Heir Apparent (Rasmussem Corporation, #2) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Mar 21, 2013 Harold Ogle rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, magic, ya, cyberpunk, gaming, dragons, shapechangers, divorce

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 fanta 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. ...more

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Nov 09, 2007 GUS BUS! rated it really liked it

A great story concept with the virtual reality game. It was also a very funny story with the restarting and restarting that the character had to go through overall a great read.

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