Books : The General (CHERUB)

Rating: - Great book
I reallly enjoyed this book, like all of the series but i was shocked how they seem to have skipped the other books into making them into audio books i was really looking forward to listening to Maximum Secruity but it seems they have decided to only realese the new books not the old ones.

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Rating: - Solid stuff
After ten books Robert Muchamore has put a new spin on the CHERUB series, creating a title that focuses on a massive training exercise in the Nevada desert.

It's a great story. My only qualm would be that the plot assumes some prior knowledge. I'd reccommend new readers start with one of the earlier books in the series, or better yet start from the beginning by reading The Recruit (or the hardback Ultimate Edition which contains the first two books at a bargain price).

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Rating: - Muchamore is a marvellous man!
The General is one in a fantastic series of books. I first thought they would be very much like Agent Cody Banks - unrealisitc and americanised. I was refreshed to find out that these books are gritty, realistic (as much as they can be) and totally believable. I'm beginning to wonder whether there really is a group of children agents among us, especially seeing how some children act today - maybe they're all on secret missions, which would explain some of the bizarre behaviour from the children at the school I work at!
This is a fantastic book for children, enough escapism to get your imagination going, but enough facts to pull you further into the book.
It is also a fun and enjoyable read for adults alike - a nice change to some of the tough going adult fiction around!

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Rating: - Much ado about Nothing
Robert Muchamore is an author who always delivers - until now!

The first in the Cherub series, The Recruit, had me hooked from the start on the adventures of child spy James Adams and his sister, Lauren. No other spy books - Alex Rider, Young James Bond, Jimmy Coates etc - could touch Cherub for quality, excitement or pure enjoyment.

However, I feel very let down by The General. Much of Muchamore's talent comes from creating believable and likeable characters, characters you invest your emotions in - characters you come to care about. In The General, however, he dwells less on the people and more on the action. His characters become cartoon-like, one-dimensional - with no real depth to them.

The story within The General is also sadly lacking. Although the book enjoys a tense and exciting opening chapter, it rapidly descends into a fiasco of plot, involving plans to rob a Las Vegas casino using MI5 spying equipment and "fighting dirty" in a tedious training exercise. Like another reviewer said, the series really does jump the shark here.

The success of the Cherub series, for me, was that you could 'just about' believe that a spy school for orphan kids was plausible - as crooks would certainly be less wary of kids than adults. However, I found much of the plot of The General - especially that of a teacher plotting with James to commit theft on a grand scale - just too ridiculous to swallow. Perhaps Muchamore is running out of ideas, perhaps he was working to a tight deadline and had to rush things. Whatever the problem, this book is certainly the weakest link in the Cherub chain.

I expected much, much more of Muchamore - but the hype surrounding the release of this book turned out to be much ado about nothing!

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Rating: - generally excellent!
This cherub book is special because instead of starting with a training exercise and ending with a mission it turns it round and starts with a mission and ends with a massive training exercise.The mission and the big training exercise are really good bits of the book which grip you throughout and times which are a bit funny (especially with kazakov who hates americans and trys to start a fight with lots of them).A very good read.