The Recruit

Don't know whether or not I've reveiewed this before. Don't think so. It's the first Cherub book. I've decided to reread them all in proper order. Although it may be a bit slow, given I need to revise and do some work on my distance learning course which I was supposed to finish by Christmas but I'm only a little over half way through. Oops. Anyway, The Recruit really is good. Sets the scene for the rest of the Cherub books, introduces James as a very flawed hero, but likeable nevertheless. Maybe he's slightly stereotypical in the first book, but he definitely progresses to become a very real character. It's worth reading this one first, and then the others in whatever order, as it helps put the others into a context and helps them make more sense. James' recruitment, training, and first mission are covered here, and I don't want to say too much and spoil it, but the mission is a very clever one and with a nice culmination. There is consideration of moral issues, but only in very vague and broad terms, so don't read it for that. I didn't. Ir read it because I quite like kid spy books, and I reread it because it's a very good example of the genre and likeable even if you don't like other books in the genre so much because it's not a complete out and out spy novel, and it certainly is more believable than the Alex Rider books.