The Heir Apparent

Guardians of the Flame #4

by Joel Rosenberg

Karl Cullinane and his fellow Earth--exiles Andrea, Ahira, Walter and Lou had succeeded beyond their wildest expectations in the years since a wizard's spell had cast them into an alternate world where magic and dragons were real. Now Karl was Emperor and his son Jason was of an age to begin learning the realities of war and leadership. And with the aid of dwarves, elves, humans, and one sarcastic dragon, Karl and his friends had freed many from the evil specter of slavery and were pledged to fight till slavery was at an end. But their actions had made them some extremely powerful enemies, chief among whom was Ahrmin of the Slaver's Guild.And for Ahrmin the time of final reckoning had at last arrived. With or without the aid of the Guild, he would draw sword and take blood vengeance on Karl and Jason Cullinane and all they held dear.......

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Audiobook, Dragons, Classics, Science Fiction

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 5, 1987

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Note: This is a different person than the political/thriller author, Joel C. Rosenberg

Joel Rosenberg was the author of the bestselling Guardians of the Flame books as well as the D'Shai and Keepers of the Hidden Ways series. He made his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Big changes at the end of this book make the next in the series more to look forward to.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having recently re-experienced the novels that I loved in High School by Joel Rosenberg, I thought I would see what he did with the “Guardians of the Flame” series after I “grew out” of them. Actually, I think I did at least start this one, but may have lost interest about halfway through. Reading it now was almost like experiencing it for the first time anyway, since I don’t have that good a recall for something I read once 35 years ago. I enjoyed it, on a fairly superficial level, and was pleasantly surprised by some of the twists and turns it took, and a bit let down by some of the writing (eg: Ellegon’s eyes are described as being “the size of dinner plates” twice within a few pages of each other – once by a character who has no particular reason to think of plates being divided among different meals). If I were still fifteen when this book was published, I think I would have liked it; it satisfied my inner fifteen-year-old well enough today.

[Craig C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read these books in high school and despite their obvious shortcomings, they have a quaint stranger in a strange land trying to "do the right thing" quality to them. Their biggest flaw is the complete lack of character development even to the point where even the most obvious character study (how would someone who was human wrap their head around being a dwarf?) is given barely a shrug.
I won't go into the poorly chosen bad guy motivation arc of slavery and misogyny being a consistent trope throughout the books.
Or the fact that the main protagonist is a cardboard version of John Wayne laminated onto Chuck Norris, with a sword and fantasy guns, more or less.

Basically, b-level fantasy books that barely hold up from the 80s. Okay if you aren't expecting Leiber or even Conan for that matter.

[Stifynsemons · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3 stars = I might read again]

At least at first, The Heir Apparent, being book 4, gave me that feeling that you get when you are winning at Monopoly, at the point when it is inevitable and yet far from over, which is less than appealing. But mistakes help even things up and the storyline gradually recovered from inevitable to interesting. It's worth continuing in the series in my opinion, but I always have a fascination with technology transfer or civilization reboot, and there are still mysteries to understand.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sequel is a bit better than the previous book. Karl's son Jason flees a battle, and everyone is looking for him, including the slavers. Karl embarks on a quest to Melawei to retrieve the sword as a diversion for the slavers. Eventually, everyone converges on this region for a "final" confrontation, but not everything goes as planned.

[Book Friend Pola · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last book of the series I've read. Still fun but the formula was broken. It no longer was story of modern people in the fantasy world, where their knowledge and world view clash with semi-medieval reality.
This book was about fantasy prince born in fantasy world, doing fantasy stuff. Like in milion other books.

[Acidrazzor · Rating 5 out of 5]

One more book down in this quest to reread this series from my youth. This book though was hard as Carl goes up against the odds to distract the slaves so his son will be safe. This is the book that questions how far would someone go to keep their family safe even when they might not survive. Absolutely love this series and as usual the only complaint is that it isn't an Audiobook.

[Ronnie Cross · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just a fun book. Since the story is short it gets right to work on the action.

[Carol & Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was hard to put down.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm done trying to like these.

[James]

May 1987 Signet Books 5th printing mass market paperback as shown. Great covers, tight spine, clear, crisp pages, smokefree, light edgewear from storage. Fiction

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I've said previously, this series is one of my all time favorites from the time I first read it in the 1980's, and this book IS my favorite. This review is for the entire series.

What draws me to this series?
- Characters: each of the characters has a unique personality and is interesting, with a good background that explains motivations.
- Plot: For the series, each book is different and unique with story lines that flow and are unpredictable.
- The author is willing to kill off major characters, making all characters in jeopardy. This is quite refreshing as compared to many books, where you know the protagonist will survive and thrive.
- What person doesn't fantasize about being a hero in a fantasy world, whether it's a D&D world or a historical era, such as Victorian England?
- Unlike the majority of fantasy stories/series, the objective isn't to save the world or hack and slash to treasure, but to change the world.

