Average customer rating:
- one LARGE problem
- Excellent, Entertaining, Believable
- Groundhog day meets Tough Guide to Fantasyland
- YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK
- Great book for boys!
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Heir Apparent
Vivian Vande Velde
Manufacturer: Magic Carpet Books
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0152051252 |
Book Description
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 darn 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.
Customer Reviews:
one LARGE problem.......2007-09-18
It sounds like a manga story, which is why I was drawn to it. Unfortunately...even though the storyline is intersting enough, the few problems it has are rather BIG ones.
I was surprised to find that this author was so experienced. Most writers know that character's have to be likeable (or at least somewhat have a desireable quality) and that they must have CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. There is NONE in this book, which made me feel cheated.
Otherwise, it would have been great. It was interesting enough, but the ending blew it. I read because I wanted to see the main chara CHANGE from this adventure.
A chara needs to solve a problem in a story. Getting out of the video game is one, but we need an emotional problem. Saying...I dunno? Becoming less angry, becoming more kind, or maybe more open minded? She was none of these things...ever. She was angry and narrow minded in the beginning and angry and narrow minded in the end. I dont feel like I gained anything from this book but wasted time.
It feels like the author was on a deadline and didn't have time to somehow show us that 1, the creator of the game would fall in love with the main chara therefore making her less angry!!-_-;;, and 2, by her dad showing up he suddenly would start to care...
Too much action, too little character info. We only get cardboard chara's.
Want chara development and action? Watch the Yugioh RPG arc.
Excellent, Entertaining, Believable.......2007-08-21
Well-written to book. Humor in all the right spots, and she actually pulls off the repetition thing well. Now that's talent for you. I'll admit there are some strands in the RW portions of the book that are weak at best, but the fantasy part is nicely done.
You can believe in the character and believe the mistakes she makes gaming, esp if you are a gamer.
Groundhog day meets Tough Guide to Fantasyland.......2007-07-18
Giannine is pretty much your typical Vande Velde heroine - a young teen girl whose life isn't going very well in general and suddenly gets magically worse. Like the others, she is sort of bitchy, but a little less bitchy than most of them. (I'm not complaining. The bitchiness is always cute.)
I agree that the many start overs got sort of tiresome. But the story held my interest well. The many computer-generated characters are amusing, satirical takes on fantasy stereotypes.
YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK.......2007-05-31
HEIR APPARENT
BY VIVAIN VANDE VELD
RATING: *****
It is Giannine Bellisario's 14th birthday, and her dad gets her a gift certificate for Rassmussem Gaming Center, a virtual reality game arcade. After browsing through the games, she chooses Heir Apparent, a game set in the middle ages, where the king has died, and the player becomes the Heir. Things are bad enough when the royal family hates her, but when the CPOC (Citizens to Protect Our Children) sabotages the center, it's a whole new story. Literally.
Giannine is of to a good start, except she can't get past the first half-hour of the game; Prince Abas almost chopped off her head, and she can't find the stupid magic ring. But then Nigel Rassmussem (or is he?), comes from the sky, and tells Giannine that damage has been done to her brain by the CPOC sabotage, and that she must beat the game in about an hour of real time (one hour of real time could be three days of time in the game), before she dies... for real.
This story is about how Giannine overcomes the game, using her wits (sometimes not) to beat the game before she loses her life.
This book is set in the future for the non game part of the book, where busses are automated, and people have mini dragons as pets. The rest of the book, the game part, takes place around the 1400's (late middle ages).
Vande Velde writes very descriptive, intriguing passages, and often ends chapters with much suspense: " `Poor Princess Janine,' he said with a feral grin. `A shame her gallant band of rescuers didn't arrive in time to keep the barbarians from slitting her throat.' I felt the fizziness start even before the knife touched my skin."
I recommend this book for ages 10 and up, and for people who like action and suspense, and comedy.
Evan
Great book for boys!.......2007-05-14
I teach Grade 6 and used this book for my boy's-only book club meeting. It was a big hit! The boys loved the game aspect, the fighting, and the amazing characters.
Book Description
When stonemasons find the decomposed remains of a pregnant, unidentified mistress of King Henry VIII inside a crumbling window seat at Hampton Court Palace, curator and historian Kaitlyn Rose gets the shock of her life.
