Mad Dogs: Book 8 (CHERUB)

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He gargled and spat out the water before answering. ‘Must have been those nasty hotdogs we had at lunchtime …’ The final part of jump training had involved the landing: you’re supposed to know which way the wind is blowing and get your feet in a safe position. If you get this wrong, you’ll find yourself falling one way while the wind tugs your chute in another. Instead of crumpling, your body gets twisted in all directions. Action Girl: Most of the female leads. All cherubs are trained to be superb martial artists and have gun training. Teens Are Monsters: There is no shortage of chavs and yobs among the Council Estate wastelands depicted, not to mention teenage drug dealers, drug users, gangsters etc. Even many of the "good guy" CHERUB agents show a bad streak sometimes.

Follows the reunion of four old sixth form friends. They head to Spain to visit the fifth member of the gang, but things take a dark turn. The friends bury Tiny Blair but are scared when the villa suffers a power cut and flares are fired and believe the Serbs are trying to intimidate them. However, despite this being a wonderful series, it can be inappropriate at times. The first books have a small, yet noticeable, amount of moderate swearing and foul language, as well as reference to drugs, violence and teenage relationships. Romantic False Lead: Bruce to Kerry. They get together, only to enforce First Girl Wins with James, they break up off-screen and James is only told of this in the last, throwaway line of The General.Cherub is a great series that I think will appeal to boys over 11 who like action and good stories. Children Forced to Kill: In Class A, James shoots and accidentally kills a gang member in self defense, and is later shown to need counselling, and in Divine Madness, Dana is forced to help with the murder of two (adult) Intelligence agents. There are also several near misses over the course of the series. Author Appeal: Association Football is frequently mentioned, and even plays a central roll in Mad Dogs. Several characters, including the main character James, are huge fans of Arsenal, reflecting Robert Muchamore's own personal fanaticism for the Gunners. At one point, James almost starts a fight with fans of an opposing team. Ordinary High-School Student: CHERUB agents pretend to be these while on missions, and in most ways are much like any other teenagers.

Foil: Keith "Junior" Moore Jr (from Class A and Mad Dogs) is this for James Adams. Like James, he is the son of a successful criminal (Keith Moore Sr is a cocaine dealer, while Gwen Choke ran a shoplifting ring). In Mad Dogs, Junior is trying to cling on to the title gang, like James did before joining CHERUB. Like James, this gets him arrested, though Junior gets arrested because after being rejected by said gang, he tries to strike off on his own in the most stupid way possible, unlike James who was betrayed by his fellow gang members. Bruce outright says that Junior is what James would be if he hadn't joined CHERUB.The campus scenes at the church are quite emotional. Also is the first time we see Dennis King since The Recruit ? for such a big figure in CHERUB you would think James would cross paths on a mission with him at some point. James Adams is on his biggest mission yet, working to nail Europe's most powerful cocaine dealer. He'll need all his specialist training if he's going to bring down the man at the top. Bait-and-Switch Boss: Irena Aramov is the leader of the Aramov clan, the bad guys of the second series. She is actually a nice old lady, who is all too willing to help Ethan and his mother. The real antagonist is Irena's son, Leonid. Plant listening devices in the office of George Stein, a professor with suspected links to Help Earth (with Shak) (SUCCESS) Parental Abandonment: This trope is a job requirement for CHERUB agents. They must all be either orphans with no known living family members that can assume guardianship, abandoned children, or they must have some other situation that prevents their parents from being involved in their lives. By Brigands M.C. however, the rules have been relaxed (due to constant shortages of physically and mentally able orphans) so that ex-cherubs can enroll their own children if they so choose.

