Books like The General

After only a few short days of not being able to pick the book down in anticipation of what will happen on the final page, I am done reading The General by Robert Muchamore, which is the 10th book in the CHERUB series.The book is a lot different from all the other books in the series, because it's almost like the series takes a break from all the intense missions and fights and has a little fun. It's almost like a relaxing vacation from the series so it's not always so intense and wild. It's really a genius idea by Robert Muchamore to put something that gives the readers a break for a little bit. And even though this may sound boring, it's fantastic because after reading nine books of action, the action doesn't seem as good. So the purpose of Muchamore was to give the series a break and when it returns, it seems even better. Pure Genius.The General was about James Adams and his younger sister Lauren,( Who both work for the top secret British government organization CHERUB, that trains children to work as spies,), and a group of other CHERUB members, that are selected to do a training exercise with ( against) the US Army at a brand new compound designed to simulate urban warfare. The compound basically looks like a city and civilians are paid to come and stay over the course of a week to simulate civilians in war. Although this seems like very serious stuff, the reality is, the training is a game of war with high tech paintball guns that remove you from the game for 24 hours. But, while the US Army is expecting the training to be easy and routine, the general for the opposing side has another idea and a trick that he needs to win.The book is fun to read and really enjoyable while also very well written. Robert Muchamore is a complete genius for a number of things. The first one is the "break" he included in the series. so many series don't do that and it becomes tiring to read. The second is the fact that with children spies, the entire series can escalate out of proportion and become ridiculously cheesy. There are far too many books that sound good, but destroy themselves because the author gets too unrealistic. The third, as I have said so many times before, is the ability Muchamore has to teeter on the edge of reality with his book ideas. Making them exciting but still with realistic plots.What the book clearly displays, is that the main character James, ( of whom I have become attached to) is 16 and a half years old and is almost done with his CHERUB career. In the last few books Muchamore has tried to conceal the fact a little bit, but in The General, he becomes more open, as James realizes that he basically has nothing left in his career and wants "One last Hooray". He achieves this by after being excluded from the training for his own safety, go to Las Vegas and helps his general win at the tables, by cardcounting. A technique that is used in blackjack to keep track of your odds of winning a hand. James is a great math student and the counting comes naturally. And after being discovered, he makes a narrow escape to conclude the thrilling ending of the book.Although there is to be another book that will be James' last appearance as a CHERUB agent. Muchamore is, to my dislike, setting up the series to switch over to Lauren. The real thrill of the series was how funny, likable, and daring James was, so when it does, I am contemplating not reading the series because Lauren is not a character that I particularly like. I'm sure James will still be in a couple of them as a MI6 agent or something but the series won't be the same. I'm really looking forward to the next book though and hope it sends James out with a bang.