Sparked by the exciting discovery, a chain of events unfolds that sends Kaitlyn's life veering wildly off course. First, she discovers that Colin Wycliffe, her best friend of seven years and the man she loves, isn't who he's claimed to be. Then, when Colin's misogynistic half-brother, Brighton Jones, turns up after a fifteen-year absence, things become even more bizarre. Brighton, an arrogant but brilliant physicist for British Intelligence, dazzles the pair with his latest top-secret project on time teleportation and sets their course spinning into the sixteenth century. After teleporting to the dangerous court of King Henry VIII, Colin and Kaitlyn make a daring attempt to save the twenty-first century monarchy from absolute extinction.
Intrigue and sexual blackmail unfold when the scheming King Henry VIII—desperate for a male heir—sets his sights on the beautiful Kaitlyn. Will Kaitlyn provide an heir for King Henry VIII or will her love for Colin keep her faithful?
An epic adventure starring British monarchs both long dead and yet to be born. First-time novelist Vangen-Ratcliffe warmly embraces just about every narrative genre in this dashing tale of time travel and historical intrigue. Tudor fans will love the extended romp through 1534 London as the author weaves her imaginative plot from the small historical thread that Henry's dalliance with an unknown mistress spurred Anne to fake a pregnancy to regain his affections. The fiery dynamics of this famously tragic relationship, even from beyond the grave, wreak havoc on Kaitlyn, adding a ghostly twist to an already richly brocaded narrative. By turns riveting and ridiculous, but always fun.
-Kirkus Discoveries
Download Description
When stonemasons find the decomposed remains of a pregnant, unidentified mistress of King Henry VIII inside a crumbling window seat at Hampton Court Palace, curator and historian Kaitlyn Rose gets the shock of her life.
Sparked by the exciting discovery, a chain of events unfolds that sends Kaitlyn's life veering wildly off course. First, she discovers that Colin Wycliffe, her best friend of seven years and the man she loves, isn't who he's claimed to be. Then, when Colin's misogynistic half-brother, Brighton Jones, turns up after a fifteen-year absence, things become even more bizarre. Brighton, an arrogant but brilliant physicist for British Intelligence, dazzles the pair with his latest top-secret project on time teleportation and sets their course spinning into the sixteenth century. After teleporting to the dangerous court of King Henry VIII, Colin and Kaitlyn make a daring attempt to save the twenty-first century monarchy from absolute extinction.
Intrigue and sexual blackmail unfold when the scheming King Henry VIII-desperate for a male heir-sets his sights on the beautiful Kaitlyn. Will Kaitlyn provide an heir for King Henry VIII or will her love for Colin keep her faithful?
Customer Reviews:
Where was the editor?.......2007-07-20
This book needed help; it was obvious that the publisher did not provide a decent editor for the author to work with. The plot was interesting, but poorly executed. The characters of Henry and Anne were turned into buffoons and the other major characters did not fare much better. Why use the year 2070 as a starting point if you are not going to have the imagination to envision a world different from today? Time travel is a stretch, but done right it can be very entertaining. The errors in tense and word usage just made the experience of reading this book even more difficult.
Disappointed.......2007-01-16
I was really looking forward to reading this book, but I have to say that I was very disappointed. The plot was great, but the writing was as inconsistent as the characters. It sometimes seemed as if two or three different people were writing the book and none of them could decide in which direction the book should go. I also noticed a lot of typos.
(4.5 stars) A review with content!.......2006-11-27
The other reviews for this book are all very positive-they say it's a great book, best they ever read or something like that, but they have next to no information on the book. I had to go the author's website to find out enough info to decide about purchasing the book. So here is a review with some real info, for those who want to know a little more before they purchase.
This first third of this book is set in 2070. Kaitlyn Rose is the Curator of Hampton Court Palace where she works with her boss and best friend. Colin Wycliffe, who is Curator of all Royal buildings open to the public. They've been flirting around forever and at the beginning of the book finally start to have romantic encounters. At the very beginning of the book Kaitlyn has to go into the Queens champers to let in Stone masons who are going to fix the only original window seat left over from the time of Henry VIII, since the rest of the castle was altered by other kings. She's terrified of the chambers because of something that happened before, but goes in anyway. Inside the window seat a mummy is found, and tests prove that it's about 500 years old and was 2 months pregnant when murdered by a blow to the head. A torn up letter found with her in the window seat leads everyone to believe the child is Henry VIII's. While in the Queens chambers with the archeologists a ghost attacks Kaitlyn. She believes it to be the ghost of Anne Boleyn.
