BE MADE INTO A MOVIE SOSOSOSOSO BAD!

Heir Apparent follows 14-year-old Giannine Bellisario as she ventures to an arcade for her birthday. The novel is set in a futuristic society not far outside the realms of our own reality in which public busses speak and can be spoken to (but aren’t very intelligent) and arcades house immersive virtual reality games. Giannine settles on a game entitled Heir Apparent and is promptly cast into the role of shepherd’s daughter who discovers, after the death of the king, that her parents are only her foster parents, she is the secret bastard child of the king and his former mistress, and she must return to the palace to claim her rightful place as heir to the throne. Forced to face off against three half siblings and the queen, peasant unrest, barbarian attacks, and a very choose-your-own-adventure style gaming experience, Giannine knows she’s in for a challenging game. Until a group of activists breaks into the arcade and trashes the equipment, making it impossible for staff to safely remove her from the game before completion and leaving her in a fight for her life: Beat the game soon if you want to survive.

Every time I pick up this book, I’m terrified that I’m not going to love it as much as I have in the past. That maybe I glamourized it in my head or was in the right frame of mind when I read it, but that it’s not that good. Every time, it proves me wrong.

I genuinely love this story and the characters. It’s so visually appealing to me in a way that many books are not, managing to paint these vivid images in my head and bringing to mind the most exquisite sets I can imagine. It appeals to me, also, as a part-time gamer, former R.L. Stine Choose Your Own Adventure book reader, and forever daydreamer.

The setting is unique in that it’s repetitive. Every time Janine (as she’s called in the game) dies, she awakens in a sheep field, covered in feces, with her foster mother calling her name. She’s forced to experience the same series of events over and over, make decisions on how to interact with those around her and who to ally herself with, and find herself killed in sinister, bizarre, and treacherous ways. She is motivated by one thing and one thing only: To stay alive in the game so that she can stay alive in the real world.

I love watching her actions effect the world around her. Every round, she makes slightly different decisions and, while some things are always the same – her interactions with her foster family, her introduction to the royal family (when she makes it to the Great Hall), the boy being dragged to the courtyard for poaching – things vary every time she makes a decision – the results of the barbarian attacks, the support/betrayal of the guards, Kenric’s behavior towards her.

And I still find it absolutely fascinating.

I’d be lying if I pretended that I don’t have a bit of a crush on Princes Wulfgar and Kenric. (Mostly Kenric.) When Janine allies herself with either of them, it’s always going to be a fun time, filled with sly smiles and strangely enjoyable interactions. I’d also be lying if I denied that I really want the Barbarian King married off to both the Queen and Sister Mary Ursula, just for the laughs and to get them out of our hair.

I honestly don’t know what to say about this book beyond the fact that I am absolutely in love with it. I wish that the princes weren’t her brothers so there could have been a romance, but that sounds kind of creepy right now, so maybe I should stop.

All I know is that the ending is perfection, I love Kenric’s response to her tears as her brain finally begins to overheat right before she manages to beat the game (even if he was programmed to react that way), and meeting Nigel Rasmussen and hearing his perspective on Kenric as a character makes me so happy every single time.

The only thing I’d change? I’d like it if Kenric had looked at her the moment they all hailed Janine as King and said “You win” before everything collapsed around her. I feel like that moment of awareness/conclusion in the midst of what was happening would have just pushed it even a little bit farther for me.

You win. The end.

[Renaissance Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite books in middle school, and it was so fun rereading it after all these years! 💕

[Intisar Khanani · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was all the escape I could have asked for this past week- I was literally snorting with laughter at one point. A wonderful blend of action, personal stakes, humor, and enough do-overs even the main character is frustrated. Read it - you won't regret it!

[Eshusdaughter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll be honest, I mostly picked up this audiobook because it was narrated by Carine Montreband and I was so in love with the Uglies books by Westerfeld that she narrated that I wanted to hear her voice again. The unconscious mental comparison between Westerfeld's book and this one may be skewing my opinion of it.

Summary: Fourteen-year-old Giannine becomes trapped in the virtual reality game Heir Apparent when an activist group attacks the gaming center where she's playing. Suddenly the safety measures that are supposed to protect her aren't there and every time Giannine dies in the game she edges closer toward a fatal brain overload.

