General Information
===================
 Title:                  Heir Apparent
 Author:                 Vivian Vande Velde
 Read By:                Carine Montbertrand
 Copyright:              2002
 Audiobook Copyright:    2005
 Genre:                  Science Fiction
 Publisher:              Recorded Books Inc
 Abridged:               No

Original Media Information
==========================
 Media:                  Tape
 Number:                 8
 Source:                 Rental
 Condition:              Very Good

File Information
================
 Number of MP3s:         16
 Total Duration:         9:46
 Total MP3 Size:         268.58 MB
 Parity Archive:         Yes
 Ripped By:              JB-24601
 Ripped With:            dBpowerAMP
 Encoded With:           LAME 3.92
 Encoded At:             CBR 64 kbit/s 44100 Hz Mono
 Normalize:              None
 Noise Reduction:        None
 ID3 Tags:               Set, v1.1, v2.3

Posting
=======
 Posting Plan:           Posting on a.b, a.b.m.a, a.b.m.a.h, a.b.s.a
 Reposting Rules:        No reposts or fills.

Book Description
================
From Publishers Weekly
Vande Velde (Never Trust a Dead Man) establishes a clever premise for 
this consistently entertaining fantasy novel. When Giannine arrives 
at the virtual reality arcade, the organization Citizens to Protect 
Our Children is protesting out front (their signs bear such messages 
as inappropriate for children and magic = satanism). Giannine goes in 
anyway, choosing to play Heir Apparent. In it, she assumes the role 
of shepherd Janine de St. Jehan, illegitimate daughter of the late king, 
and she will become the new king if she can survive constant threats, 
including potential warfare and perhaps even a dragon. For Giannine, 
the stakes are raised when a man claiming to be the arcade's CEO appears 
in her game, telling her that the CPOC protestors have vandalized the 
equipment: Her only way out of the game is to successfully complete 
it-and quickly, or she risks "fatal overload." The story line is ingeniously 
developed; each time Giannine's character "dies," Giannine must start 
back at the beginning, making more informed choices and using her developing 
diplomacy to prevent a war with barbarians, or win over the royal troops. 
It can be a little hard to keep track of all the people and the plotting, 
but hilarious characters (like a sweet-talking barbarian king and a 
centipede-eating wizard) plus fantastical elements (e.g., a hat that 
"lets you avoid the time stream [so you can] keep moving when all about 
you is still") will spur readers on toward the satisfying conclusion.-

From AudioFile
Giannine's 14th birthday present is a gift certificate to a futuristic 
arcade. There she elects to play a medieval virtual reality game and 
becomes the illegitimate daughter of a king who names her heir to the 
throne. When the electrical currents at the arcade are disrupted, Giannine 
must finish the game successfully, or a system overload may fry her 
brain. However, dying in the game is not a problem--it just starts over 
from the beginning (again and again). After the third start, Carine 
Montbertrand's plodding delivery makes wanting to continue difficult. 
There's not much character delineation and little variety to the pacing. 
However, Giannine is a lively, sympathetic character plunked down in 
the middle of a rollicking good story.

Vivian Vande Velde is an Edgar Award-winning author of fiction for young 
adults. Heir Apparent, a Junior Library Guild Selection and winner of 
the Anne Spencer Lindbergh Prize for Best Children’s Fantasy Novel, 
has been called consistently entertaining by Publishers Weekly. This 
clever and imaginative fantasy, featuring a marvelous reading from narrator 
Carine Montbertrand, will lure curious listeners into the virtual reality 
world of a medieval-styled arcade game that might just be deadly.

http://www.recordedbooks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=rb.show_prod&book_id=69117&pr-
od_id=97958

