A very good collection of Judge Dredd fiction! A must for fans of the dour future lawman - albeit, during his second year on the "sked". As a long-time fan of the character and setting, it was interesting to read more about his formative years and cases. A fun read. Recommended.

Judge Dredd Year Two is an omnibus of three very different stories all set in Judge Dredd's second year in Mega-City One. There three indicidual stories are:

1) The Righteous Man, by Michael Carroll
2) Down and Out, by Matthew Smith
3) Alternative Facts, by Cavan Scott

Like most omnibuses, or short story collections, this book offered a bit of a mix bag for the reader. Although, overall, I would said this collection is recommended to an Judge Dredd fan.

My least favorite of the three stories was The Righteous Man. It is heavy on exposition and turns more into an adventure drama. I preferred the other stories which were more of a tradition Dredd action and style.

STARBURST’s Books of 2017

As 2018 and all its potential looms ever closer, it’s about this time of year that we have a quick look back at some of the more interesting books that came out in 2017. We aren’t going to stand on ceremony here. This is a mixed list of stuff that caught our eye over the year, each one chosen because it delighted us in some way.
To start off with, let’s mention Jeanette Ng’s Under the Pendulum Sun, a notably dense yet utterly absorbing tale of two Victorian Era Christian Missionaries head into the land of fairies to bring god to godless. It’s wonderfully bleak and though it’s hardly poolside holiday reading, it’s rather fun. Speaking of light reading is Andy Weir’s Artemis. Weir is best known for his book The Martian, which got turned into a movie featuring Matt Damon. Artemis is more of the same; believable science fiction (this time set in a moon base), slight less believable characters and lots of friendly science to go with the fiction. Bubblegum it may be, but it’s delicious bubblegum that feeds your brain.

This year also saw Jeff Noon return to form with A Man of Shadows. With a movie adaptation of Vurt planned and growing interest in Noon’s work hitting the mainstream, we were delighted to discover that Noon has not only stayed weird, he’s gotten all the more wonderfully strange.
Fans of strong and intelligent military sci-fi were well treated in 2017. Gavin G Smith joined the ranks of ‘Masters of Military SciFi’ with his book The Bastard Legion, which took many of the preconceived notions of the ‘shooty death in space genre’ and turned them around. This is a book that shouted ‘nope’ quite loudly and proceeded to deliver the sort of action the fans demand, whilst. Clarke award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky also stepped into this realm with two books. Dogs of War is a gripping take on the rights of sentient beings, which opens up with heavily armed genetically modified animals in a war zone, moves to a war crimes tribunal and moves further along the chain of consequence. Ironclads was a more traditional affair, with power armoured soldiers in a modern warzone and EZ Company hi-jinks, but also a powerful anti-capitalism polemic.

We also adored Yoon Ha Lee’s Raven Stratagem. A sequel to last year’s much-praised Nine Fox Gambit blends science-fiction high concept with high fantasy in a lovely clash of ideas and explosions. A similarly addictive (but entirely different) novel was Ann Leckie’s Provenance, a gripping bit of science fiction set in the world of the award-winning Imperial Radch series. It’s mostly a thriller with the trapping of a sci-fi world wrapped around it, with some wonderfully eye-opening moments peppered throughout.

Speaking of thrillers, it would be foolish of us to talk about books of 2017 without bringing up Sarah Pinborough’s Behind Her Eyes, a jaw-dropping work of jealousy and betrayal set in the modern day that has one of the most interesting endings we’ve seen. Fans who like their mysteries with a more fantasy bent may want to check out RJ Barker’s Age of Assassins, a tale about a crippled murderer charged to a protect a prince to stop a war. A stunning debut from Barker.

Other exciting new writers came to us via the excellent Fox Spirit books. The Bushy Tales series of anthologies concluded with Tales of Mice and Minotaur, which contained an amazing take on Medusa and some cracking new talent. Similarly, their collection Respectable Horror delivered the right sort of chills and introduced us to the likes of Rosalind Mosis and Su Haddrell.

