I really enjoyed the original CHERUB series, and started reading this prequel series set during World War II. Here we have the adventures of the famous Charles Henderson who started CHERUB, and his first young agents. It has a lot in common with CHERUB: the same writing style and the same kind of graphical violence.

This book, however, did not work for me as well as CHERUB had. I did not connect with the characters and situations as well as I had in the previous series. While the concept of CHERUB felt quite original, this is just a standard spy story, only with children involved in the plot. To be honest, the premise is not more unrealistic here, but with CHERUB I was able to suspend disbelief more easily, considering that a lot of effort was made to minimize the young agents' exposure to violence. Here, killing is not a desperate last resort, but it's the standard procedure, even for the good guys. Yes, it's war, and yes, these children had already had their childhoods destroyed, but who would willingly involve them in this business? It's fiction, and I'm not squeamish about violence, but I just had more difficulties suspending disbelief and getting into the story.

Anyway, the story and the characters are enjoyable enough. It's a fast read, and I'll continue with the series. Hopefully in time I'll care about these characters as much as I cared about James Adams in CHERUB. I'll give this one a vote of confidence and give it 4 stars instead of 3.

EDIT: Book 2 of the series is actually the second half of the story started here. Read together, they work better. ( )

I really love the Cherub series but for whatever reason I've not quite gotten around to reading Henderson's Boys. Maybe the historical aspect put me off a bit. I never really seemed in the mood for it. In any case, I picked it up and this is great. Marc and Paul and Rosie are strong characters with both strengths and weaknesses. In other words, they're real kids thrown into extraordinary situations. Things don't always go well and they're not always nice or kind or brave or right. But they make the best of the situation and battle on. Much like James, I found them unlikeable at certain points but overall I enjoyed the characters and the plot. It's been awhile since I've read Cherub but I will say I can't quite remember it being so mature or so immature. The Escape focuses on more mature situations and realistically portrays the reality of war. That being said, the characters themselves were relatively childish and immature. It was odd but it may just be due to my own advancing age. ( )

This book is mass market paperback rubbish. It is full of one-dimensional stereotyped characters, soft porn, sexism, bullying and gratuitous violence.
I can't see why anyone would want to read this kind of trash when there is such a plethora of great literature available. This kind of dated, "rah rah rah" British stiff upper lip writing should be relegated to the annals of history with all the other boy's own books of the past.
I can think of many other books for teenagers with the same theme that are more meaningful, have well-drawn characters and are infinitely better written.
I guess Robert Muchamore is a phase that will disappear in time.

Children, adventure, WW2 ( )

An excellent introduction to the series. Full of boys own type action but with a bit more depth than these type of stories from a generation ago. Good for boys but excellent female characters - thoughtfully written but plenty of action. Very skilled work from the author...... ( )