The main characters are college students, who start the night playing Dungeons and Dragons and end up their characters in the game world. As one would expect, there are a lot of problems adjusting to the new reality. The overall story arc revolves around the fact that in this world, slavery is accepted, and they attempt to change that without being killed along the way. Some interesting subplots have to do with how the knowledge they bring to that world affects the development of the societies.

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 4 out of 5]

What made this series different is that it was the anti-high fantasy. In the very first book of the series, seven role-playing college students are transported to the world of their game as their alter egos. Those who survive stay and bring technology--and a crusade against slavery to their new home. I do often love sword and sorcery but you know what? The historical truth is that medieval societies suck. So hell yeah, I did adore the idea of those college kids from contemporary America messing with that world, trying to bring to it the Industrial Revolution, democracy, and with it the end of slavery. And I liked the characters--Karl, Walter, Lou, Ahira, Andrea--and the snarky dragon Ellegon. That made this fantasy series different, but...

Well, I feel mixed about the ending of this book--and obviously I'm not alone given other reviews. In a way I do feel it takes guts to have a Jossian ruthlessness towards your characters, that Rosenberg makes it clear no one is safe. (And I did like the reappearance of Doria Perlstein.) On the other hand, somehow this did break the momentum for me. This book is also a coming of age novel for Jason, Karl's son, and passes the baton on to the next generation. I did get the next book in the series, but it just wasn't the same.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a genre, Fantasy's greatest strength is its ability to give you a different world by which you can compare to the real one. How the characters react to their world is good food for thought to reflect on how we react in our own.

What's neat about this series is that the main characters are from our world. They are people, college students specifically, living in a fantasy world as fantasy characters. This kind of detracts from the allure of pure fantasy, of completely escaping the real world, but is mostly a nice and refreshing take.

The first book is a little hampered by the simplicity of its juvenile wish fulfillment concept - dungeons and dragons players become their characters - but that flaw is pretty much all gone by this, the fourth book. Now the characters are very real in our minds, their goals tangible, and the stakes high.

The pace is fast, the action is brutal, the characters are sharp, and the political and strategic intrigue just complex enough to be interesting without bogging down the plot. What more can you ask for?

[Jamison Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a series I loved as a kid and only recently rediscovered. Essentialy geek porn, it's about a group of college kids playing d&d who get sucked into the fantasy world for real. It's definitely pulpy (it's unbelievable how much happens in 4 not particularly long books) but purposefully (in a sometimes over obvious late 70s-80s sense) takes on the problems with some of the pulp tropes, most of all the women's roles in might dominated societies and fantasy fiction. It took a little while for this one to pull me in, but the back half was maybe the best written part of the series.

[John Teske · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book packs an emotional wallop that I think is the high point of this author's writing.

With some careful story crafting, this milieu could have become spectacular, and withstood the test of time. Alas, it is not weathering time well.

THat being said, again, this is the high watermark conclusion of the original story arc, IMHO, that began with "The Sleeping Dragon." It was worth it to re-read the series to this point.

I still will part with it and say goodbye, as I will not be reading it again.

[Bryan457 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hated the ending of this book. I know the author was systematically violating a list of "things not to do while writing a series," but here he violated one I really happen to agree with.
So anyway I waited in tense anticipation for him to write the next book, because I knew he was going to fix it (the title was so promising). But no he let it stand.

[Taddow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know that some people are a little upset with the ending of this book but in my opinion (which I still have after reading this series multiple times), it provides a good transition to the rest of the series (which is not as good as the earlier books) and seems a realistic outcome of an epic long spanning battle between two powerful forces fighting over an important cause.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volume 4 of a series that went on too long and lost its way. The author realizes this and tries to spice things up by putting the main characters in peril, which works to slow down the decline but not reverse it.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Heir Apparent (Guardians of the Flame, #4)
Rosenberg, Joel
dungeons and dragons at its best has been fleshed out in heroic adventures of some avid game fans who find themselves in the world of their games.

[Fatbaldguy60 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as good as the first trilogy.

[Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

4th book. very dramatic (in a good way) at the end. still awesome

[Nick Black · Rating 1 out of 5]

At this point, IIRC, things got too stupid to continue.

[Noob Tuber]

pretty good

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nobility and sacrafice. Gotta love it......

[Keil Hunsaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely not my favorite book in the series. For most of it, it did not really seem to go anywhere. Although I did enjoy the ending which of course sets up the next book in the series.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first three-quarters of this book seemed very slow. Things considerably pick up in the last several chapters, but it's almost too little too late.

[Tipper · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic fantasy series. Modern day gamers get transported and inhabit the bodies of their fantasy characters. Excellent storyline. Highly recommended