It is also notable for its use of fairly realistic criminals, having drug-dealers, arms-smugglers and animal-rights terrorists instead of the Super Villain opponents of Alex Rider and Young Bond. At this point in the series Muchamore is confident in his new formula. While most early Cherub books concentrated only on the mission (except for book 1, which had the recruiting and training part), nowadays we get a mixture of the mission and the agent's life at the campus. It works well, because the characters are well-drawn and it's always entertaining to follow their lives, and the missions are always intense and dangerous. When a boy calls the anti-terrorist helpline, the intelligence form are mystified. A plane went down carrying over 300 passengers including ex-chairman Dr Terence McCafferty's wife and grandchildren. So they send Lauren Adams and Jake Parker to befriend the boy who called the helpline, Fahim. Fahim soon uncovers that his father killed his mother and overheard them speaking about the plane crash. As Fahim grows closer to Lauren and Jake, they soon show their true identity and help Fahim. CHERUB began with a small number of boys which swelled in size as the government realised its worth. After several years of operation it took in a trial group of girls, which proved successful. Since then CHERUB campus has grown a significant amount, improving many of its facilities. The dojo was built on behalf of a successful operation that took place in Japan and the new mission preparation building was built by the chairman of the first 6 novels, Dr. McAfferty, better known as Mac. After retiring at the end of Man Vs Beast, he is replaced by Zara Asker, who holds the role for ten years until stepping down to be replaced by husband Ewart Asker shortly before New Guard. [5] Kazakov glowered at James. ‘I don’t share my tent with cowards. You make that jump or tonight you sleep outside with the spiders and snakes.’The main plot of The General involves several of the main characters in a simulated training exercise in the United States against soldiers of the American military, and has no involvement with any actual missions and no real antagonist. The first third does involve James in the middle of a mission, but it ends up being a bust and was never particularly dangerous. For the last few days of basic training, James and the other five trainees were taken to Malaysia for a survival course, which James and Kerry succeeded in before being awarded their Grey Shirts. Returning to CHERUB Campus, James learned that Lauren had been recruited into CHERUB after Ron had been arrested for smuggling. For the next few months, James adjusted to CHERUB lifestyle, hanging out with Kyle, Kerry, Bruce and others he had become friends with in basic training, Shakeel Dajani, Mo, Gabrielle O'Brien, and Callum and Connor Reilly, however, no mission was offered to him. Amy revealed that she had asked that James not be offered any while he continued his swimming lessons, and that he was to accompany her on a mission in which he could easily play her little brother due to their similar appearances. As the countdown dropped below one hundred seconds, Mr Kazakov and Dana both started walking towards James, who’d strapped on his helmet but was still struggling to fit his parachute harness. Muchamore, Robert (2011). People's Republic. Aramov. Vol.1. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-1-4449-0610-3.

Junior being an absolute mess is a harsh reminder that James could of ended up this way without CHERUB in his life. The conversation between Bruce and James regarding it really shows the boys are growing up. Junior getting sent down by his old pal James is a tough one. James says Juniors more than just someone on a mission and doesn't want to grass him in. His morality is really put to the test and I wonder if this is highlighted in a mission report ? Ocr tesseract 4.1.1 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_module_version 0.0.5 Ocr_parameters -l eng Openlibrary OL9649426M Openlibrary_edition Mission controller Ewart Asker arrives and takes James to an airfield where two British service people are to help with their escape. The Russian authorities appear, though, and they are forced to take the couple with them. On the flight, James passes out when air trapped in his broken nose expands due to air pressure changes and the pilot ends up making an emergency landing in Helsinki, Finland. Kerry is flown to hospital to have surgery on her knee. Kerry later apologises for her outburst and says that when she broke Bruce's leg he was cool about it, so she is not trying to hold a grudge against him. Mac subsequently punishes James and the others (pointing out that James and Gabrielle are equally responsible due to the teasing that took place before the fight) by giving them laps and gardening duties.Living MacGuffin: Ethan Aramov. CHERUB wants him to take down the Aramov clan, Irena seemingly wants him and his mother to take over after she dies, and Leonid just wants him dead. Brian "Bungle" Evans, the leader of the eco-terrorists, escapes from MI5 and the police in The Recruit, but reappears in Divine Madness as the main antagonist Susie's lover. At the end, they both seemingly escape in Susie's private plane, but a news report reveals that the Australian Secret Service managed to capture them and Bungle is facing terrorism charges, as well as possible extradition.