Vivian Vande Velde's Heir Apparent was the perfect spring break read. Giannine uses her birthday money to play a total immersion virtual reality game called Heir Apparent. In the game she has been named the next King, even though she is only a half royalty (an illegitimate child of the king, raised by peasants), but being named ruler is only half the battle. She must survive the next 3 days to get to her coronation and win the game. Sounds like a good way to spend her birthday money. She gets a half hour of game time, if she dies within the half hour she gets to try again and when the half hour is up she gets to finish the life she is on. I thought what a great idea, maybe I would actually get into video games if you could be totally immersed.
Everything is proceeding as usual until the developer of the game appears and says there has been a terrible problem with the equipment. They can't unplug her because that could cause permanent brain damage so she has to win the game in order to get out. The problem is that there is only a limited amount of time the equipment will last and if she doesn't win the game before then the results will be catastrophic.
The virtual world Velde has created is full of amazing characters and Giannine is the type of character I really love. A strong, independent, feisty female. This book is really a fantasy disguised as sci-fi.
Winning the crown...that's kids stuff.
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