Overall, the story stretched out too long for me and seemed rather thin. It was frustrating how many times Giannine had to start over and the same events repeated. While Giannine faced some tough decisions and lots of machinations, the pacing was just off. There needed to be more action and more happening. Too often it felt like Giannine was just floating along in the game, buffeted by various forces. The fact that none of the characters she was interacting with were real, and the reader knew that, also made it hard to form any sort of attachment to them. The characters were just a program with no personal consciousness and thus no real stake in the outcome of the story.

The dialogue and description are well done throughout and this is a well-written story. It's missing a spark however to take it from so-so to a really good book.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vivan Vande Velde is one of the best fantasy writers out there. Her stories are believable and populated with characters you'll remember long after the book is closed. Her stories are also surprisingly believable given that they are fantasies. Such is the case with this novel, which takes place in some undisclosed future time. The story gets into gear when the narrator, Giannine, enters a full-immersion virtual reality game (by the same name as the title of the book) to compete to rule a kingdom. The problem? If Giannine loses she might not be able to leave the game environment.

As you might have guessed by that little summary, most of this story revolves around Giannine playing the game over and over as she tries to win. This creates a lot of repetition--as we watch Giannine go through the same scenarios repeatedly with varying levels of success (If this sounds similar to the premise of "Groundhog Day" that's because it is.). Happily, instead of seeming redundant, the story/plot remains interesting. Vande Velde artfully describes the gameplay so that readers won't get bored. This makes the book go by really fast.

The characters are extremely interesting and the premise--while not totally new--is unique, as is the author's handling of it. The story features Vande Velde's usual humor throughout. What it doesn't feature is her usual ambiguous ending. The story is still open-ended but it has more closure than are found in A Well-Timed Enchantment or Companions of the Night (both also by Vande Velde and also highly recommended), which makes for a nice change.

You can find this review and more on my blog Miss Print

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. Love love love this book. It's such a fun mix of tech sci-fi and fantasy. It holds up super well to multiple readings--I think I've read it about five times now. I highly recommend it to anyone 5th grade and up. (I probably read it for the first time around 6th or 7th grade.) It's a super fun adventure with relatively little romance and with a very strong, relatable female lead. It has so many memorable characters and is STILL laugh out loud funny even when I knew what was coming.

(Also, even though I said there's not much romance, Giannine and Nigel are OTP. A girl can dream.)

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books because it combines fantasy and reality, as well as future-tech gaming with present-day frustrations. But besides the content, I continue to be amazed by the way the book is set up. The main character Giannine is stuck in a virtual fantasy game in which death can occur to the protagonist. Every time Giannine 'dies,' she begins anew from the the start, able to revise her decisions and react differently to the opportunities and threats presented to her. As she goes through the game differently, the other characters react to her differently as well. I admire this unusual way of telling a story, as well as the effort needed to create characters who are recognizable despite their new reactions.

[ambyr · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is an excellent example of how much the YA genre has shifted over the past decade. I read a fair amount of current YA, and while I'm technically old for it, I'm clearly not that far out of the marketing department's sights. Publishers Weekly informs me that today's YA is generally aimed at the sixteen to twenty-five set.

But Heir Apparent was published in 2002, when YA was still aimed firmly at young adults--that is, at kids who hadn't yet left home. Even if I'd found in 2002, when I was still a teenager albeit one a couple years into her college career, I'm pretty sure I would have found it painfully young. The protagonist is fifteen, but if anything I'd say this book is targeted at twelve- or thirteen-year-olds, following the classic "make the protagonist older than the audience" formula of middle-grade fiction.

I will say this for Giannine: unlike the protagonists of many of today's YA novels, she's convincingly teenaged. Unfortunately, at this point I'm far enough removed from teenagerhood that this only makes me sigh and grit my teeth. And yet I kept reading, because the game Giannine plays was genuinely compelling to me. I'm fascinated by game design, and I thought Velde's description of Heir Apparent the game managed to walk the line of telling a compelling story that still seemed believably programmable as a computer game. I was glad we got to see so many forks and wish I could explore others.

