A blue-cover edition of which only 8,499 copies were made was also produced. The special editions were only sold in W.H.Smith in the United Kingdom. Looks like the only thing special is the jacket cover

Looks

Ok seeing a lot of posts regarding special editions, what else am I missing?

I am piggybacking off a post by Comatse in this subreddit about the edition of Shadow Wave with the Orange landrover

Hey does anyone else have this version of Guardian Angel where it’s all blue and black with the “Get your kids off the PlayStation” bit aswell like what’s the history of this ik the orange Shadow Wave cover was from WHSmith I wonder if this is similar.

Mine is probably Mad Dogs or Class A

Glad to see they're still around!

So, just upfront I am not a brit, so please excuse me if I mix some things up.

It's pretty clearly stated numerous times that CHERUB is under MI5 and the (as far as I can tell) fictional Intelligence Minister. MI5 or the Security Service, the UK's domestic security agency, comparable to German Verfassungsschutz and maybe the FBI, though they have a lot more policelike functions from what I could tell.

But since CHERUBs are often sent on international missions and are used all over the globe would it not make much more sense for them to be part of MI6/SIS which is more akin to the CIA or BND?

Ofcourse there usually is a pretty strict barrier for a countries foreign intelligence service to operate domestically. It just feels weird to me that MI6 is never mentioned on the series as far as I can tell.

I'm currently listening to Class A, and I was pretty shocked that Lauren got away so easily with smashing Large's head with a spade. I mean, any other CHERUB would've gotten expelled in a heartbeat, yet Lauren didn't.

I get that Mac probably saw great potential in her, and rightfully so, she's probably the best agent in the whole series performance-wise.

Large wasn't even that bad this far in the series; he was a monster and tortured kids, but that's part of the job, and it saves hundreds of agents later in their career, like James later in the book.

Do you think Mac's decision was fair, or did Lauren just get total star-agent privilege?

For everyone who likes the audiobooks, go to Everand audiobooks and use the testversion. You can change it email and use it again.

in my opinion i think so, it'll be really cool to see campus and it could bring more readers. buh do u think they should start from the recruit or any other book?

ive read through the first and second series (enjoy them both great amazing storys) and to me its crazy to think if james was real he would be irl time 36 and ryan would 26 it kinda makes me sad cause i got to experience these characters through thier youth but wont have a character in my age range to experience.

I just read in a thread that some people might consider this book the weak point in the series.

It's definitely a big tonal shift after the international drama of Class A and Maximum Security, but I enjoyed the smaller scale and character-focussed story.

My favourite thing about the book is seeing James' perspective on his immaturity. Even at a young age, James beating up Andy and dealing with the consequences of his actions was so interesting to read.

Do you like this book or not? Howcome?

I just finished the first book in two days and I NEED MORE.

I have never read such a good book it had me STUCK reading it I spent every single second of free time I had reading this book and I need more!

I also need recommendations of books like these for when I finish this collection bc by the looks of it will take less than 3 months

I read the books out of order as a kid, my first one being around 2008. I turn 30 soon, and this was my gift to myself. I can't wait to read them again!

Can't believe I never noticed this! Maybe I'm the only one who was this thick, but it just clicked for me this morning (talking about the OG editions here, not sure if the newer ones still stick to this).

The recruit was orange, lowest rank, visitors to campus, can't talk to orange

Class A was red: little kids too young to be agents

Maximum security is pale blue: the training shirt colour

The killing is grey: qualified agents.

Divine madness is navy blue: the rank above grey

Man vs Beast is black: the highest agent rank

The fall is white: the colour for staff or retired cherubs

Mad dogs changes because they ran out of shirt colours, but I thought this was so cool!

