Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	Heir Apparent
	Author:	Vande Velde, Vivian
	Date Published:	2002
	Genre:	Fantasy
	Grade Level:	6 - 8
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh

Booktalk:
I should have known that from the argument with the bus that my fourteenth birthday was going to the dogs. I should have stayed home with grandma. Just like clockwork, my dad, who had a paternity test on me when he and mom divorced, had his secretary call and ask what I wanted for my birthday. So, I'd gotten the gift certificate to the Rasmussen Enterprises Gaming Center. But, there were picketers from CPOC (that's Citizens to Protect Our Children), protesting at the Center. The bus wouldn't stop, something about a 'hazardous situation' and a minor according to it's Artificial Intelligence...emphasis on the "artificial." Ok. "Let me off at the next stop." "Not if you intend to return to the Center." "Of course not. I wanted to be dropped off at the art museum." One block away. Right . . . like I said, artificial intelligence. So, I walked the block back and ran into the center before the protestors could do anything. I settled on the half hour of total immersion game time--you feel, smell, taste...you just don't feel the dying. And you can retry as many times as time allows. Half an hour of game time takes three days of game time, only it feel like three days while you're in the game. If you're still in the game when the half-hour is up, you remain until you finish or until you are killed. I settled on a new game . . . Heir Apparent. The king is dead. Are you next in line for the throne, or next to die? Medieval, castle, army, dragon, wizard, eagle . . . and some really good-looking guys, and girls could be king as well as boys. That made my decision easy. And, there was more then just one set of right decisions. Then, the desk dragon pooped on the desk. I should have taken it as an omen. In the game, I was a sheepherder, Janine de St. Jehan. But, really, I had been sent off from the palace as a child because I was the king's daughter with the woman he loved, who had died, and who was not the Queen. But, he had named me his heir over his three sons by the Queen, the 'rightful heirs.' I was taken from the farm to the castle and left in a room with the Queen and her three sons. She wanted to kill me outright, but one of them pointed out that there would be embarrassing questions since too many had seen me arrive. Then, there was this lightning storm in the room. Only I could see and hear the storm, and the Queen and her sons thought I was insane. But then the storm stopped. We broke up and stepped outside where I saved a boy who was caught poaching from the death penalty. When I was left alone, there was a flash of light from the sky, an angelic choir with music started up, and a white-robed figure descended on a golden beam of light. "Giannene Bellisario," . . . it sounded like the voice of God. "This is Nigel Rasmussem. Don't panic." Nigel Rasmussem, like in Rasmussem Enterprises!!! People from the Community to Prevent Obesity in Children or the Chizoids to Punish Overly imaginative Children. You know, the CPOC nutzoids that had been protesting, had broken into the building and damaged the equipment. There was no Physical danger to my body, but now the only way to exit the Heir Apparent program was to successfully complete the game. Unsuccessful solutions would loop me back to the start of the program/game. Since there were an infinite number of permutations, depending on how I reacted, there was no solution to be given me. Oh, and the prolonged direct stimulation to my brain was dangerous. The equipment should have protected me for up to five hours, and the longest game should be over in an hour. But, with the damage of the Schizoids, the safety zone was much less. Then longer I was in the game...the more I risked fatal overload!!! That couldn't be a good thing.