Sadly, that plot kept getting interrupted by the frame plot, which mostly just annoyed the hell out of me. It made the unfortunately frequent error of raising the states too high, by which I mean I knew the author was never going to make good on the threat so it provided none of the tension it should have. Specifically, the frame story has Giannine trapped within her game by a terrorist attack that fried the computer, preventing her from being disconnected safely by third parties; if she doesn't win, she'll die. But this is a first-person novel aimed at middle school students. I had exactly zero fear that the protagonist would actually die, and I'm pretty sure I would have felt the same if I'd read it when I was twelve. It doesn't take that much genre savvy to work it out.

It's unfortunate, because I can think of so many better frame stories. Giannine has parent issues out the wazoo; maybe one of her parents could have been an excellent gamer whose reputation she was trying to live up to, or maybe there could have been a cash prize for the game that would have given her the money she needed to finally initiate a visit to one of her parents on her own terms. In either case, there would still have been an external motivation for Giannine to win . . . but there also would have been real tension about whether Giannine would succeed in gaining parental approval/time, or whether she would need to learn how to do without.

And then there's the broader frame story, which is painfully unsubtle. "This book is dedicated with affection for, but no patience with, those who would protect our children through humorless moralizing and paranoia about fantasy," says the dedication, and of course, in the story, it's anti-fantasy protestors who put Giannine's life at risk by damaging the game terminal she's playing on. Of course it is. I honestly find myself wondering if the author realized that her adventure novel made playing fantasy games sound dangerous and swapped ecoterrorists for save-our-children-terrorists at the last second just to make sure the moral aligned with her own beliefs. Minus one star for blunt-force moralizing, and we get a solid two stars. Recommended only for the pre-high school set.

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has the unique accomplishment of being on both my YA science fiction and YA fantasy shelves. It's a fantasy RPG (role playing game) with magic, dragons, princesses, etc., wrapped in a SF shell (technology gone wrong).

The main character is a 14 y/o girl, Giannine aka Janine, who is playing a total immersion RPG that requires her to prove herself the rightful heir to the throne and overcome conniving relatives, dragons, rebelling peasants, an angry king of a neighboring country (his magical crown was stolen by Janine's father) and various other problems typical of a fantasy RPG. Unfortunately, almost as soon as she starts the game, it malfunctions because of some misguided protesters. Giannine/Janine needs to win the game so it will end before the technology fries her brain in real life.



If you've ever been into role-playing fantasy games, you'll probably enjoy this. It's a cute story and kind of fun, if you like this kind of thing. But I always got bored when I used to watch my brothers playing these games, trying to break through to the next level, starting over at the beginning every time you die, needing to replay the same scene over and over . . .

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

If someone asked me to recommend a true Scifi/Fantasy book, not the cheap, poorly written pieces of junk that some books are, I would tell them that they would HAVE to read this book! It is wonderfully written, with the right amount of humour, Drama, Suspense/Horror and to top things off it is written in the realm of medieval times=)
Gianne is a believable character, she takes on the situations that are thrown at her whether its reciting a different poem multiple times to searching through spider infested catacombs for lost treasure.
It is a MUST-read!!!

[Eliene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heir Apparent is one of my favourite middle grade books. Rereading it more than 10 years later, it's every bit as good as I remember. It doesn't have the most original premise-- getting stuck in a high stakes virtual reality game --but Giannine's narrative voice makes it special. I love her dry, sarcastic take and all the puzzle-solving.

Pairs well with Hexwood by Dianna Wynne Jones.

[Teo Ekstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked it back up after loving it in Middle school. It's a great time! Nothing superb, lots of kind of corny jokes, and stays light throughout, but that's a recipe for a great YA book.

[Del · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another book I find myself rereading at least once every year. That could just be because I am a video game fan, and this book is about a virtual reality video game, or just because it’s a damn good read.

Of course, it’s also one of those books that pulls off the stunt of “changing something” that’s always worked a certain way, but the way it was pulled off… you didn’t even know it was happening until the very end when they mentioned it.

The writing style is easy to understand, and flows beautifully. The descriptions allow one to imagine the landscape and people around you, but also leaves room for your own imagination to think up its own version. And although it’s a short book that can be devoured in a scant few hours, those few hours will not be wasted.

