Heir Apparent

Heir Apparent is a 2002 Young Adult science fiction-fantasy novel by Vivian Vande Velde. Although set in the same universe and sharing some characters with her other novels User Unfriendly and Deadly Pink, the book is not a formal sequel and can be read as a standalone novel.

It’s Giannine Bellisario’s fourteenth birthday. Giannine is upset because once again her father has failed to make an appearance, instead, sending a gift: a fifty-dollar gift certificate to the Rasmussem Center, where she can play total-immersion virtual reality role-playing games (RPGs).

At the Rasmussem Center, Giannine encounters a protest organized by Citizens to Protect Our Children (CPOC). Inside the center, Giannine is shown a video catalog of the available games; she selects one called “Heir Apparent” in part because she finds the male characters to be attractive. She is hooked up to the game and the basic rules are described: she will be playing for just a half hour, but it will seem like three days to her. The premise of the game is that she is a peasant girl who discovers she is really Princess Janine de St. Jehan, the illegitimate daughter of the recently deceased King Cynric, who has named her heir to the throne. The king’s wife, Andreanna, and his three legitimate sons, Kenric, Abas, and Wulfgar, wish her dead. She must survive the three days until her coronation in order to win the game. Every time she dies in-game, she will start over at the beginning.



The game begins, and Giannine finds herself called down a hillside by her mother. She encounters Sir Deming, a knight who informs her of the king’s death and his desire that she be crowned. Her mother suggests she should visit her father before she leaves, but Giannine, thinking of her own father, refuses, setting off for the castle with Sir Deming.

At the castle, the guards bring in a young peasant boy who has been caught stealing, and ask the princess to pass judgment. Without thinking, Giannine sets the boy free. She meets the queen, who is very unlikable and obnoxious, and the three princes: Kenric, who is very handsome and whom she crushes on immediately; Abas, who is very muscular and violent; and Wulfgar, who was raised outside the kingdom and has odd manners.

Suddenly, a middle-aged man appears. He identifies himself as Nigel Rasmussem, CEO of the company, and informs her that the CPOC protesters have broken into the arcade and damaged the equipment, disabling the failsafe. As a result, she cannot exit the game other than by winning it—and if she takes too long to win, she will suffer brain damage from being hooked up to the game too long. He urges her to win quickly, offering advice on how to do so, insisting she must retrieve a magic ring.
Nigel disappears, and Giannine is assassinated by her own guards, who are upset that she let the criminal boy go free.



She begins the game again and focuses on locating the ring. She follows the same patterns, being killed by different characters at different moments until she realizes that the ring is with her foster father. He sends her to a magic statue of Saint Bruce, the warrior poet; she must compose an original poem on the spot in order to obtain the ring; if Saint Bruce doesn’t like the poem or if it is not original, he will cut her head off. Eventually, Giannine composes a suitable poem and obtains the ring.

Giannine is kidnapped by invading barbarians at the castle. King Grimbold ransoms her for the return of a magic crown stolen by King Cynric. The crown makes anyone who wears it able to turn anything they touch into gold. The royal family wants her dead, however, and refuses to pay the ransom. In the next go-round she evades capture by the barbarians, and in the battle, Abas kills Grimbold by cutting off his head. Giannine learns that Cynric gave the magic crown to a dragon. At a meeting of magicians, the barbarians attack in revenge for Grimbold and inform the princes that they will never stop attacking as long as Giannine is alive, so the princes poison her.

Starting over again, she decides she must change some of her patterns. When asked to judge the peasant boy, she asks Kenric to help her and makes an effort to weigh evidence, eventually deciding on a punishment of hard labor. She contrives to have Abas sent away, so when the barbarians arrive he isn’t there to kill Grimbold. She parlays with Grimbold, making a deal with him: he agrees to hold off his attacks for two days while she attempts to retrieve the crown from the dragon.



The magician’s conference happens again, but this time isn’t interrupted; Giannine is told where the dragon is and is given special magic items to help her: Boots that allow her to move very quickly and a potion that will make her very strong. She travels to the dragon and climbs up a mountain. She steals the crown and returns to the castle, but the dragon follows and attacks. Giannine, frustrated, discovers that the game is programmed to offer hints if the player becomes too frustrated. She figures out that if she puts on the crown, she can turn the dragon into gold. She does, winning the game.

Waking up to reality, she finds herself in the arms of Kenric—who is actually Nigel, a sixteen-year-old genius who created the game and based Kenric on himself. He used his uncle’s appearance when visiting her in order to look authoritative. Giannine’s father has also arrived in a panic, showing that he does really care for her. The CPOC people have been disgraced because they almost caused the death of a child.