Anyway, then Colin's half brother, Brighton, shows up, and she learns the truth about their family. It turns out that Brighton, along with being a terrible womanizer, has invented time travel, and though the secret service type agency he invented it for won't let his use it, the elderly queen (102 years old) will, to go back in time and fetch the young woman who will end up in the window seat, so her child can be the heir to the throne, since there is none.
So everyone goes back in time. Kaitlyn brings her own PJ's, coke, tampons, ect. (If you're going to time travel, you don't bring stuff from the present with you!) Henry VIII gets the hots for Kaitlyn, and dislikes Colin. Brighton has an affair with just about everyone, and other stuff happens, like Anne hating Kaitlyn because Henry likes her. Anne also acts like a shrew, which is stupid of her considering she recently failed to deliver the promised male heir to the throne.
All and all this is a good book. It's very entertaining. There are some problems. Though I really did like this book I had a lot of fun picking out some problems and making a list of them. This does not mean I disliked this book in any way; this is just me having some fun and being a little nitpicky.
* Anne's behavior makes no sense-she was a brilliant woman in real life who overthrew the most powerful church in the world and kept Henry at bay sexually for years and then attained the most powerful role a woman could have, but in this she is just begging to have her head cut off.
* The future the author invented isn't very convincing, or different from today (except for moments like when Colin says "Dam! I forgot to recharge my cell phones battery plate by zapping it with the ultra-violet light!") For instance breast cancer is still around and killing, which is sad.
* Kaitlyn wears a toe-ring to the Queen's birthday party.
* The author frequently left out sentence modifiers, making some sentences sound really weird.
* Colin and Kaitlyn go from friendship to complete love in about two days.) But otherwise this is an entertaining and fun read.
* The way the people speak in the beginning-the kind of British slang they use sounds totally off from other books I have read set in England. I'm not positive but I don't think the author is British, however this improves over time and she has the medieval language slang down.
* The aforementioned bringing modern items on a time traveling trip to the 1500s when having them found could very easily get you burned for being a witch.
Four point five stars.
Perfect!!!.......2006-09-26
I could not put this book down and didn't want it to end. A very interesting story, one that kept me anticipating the next page. I look forward to more books from Sheri Vangen-Ratcliffe.
Captivating, addictive story........2006-08-29
I read a lot of fiction, but not a lot of historical fiction, but was intrigued by the mystery. I loved the book and became a fan of the genre because it made me think of King Henry VIII and Queen Anne in ways I had never imagined. An interesting era and imaginative story filled with great characters.
I forced myself to put the book down at night because I did not want the story to end...and couldn't wait to get back to it the next day.
Customer Reviews:
Rosenberg does it again.......2004-06-08
Karl might have won an empire but he has an empire with many problems. From the elves who want to take his land to the slavers guild who want to kill him. Jason his son is now almost grown and will have to take his position as heir to an empire more seriously. Rosenberg does a good job in this book. Some things were sort of confusing but overall a good book.
The end of one era, the beginning of another..........1999-04-09
This book told of the demise of one of the best characters in this genre's history. I still haven't forgiven the author for it. Speaking as one who was with this series from the beginning, I must insist you start with the first book ("The Sleeping Dragon"). "The Heir Apparent" also tells of the coming of age of another main character, while continuing to build on established characters. In context, this story is the perfect "swan song" for the character who has grown so much as a warrior, a leader and a person. To be honest, I couldn't tell you what the book would be like read out of context. All I *can* say is...If you've never read any of Mr. Rosenberg's "Guardians of the Flame" series, you better get crackin'! Half the fun/agony is waiting for the next one!
Realistic close-up fantasy, but not a new ground-breaker........1997-11-19
Joel Rosenberg manages to continue his old storyline without any special new inventions. The old heroes is dusted off (I guess that Joel wanted to retire them entirely a couple of times during the books 1-3) and used again. Some 2nd role actors are killed off, together with the main characters in the end of the book. I could just feel Joels urge to finish the tale thoughout the book, and managing barely. Only to change his mind because of sentimentality for the well-known characters, and making a strange sortie and opening for next book...
fabulous.......1997-09-05
Another great book in an incredible series. Rosenberg maintains the image of the characters, and keeps with the spirit and soul of the books. A fitting end to a truly exciting hero in Karl Kullinane. This, along with the three previous entries, are must reads for all fantasy fans
Book Description
A dead partner ... a murdered client ... more than young attorney Joe McGuinness bargained for when he signed on at one of Pinnacle Peak, Arizona's most prestigious law firms.