A truly sublime book, and I recommend it to any and all, not just the video game fans.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

over all it was a good book. i liked how it turned out the system was damaged because of a group trying to protect kids and ended up nearly killing one. i thought it was going to be some virus thing hidden in the game that killed her if she failed to finish the game. the queen is a gold digging bitch though...not surprising really. But honesty i found myself liking Wulfgar more that Kenric, which is a bit surprising because i like the "Kenric" type more when it comes to these books, but Wulfgar was much more interesting.

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this book at BYU for a children’s lit class (or something like that?), and loved it. Then I read it to my 4th grade class when I was a teacher, and just self-edited out a handful of words. Now I just finished reading it to my kids for 2 main reasons: 1. Video games; 2. Female main character. It was a hit!

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun and I was impressed that the author was able to keep it interesting even though the main character had to keep doing the same thing over and over. Giannine was a likeable lead and there were some very humorous moments.

Content warning: a few instances of mild language

2019 challenge: a LitRPG book

[Lucas Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea. Very YA, should have researched it before.

[Paola Iacobelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was a teenager and it’s a story that has stuck with me throughout all these years. I still think about the unique plot from time to time and I’m thinking it’s due for a re-read very soon. I loved the fantasy- video game aspect and immediately got drawn into the story line.

[Demelza · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I read it years ago and it always sticks in my brain. I love that I already know the ending and yet I was still anxious for giannine to stop making so many blunders and wasting time

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I liked about this book was the idea that you could build an entire story just to make a statement. I suppose that's all anyone ever does when they write, but it was obviously done. Before you even begin the story, there is the page that is made to look like a gift certificate, which sets the tone for what's in store. It's a ticket for the reader to come along to another world within another world--just as the main character goes, too. And then at the end, in case you were taken in by a prince's smile, you are reminded that the bigger purpose of the story is the political statement with a final page made to look like a picketing sign. There is also an invitation to start your own protest. It made me smile and I thought, "Well done, Vivian Vande Velde."

I like that the author tries to empower a young crowd to take a stand and think for themselves. While I have no objection to the reading of scriptures, it is my belief that shouting thee's and thou's from a picket line is in strong opposition to the way religious texts were intended to be read. For this same reason, I don't speak that way in normal everyday language. I would rather honor my religious beliefs in a quiet manner. If anyone would ask me directly, with real intent on answers, I would not be afraid to share the deepest feelings of my heart, but I do not agree with broadcasting it in political spheres.

For those that would censor books or games, I believe their motives and intentions come from a good place. There is a big difference in movie ratings from the 80's versus today or rather there is more awareness thanks to concerned parents who spoke up. My parents took me to R-rated movies growing up, and I became desensitized to the embarrassment of watching people suck face on screen. I have not allowed my children to be in the same situation and would rather preserve their childhood for as long as possible. I don't want them to be desensitized to something that they naturally turn their faces away from. And they do! Even when watching TV shows or commercials today. They prefer not to look.

Aside from political statements, the story was a good one. I like the kind of video games where you have to talk to others to find out what your objective is, so I appreciated the game being played in the book. The story unfolds much the same way one level of Super Paper Mario unfolds, only without jumping on goombas. Unlike, Super Paper Mario, there isn't just one path, but an infinite number of paths to take based on individual choices. Also, it was like Tron, being inside the game itself. All in all, I think I would enjoy playing Heir Apparent.

[Harold Ogle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read, Heir Apparent is a story about a near-future girl stuck in a VR game (resulting from a terrorist attack) with only a little time to win the game before her nervous system collapses from prolonged exposure to the VR stimuli. Apparently it's second in a series, but I had no idea, as this was another random selection from the library. Also, the author makes it clear that this was written - at least in part - as a reaction to fundamentalists and others who rail against the value of fantasy and gaming, claiming that it is harmful to children.

It's a fun conceit, because it gives the sense of playing an adventure game (particularly the old Sierra games, in which you can and do die on every screen): she repeatedly makes sensible choices and finds that someone kills her. In the game, this results in her having to start over, but in real life, she's used up even more of what little time she has left before her brain fries permanently. So this adds a bit of a mystery element to the reading of the book: as the reader, you are also trying to divine what the correct choices would be to succeed.

