This book left me with a somewhat bittersweet taste. It's very entertaining, as expected from any book in this series, but for the first time James seems to realize that his time in CHERUB is nearing its end. As readers, we sense that we are near the end of a wonderful fictional ride.

Also, I was disappointed in his decisions during the last part of the book. Let's face it, James is a likable but also flawed hero. We have seen him at his worse before: we saw him hit a younger boy in anger, steal from shops, cheat on his girlfriends... he can be quite shallow sometimes. Bit of an idiot, as Lauren might describe him. But always I had the feeling that I liked him. That when it mattered he was a good kid and his flaws only made him more human. When this book finished, I felt that I did not particularly like the young man he is becoming. I thought he was maturing better. It's a fine line, mind you. His flaws make him more real and likable, a lovable rogue, you might say, but at a certain point it might be too much. I appreciate the fact that Muchamore doesn't patronize his readers, though. He doesn't explicitly tell them "this is wrong". He just tells the story and lets us judge.

The book is divided in three parts. The first is one of James' missions, infiltrating an anarchist group. I found it quite interesting because the role he was playing (bodyguard to the group leader) was more that of a young man than of a kid.

However, the mission is cut short, and then the main part of the book deals with a massive training exercise organized by the American army in collaboration with the British SAS and a group of CHERUB agents. Very enjoyable and a nice change of pace for the series, but perhaps we lose some of the realism that we have come to identify with the series.

Anyway, the last part of the book deals with James' activities in Las Vegas after leaving the training exercise.

I enjoyed it. This series is just fast action, fun and interesting characters. Mental candy, but this one was a bit bittersweet, as I said. Something has been lost. James is no longer a kid. Let's see how he grows in the last two books of the series.

Some comments between spoiler tags:

James acted a bit out of character when he was captured by the American intelligence officers during the training exercise. Sure, he has always been mouthy, but riling them up when you are in such a vulnerable position is just plain stupid.

Also, would such a tactical genius as Kazakov work training spy children?

Their decision to have James watch the video feed in a public place when they are cheating on the casino is just plain stupid, so much that it is out of character, in order to make the plot work. They should just have found another casino where the signal reached the car outside. ( )

The first time I read this an easy five stars. Rereading I think I have to remove one star. It was good but not that good. I don't know. I'm older now and the relationships within this series - I just find them disturbing on a number of levels. The adults act like children. The children act like children. I just don't understand how this operation runs. There's so much violence. And I love violence, I really do. But this is disturbing violence. Every second word out of every person's mouth is about belting someone. None of the characters seem to like each other or hold any sort of respect for each other.

The action was good. But I'm having a bit of a read of a reading slump and I feel like I should remove a star. Or half a star. It's really four and a half. Maybe a bit more. I just couldn't quite get into it, although under normal circumstances I would've loved it. And have loved it. I've read this quite a few times. I'm going to leave it at five stars, but please note this read through wasn't quite five. ( )

...the one where they go to Vegas and cheat the casinos. Or at least, that's the part I remember.

Cherub is a branch of British Intelligence. Agents are children aged between 10-17 who are orphans. They live together in a special facility and are used because children are often not suspected of doing high level undercover missions. In this novel the cherub agent are in the USA taking part in a simulated war game and terrorist attack. Under the leadership of Kazakov, they cause havoc and get the upper hand in the game. It ends with an exciting tour of a casino where Kazakov and one of the Cherubs walk away with a lot of money thanks to the technology at their disposal.
Good for junior class. Uses accessible language for teens. Easy to read ( )

Book Recommendation of Robert Muchamore’s The General by Jeron Lek Year 7
The General is part of The Cherub Series. It came out in 2008 and is the 10th book in the series. The Cherub Series is about a secret organisation called Cherub which uses kids aged 10-17 to work undercover. Most Cherub agents are orphans who have been taken out of care homes and they are trained to work undercover. They live on Cherub campus, which is a secret facility hidden in the English countryside.
The genre of this book is action and young adult spy fiction.
In The General, James, Kazakov, Lauren and a couple of their friends go to the largest urban warfare training compound in the world which is in a desert near Las Vegas. It is run by the US Army and British Special Forces and the Cherub agents are going to be in a massive war game up against American Troops doing urban warfare training. They are going to help train the American army by pretending to be rebels and going up against them.
I really enjoyed The General because it is filled with action and I was never bored whilst reading it. It has some funny and serious parts in it, which made it really enjoyable to read. It described really well what the characters where going through and made it really easy to picture it in your mind. I recommend this book to kids/teenagers over the age of 12.