The ink on Joe McGuinness's bar license is barely dry when the death of his firm's senior partner puts the young lawyer's job in jeopardy. Soon much more is at stake than Joe's legal career. On the night of his first date with Mia Ortiz, personal assistant to one of the firm's wealthiest clients, the young couple walk into a grisly murder scene. Mia's boss - Cordelia Barrett - and her son lie sprawled in a pool of blood.
After Mia is arrested for murder, Joe must unravel a web of secrets to discover who is using murder to claim the rights of heir apparent.
Product Description
Paperbacks
Book Description
Initially published in two separate cloth volumes, Dr. Karan Singh's autobiography is now available for the first time as a single-volume paperback. The first half covers the initial twenty-two years of his life up to 1953, including the momentous politics of Kashmir and its accession into
India as the states Jammu and Kashmir. The second half brings the story up to 1967, describing the China and Pakistan wars, the Nehru and Shastri periods, as well as Singh's spiritual quest and inner development. This autobiography of a major Indian thinker, statesman, and political figure reveals
an articulate, meaningful philosophy for an emerging global consciousness.
Amazon.com
In the mountains of northern New Mexico, the Tewa pueblo of San Ildefonso and the laboratory city of Los Alamos coexist, representing two distinct, yet not entirely dissimilar world views. In this land of strange juxtapositions where magic and science rub elbows, Johnson introduces us to an amazing diversity of people who see the world through varied lenses, who find vastly different pictures in the night sky. At the core of the book is the question of the human view of the universe: are there really innate patterns in creation, and why do we honor them so highly? Johnson examines some of the radical theories of physics and biology emanating from Los Alamos and compares them to the intricate beliefs of the Tewa Indians, the Catholic sect of the Penitentes, and other inhabitants of the high New Mexico desert in this startling work of intellectual adventure.
Book Description
Are there really laws governing the universe? Or is the order we see a mere artifact of the way evolution wired the brain? And is what we call science only a set of myths in which quarks, DNA, and information fill the role once occupied by gods? These questions lie at the heart of George Johnson's audacious exploration of the border between science and religion, cosmic accident and timeless law. Northern New Mexico is home both to the most provocative new enterprises in quantum physics, information science, and the evolution of complexity and to the cosmologies of the Tewa Indians and the Catholic Penitentes. As it draws the reader into this landscape, juxtaposing the systems of belief that have taken root there,
Fire in the Mind into a gripping intellectual adventure story that compels us to ask where science ends and religion begins.
"A must for all those seriously interested in the key ideas at the frontier of scientific discourse."--Paul Davies
Customer Reviews:
Science, Faith, and Symmetry.......2006-03-22
Fire in the Mind passionately relates mans quest for understanding. Johnson sit backs, smiles and equivocates the Anasazi's expressions of order through their beliefs with Gell-Mann's attempt to orderstand elementary particles with extraordinarily complex mathematics. I think, the distinction rests on the level at which one is willing to quit asking questions and seeking answers. Fire in the Mind does not convince me they are both simply faith based exercises since it does not acknowledge that the hotter fire is fed by the fuel of endless questioning.
A Philosophy of Complexity.......2005-03-15
In his book "Fire in the Mind" George Johnson explores the frontiers between religion and science, between chaos and order, and between complexity and simplicity. This exploration forces the reader to rethink what "reality" is. In the process we realize that we "know" very little about reality. Despite the huge databases we are developing we actually have not answered the big questions about existence. Nor are we likely to do so in the near future.
Fundamentalists who try to fit earth history (and indeed the history of the whole universe) into 6,000 years are almost certainly wrong. However, because of the nature of science we cannot congratulate ourselves just yet. While our data tell us that the earth itself is several billion years old, we also have made some unsupported assumptions (certainly not as many as the fundamentalists, but more than a few). Even mathematics and physics are not completely free of assumptions that cannot be tested, at least not yet.