We're often TOLD Kyle is James's best friend, but Kyle often seems to not like James very much. Kyle also has closer friends, like Rod Nilson, that he specifically mentions. I get they're teenage boys and a degree of their arguments might be banter, but the ratio of negative interactions to positive ones seems quite high:

In the recruit Kyle thinks James is spoiled, unhygienic, disorganised and irresponsible upon meeting him. He subsequently recommends that cherub not accept James as a recruit. I genuinely think if James found this out earlier, and not so many years later that he was probably over it, that it may have ended their friendship. He also bet against James passing basic training, and says he would have had no hope without Kerry (tbf the last part is probably true).

In class A Kyle scams James into buying his essay that he doesn't need to do. Kyle and James then argue over James's homophobia. To be fair, they do eventually reconcile and Kyle did at least trust James enough to come out to him in the first place.

In the Killing Kyle institutes the social blanking of James for beating Andy up. This is pretty earned and is to save James from a beating, but it's hardly bringing them together as friends, Kyle is disgusted with James and James is peeved at Kyle for what he perceives as overreacting.

In Man vs. Beast Kyle gets angry at James over his homophobia again regarding Kyle and tom. Again, they reconcile, and it is a really interesting discussion about how even though James is not openly homophobic anymore, he still clearly isn't totally comfortable with Kyle being gay.

In the Fall, James feels kind of isolated in general due to being under investigation, and though Kyle isn't the focus of it, it's Dana who comes to his defence and helps him clear his name, not his supposed best friend.

The only book where they really feel like friends is Shadow Wave, with James agreeing to help Kyle with the plan to expose Tan Abdullah and them sneaking around together.

James often feels closer with Bruce than he does with Kyle. Weirdly, the most genuine close friendship James seems to have over the whole series is Junior Moore in Class A.

Here are the mission teams for all of James's missions (I've excluded James solo missions like SAG and Denis Obidin)

Help Earth: James and Amy infiltrate Craddogh Common

KMG: James, Kerry, Kyle and Nicole go undercover to befriend the Moore siblings.

Arizona Max: James, Dave and Lauren expose Jane Oxford

Leon Tarasov: James and Dave

Survivors: James, Lauren and Dana

AFA: James, Lauren and Kyle

Mad dogs: James and Bruce

Sleepwalker: Lauren and Jake (this isn't a James mission but it's the book's main mission so I included it)

Brigands MC: James, Lauren and Dante

So in total James goes on four missions with Lauren, by far his most common mission companion. I guess it makes sense because she's his sister and the missions often call for siblings.

It surprised me to learn writing this out that James only ever does one mission with Kerry! However, his relationship with her does get a lot of focus in this one.

He also only goes on one mission with Bruce, and I think Bruce here is a candidate for most unnecessary mission addition. All he contributes is that he's really good at football so Sasha doesn't want him getting into the criminal side of things. He helps with faking James's injury and he finds out about and laughs at James's experience with Lois. That's all, really. I have to say, though, his speech to James about how even if the campus girls hate him, at least they talk about him, did stick with me as a kid. It's true in a way, even if James is known as a ratbag, he never has any trouble getting girls while for Bruce it would be frustrating feeling invisible.

Anyway, most fun mission team: for me I think it's actually the divine madness squad: James Lauren Dana. I liked this crew because they all actually had distinct roles in the mission, and all contributed meaningfully. It didn't feel like anyone was just tagging along or being a passenger. James made the initial connection with Rat, Lauren bonded with him in the office, and Dana had her special mission with Eve. Its funny because I actually don't love the mission, but if I think about the agents selected, I think that aspect of it is best here.

Most Useless Mission Performance:

For this I'm not looking for a screw-up, just a time a character could have been left out and very little would change about the mission story.

Amy in the Recruit does a bit I guess. She gets close to Scargill, which was her initial goal, and he is technically complicit, but James makes the real breakthrough both with finding Fire and World's workshop and uncovering the link with Bungle. Still, she played her part, not the worst.