In the game, called 'Heir Apparent,' our protagonist Giannine (for once just a child of divorced parents, rather than an orphan) becomes the bastard Princess Janine, who has been raised in secrecy by shepherds (a minor irritation here: Velde repeatedly refers to Janine as a 'shepherder,' rather than the more traditional 'shepherdess' or the correct 'shepherd.' It's weird.) until the King names her his heir on his deathbed. This naturally doesn't sit well with his queen, or any of his three legitimate sons, the Princes who expected one of them would inherit the crown. Winning the game requires that she survive to the succession ceremony, and the game is a challenge because there are so many people who want her dead. In addition to her murderously envious half-siblings, there is a peasant uprising, an invading barbarian horde, an infestation of ghosts, and a rampaging dragon to handle. I really enjoyed the book and found the game plot very interesting.

[Faith · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was Giannine Bellisario’s fourteenth birthday, when she received a gift certificate to a gaming center, given to her from her ignorant, and un involved Father. To get into this gaming center, she had to get through the Citizens to Protect Our Children (CPOC) first. Once she was in Rasmussem Gaming Center, the games began. The place was filled with virtual games, and she had to decide which to choose. Giannine selected the virtual game, Heir Apparent, but she was limited on time. The time in the virtual game was longer than what the actual time was. She needed to do everything possible to keep her from dying, and to get to her goal. Every time Giannine dies in the game it starts over, but there is a problem, she is trapped in the game with limited time. Before everything goes bad, she needs to finish what she stared and the only way to do this is to finish the game.

I was a little mixed on my rating of this book, I feel that the author did a great technical job of writing this book, but I don’t know personally if I enjoyed the idea of it. It seemed as if I was reading the book three times over, for the text of this book was repetitive and not quite enough engaging. I believe that the audience of this book is more towards, Sci-Fi fanatics, and more so teenage boys. This book had a few young adult ready phrases, which younger audiences might not understand. All in all this book was very well written, but maybe not so much of my type of book and not so much for others of the ages of 11 and younger. For I think that this book appeals to the audiences of futuristic behaviors.

[Tawallah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book for a r/fantasy reddit reading prompt as LitPRG written by a woman.

In the game Heir Apparent, the player is a sheep-farmer's daughter who is suddenly thrust into ruling in a medieval kingdom. Bearing in mind that this is a children's book, the aim is targeted to making good decisions. So I ignored the obvious plot hole at the beginning. Honestly, it was frustrating to listen to the repetitive nature of the first 20%. But on reflection, the protagonist is 14 years old and therefore will make quite a few mistakes and making the voice suitable for the age. After this initial bump, things did improve and the story was enjoyable. The author uses this story to reflect on dysfunctional family and its cost, beauty for teenage girls and was never preachy.

Overall, I rated this as 3.5 stars. I would listen to another book in this series, and I am defintely willing to read another book in this genre. Even though I am not a gamer.

[Family Geek Togethers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heir Apparent is an amazing blend of science fiction, fantasy, and sass. It has all the things we look for in a good book: great plot, fun characters, and plenty of humor. Cannot recommend enough.

We've posted a full review to the Family Geek Togethers blog, which you can read here: https://wp.me/pcmSc3-bg

[Mindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t remember when I first read this book. I honestly thought I had already rated it!
I’m pretty sure I’ve read Heir Apparent several times and I think this summer will be the perfect time for a reread so that I can read the other two books in the trilogy! :)

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, fast paced read. The writing style is engaging, and while I typically don't prefer first person narrative, it didn't bother me in the least! The characters are great, and you can feel the frustration and relief of the characters as you read. Definitely recommend!

[Kat Siegel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remembered this fondly as a book from my childhood, and it held up! That's so rare and refreshing.

This is a fun children's sci-fi book that has plenty of humor and heart. Truly enjoyed revisiting it.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whoa!!! Super awesome. <3

[Lizzie Dyslin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely blast back to childhood

[Megan Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember loving this as a kid and while it’s good, there was a lot that didn’t age well