Researchers such as Murray Gell-Mann and Stuart Kauffman at the Santa Fe Institute are busily probing the frontiers of complexity and in the process may be starting to get glimpses of just how weird our universe really is. Johnson, who is not a scientist, but a science writer, captures the excitement of this possibly ground-breaking research which may eventually show us a universe much different from that we had previously imagined. Questions arise about our immediate corner of that universe, the part with which we should be the most familiar. Is the evolution of life contingent as Steven Jay Gould might imagine it, or is it inevitably to result in creatures such as ourselves, as Simon Conway Morris believes? Are we just lumbering robots carrying our genes around (as Richard Dawkins has said), or something more significant? Can adaptationist' "just so stories" explain life? Or are we creating all of our own "reality" because of a deep need for order? My guess is that the answer is somewhere in between these extreme views, but the actual reality (if we ever glimpse it) is probably going to be very strange to us.
Johnson has brought up these questions and exposed them to our view, along with the researcher's views and doubts. It is perhaps the latter that is most instructive because it demonstrates that, despite our often arrogant opinions on the matter, we still don't really know for sure.
In the mountain of New Mexico.......2003-07-15
Only 7 years have passed. However an interest to the good book can not become outdated. In Russia usually speak any paper owes to have pins and needles in one's arm. And it is correct haste is necessary at catching fleas.
The composition of the author concerns to magic and science. His characters see absolutely other sky.
It is usually somewhere in an average strip at cloudy weather at the night I can see 300-500 stars. In southern breadths at clear weather it is possible to see more than 3000 stars.
It is difficult to come off a kind installed and charming description of the author.
An epiphany........2002-03-14
This book started out slow and then became an epiphany. The book is set against the backdrop of the greater Santa Fe area of New Mexico. Johnson uses places and cultures in this area as a vehicle to lead into his description of current scientific thinking in cosmology and evolution. I didn't understand the connection at first, but one piece of rationale did emerge: the various high-powered scientific conferences held at the Santa Fe Institute beginning in 1989 that dealt with information and physics. This is where the epiphany came in, but I'm getting ahead of myself. The other reason he used this backdrop, I believe, is his obvious love for the area - its history, geography, and cultures.
The first part of his book is a fairly straightforward tour of cosmology, albeit at a bit more intellectual level than most popular descriptions. One theme he starts with, and to which he returns several times throughout the book, is that our interpretation of the universe is determined by our inherited ability to understand, by our genetic evolution. That is to say, we see the universe through our own lens, tempered by our limitations. Nothing startlingly different here from my previous readings. In fact, it's rather intuitive. However, he delves into chaos theory, with which I am only slightly acquainted, and brings attractors into the discussion, about which I know nothing. The point about attractors is that they may account for the evolution of the universe (and, as I would see later, the evolution of complex organisms on Earth). Things were starting to warm up.
He goes on into an understandable discussion of quantum mechanics and quantum physics. Wrapped in here is the epiphany: the fundamentals upon which the universe are built (as we understand it) are mass, energy, space and time. To these we have added information -- a fifth fundamental that is as much a part of existence and evolution, and cause and effect as any of the other four. His weaving of the significance of information into the tale of the evolution of complex organisms is all new to me, as is the concept that information is such a "real" player in the universe. It plays a role in entropy and a fundamental role in evolution, starting with organic molecules -- order leads to complexity, which leads to chaos.
I struggle with how to summarize him. I have flagged several dozen pages. To try to review them will be like rereading most of the book. This is one that I may, in fact, reread.
A literary spectacular.......2002-02-10
George Johnson has taken on some of the most difficult issues and questions woven into the fabric of science and religion and seperates them into their component threads to be examined by ordinary readers. He explores various world views as seen from the mountains and plateaus of northern New Mexico, truly a Land of Enchantment. The vast majority of modern human beings take most of the information we process each day on faith, no less our ideas of science than our religious verities. Johnson explores these faiths in the context of the pueblos, mountains, cities and research institutions of this ancient land, and presents each of them with no hint of condescension or disparagement. A truly remarkable feat given his subject matter which ranges from bar fights in remote villages to sunsets brilliantly firing the walls of the Sangre de Cristo mountians to the rituals and traditions of the Catholic Church and the Assemblios de Dios, to those of the Tewas and the myths and rites of the most primative peoples of the region. This is the best book exploring the escatologies of science and religion that I have ever read. It makes me anxious to retire so that I can attend lectures at the Santa Fe Institute and explore the mesmerizing landscape of nortern New Mexico. Read it. You will never again think of the struggle between science and religion in the same way.
Average customer rating:
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Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith and the Search for Order
George Johnson
Manufacturer: Viking
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0670847399 |
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