royal ancestry. Counselor Rawdon – Counselor to the late King. He robs the royal treasury. Penrod – Captain of the Guards. Grimbold – Ruler of the barbarian tribe north of the kingdom. He is enamored by Queen Andreanna but hostile toward her late husband's kingdom because he claims Cynric stole his crown. Xenos's father – Hermit who physically resembles a child and likes riddles. Feordina the Knitter – Tiny, sarcastic woman who dresses in plants and directs Janine to Saint Bruce the Warrior Poet. Saint Bruce the Warrior Poet – To retrieve the ring, Janine must go before his statue and recite a poem of her creation; if he doesn't like it or it isn't original, he chops her head off. Nigel Rasmussem – Sixteen-year-old founder of Rasmussem, Inc. Ironically, his parents don't let him spend too much time on the computer, so he works at the snack counter of his own company's establishment and awkwardly smells like popcorn. Sister Mary Ursula – Weird nondenominational nun obsessed with the "Oneness" of the world. According to Nigel, she does not work well with Kenric, and the most common method of winning the game is to give the ring to her. King Cynric – The late ruler had an affair with a servant, resulting in Janine's birth, then sent Janine to be raised on a farm because he feared for her life. Magical artifacts ring – gives a person control over someone else's actions (can be given by a person only once) crown – gives a person the Midas Touch—once boots – gives a person the ability to walk seven leagues in one step strength potion – gives a person super-strength for an hour, followed by extreme weakness for two hours hat – allows user to slip into the time stream for five minutes Commentary In her book Constructing Adolescence in Fantastic Realism, Alison Waller discusses Heir Apparent along with several other young-adult novels about virtual reality. She writes that the fact that these novels take place almost entirely within the virtual world suggests "that problems of real life can best be solved within this expressly adolescent space, or that VR environments are inherently more exciting or interesting for teenage readers.... Vande Velde maintains an ironic connection between the fantasy world and a peripheral real world and this minimises the dramatic tension of events within the virtual reality game: we are always