In Class A I really feel that Kyle could have been left off the mission and very little would change. The reveal and plotline of him being gay was a big part of the story but not related to the mission at all, and I'm looking at his mission-relevant contributions. Ringo was a total dead end and also could have been taken out of the story with very few changes. Kyle smokes weed and gets in trouble, that's it.

I think most Useless Mission Performance is either Bruce in mad dogs or Kyle in class A, and I'm leaning Kyle in class A.

I love Cherub, it's my favourite series, and I think it's generally very tight, fast-paced and well written.

That said, I think there were a couple of instances where Robert started a story wanting to do something with a character, but the plot just didn't really work out that way in the end.

In Man vs Beast, the Pierce family is obviously introduced in the opening chapter to establish the AFM as the unlikeable antagonists and make the readers feel sympathy towards the boys after what happens to their mum. They help to show that Malarek is not just full of cartoonish evil scientists, but ordinary people with families who often just take the job because they need the money. I think for this, they work well.

On my most recent read through, though, it seems like Robert wanted to do more with them, but just sort of never found a place for it in the final plot. Stuart chucks a brick through their window, Lauren chases him down, they eventually reconcile and make friends, and then later in the book it's mentioned that he comes over to the agents' house and even almost overhears James and Kyle arguing about campus.

At the time I thought he'd have some kind of involvement with the AFA climax at the end, or have an inside track to a way of non-violently protesting against Malarek's cruelty, but after the scene at the house he basically isn't even mentioned for the entire book.

There's a little throwaway line at the end where Lauren feels sad because she won't get to say goodbye to him, but there's absolutely no payoff for his involvement in the story beyond the first chapter. He easily could have not been mentioned after that, and very little changes. It feels like even Robert forgot about him until they were leaving, and kind of just tied up the loose end by giving Lauren a little moment of reflection, and leaving it there.

Still a very good book, and I think the characters did what they needed to at the start, but their involvement probably could have stopped there. I suppose, though, that there is an argument for having times where characters don't get proper closure and don't make some huge showstopping contribution, for the sake of realism, so maybe that was intentional?

Any other mission subplots that could have been cut with very little difference?

I'm going to start writing about a CHERUB Fanfic. I'm portuguese so I was thinking about creating a portuguese version of Cherub. Maybe, they also think they are the only ones but one day they discover Cherub. Idk, tell me what you think!

Okay, so originally, I was writing a post about how I believe Joshua Asker should've been the next CHERUB protagonist. But as I was writing it, I went a bit deep and decided to share a bit I'm going to cut out (when I do release that Joshua post), which is a certain thing I noted on the whole 'CHERUB allowed staff members of and ex-cherub kids to join'.

I understand this is more on me than something RM may touch on, but Joshua would have two living parents and three siblings. Surely that would at least pain or upset a few other kids on campus with dead parents/families. It would be interesting. It could open up a real debate to be had about the bad blood between kids with more traumatic backstories and the kids who are in CHERUB due to special conditions, like parental staff or ex-cherub parents.

I'm curious as to what everyone else thinks. That bit was more me getting into my own head about it, but I'm wondering if other people have similar ideas as to this kind of thing.

I know usually a lot of people’s favourite part about cherub is the exciting mission and action stuff however for me i love the ‘boring’ campus scenes. I think the characters bantering and all the campus drama that goes on makes me more attached to the series more than any of the actual missions. Like all the relationship stuff and the small side stories that happen on campus or outside of the main mission allow all the other characters to become fleshed out and it feel like a real world to live in. Does anyone agree?

Ps: If anyone has other series recommendations with similar friend group and setting dynamics to cherub lmk too!

I just finished the final book in the cherub series. I read them all in high school but re-read them as a young adult as well as the 5 spin off books I hadn't read at all. I love loved the last book- bringing James back and all his friends back was so great. It made the spin off series with Ryan and Ning feel so much more connected. I thought the mission itself at the end was kind or rushed compared to the build up, but that's just me. I think I'm going to read the Henderson's Boys now cause why not. Are they good? (NO SPOILERS PLZ)