Tie-In novels wise, our highlights were the Star Wars 40th celebration anthology From a Certain Point of View, which brought together talents such as Paul Dini, Wil Wheaton, Chuck Wendig and Kieron Gillen to present some rather beautiful and very entertaining stories. We also rather liked Judge Dredd Year Two Omnibus. Old Stony Face is hard to write well and this collection of novellas nailed it, especially as it covers the time in Dredd’s life where his very existence is being questioned.

We were also entertained by much of Quirk Books output this year; Paperbacks From Hell provided an essential window into the world of horror fiction and reprinted some pretty amazing covers. They also hit their stride with a series of tie-in books of their own. ET, The X-Files and Home Alone all got the ‘children’s book’ treatment. X-Files ‘Earth Children Are Weird’ is especially adorable. We got a big laugh out of The League of Regrettable Super Villains, a whistle-stop tour of some of the worst excesses of bad ideas from comic book history. They also gave us most of the Star Wars movie in Shakespeare form, much to the delight of geeks everywhere and the terror of many an English teacher.

Our stand-out funniest book came courtesy of Rebellion Publishing. Nate Crowley’s 100 Best Video Games (That Never Existed) took perfect aim at those endless ‘Christmas Stocking Filler’ books filled with bad reviews of obscure games. Instead, Nate just made them all up to hilarious results, producing a well-informed but clearly informed tome and parody of the nostalgia industry.

We’ll have missed loads out, so don’t forget to let us know what your recommendations are via Twitter or Facebook. Until this time next year, carry on reading.

Don't worry – this book improves. Certainly the first story of the three novellas isn't very good – a tale that belabours its concerns about Rico, force-feeds us exposition by the gallon, and turns into a kind of adventure drama as opposed to letting Dredd do the usual Dreddy things. The second story is much better, with a lot of social commentary wrapped around an annoyingly confusing McGuffin. But there's always room for improvement, which is met by the third tale, where what seems to be a mix of mutie smuggling and dead journalists turns into something much bigger with the help of fatties, a new PSI judge, and riffs on the more oddly-named current British TV weathermen. So you actually get a Dredd-styled story (British culture references, Dredd-styled action) plus a successful opening out into the wider world and into his mindset. Ultimately, then, the book is successful – and fun.

Journey back to Mega City with the legend - Judge Dredd. These tales of his early years will thrill and delight old fans while quickly winning over new ones.

The first book in this second trilogy of adventures detailing the early years of Judge Dredd's career, “The Righteous Man” deals with the ramifications of Rico Dredd's arrest – a defining moment in the Joe Dredd's development into the steadfast enforcer of the law that we know today. Having written the immensely enjoyable novella, Rico Dredd: The Titan Years - “The Third Law” which chronicled Rico's downfall and eventual incarceration on Titan from his point of view, Michael Carroll opens the Judge Dredd: Year Two trilogy with a tale that deals with the after-effects on Joe Dredd and the cloud of suspicion that the arrest of his clone-brother has caused.

I highly recommend picking up Rico Dredd: The Titan Years - “The Third Law” to read alongside this novel, as the two stories cross-over at times and supplement each other perfectly to offer dual character studies of both Dredd twins. I love how Michael Carroll has expanded upon the original “Return of Rico” storyline, which appeared in one single Prog of 2000AD and had filled in the various plot holes and made it a far richer story. It's a shame that Rico himself is dead in the current continuity as Carroll and the other writers of this series of novellas have made him such a interesting antagonist, and it feels like his potential was never really capitalised on. I'd love to see Carroll revisit his Rico Dredd: The Titan Years series, possibly ending with a retelling of “Return of Rico” to give closure to this story-arc.

Clearly well-versed in early Judge Dredd continuity, Michael Carroll's narrative is a joy to read as he manages to weave in plenty of nods to existing stories without alienating readers. Those who pick up on his 'easter eggs' are rewarded – for example, upon reading this novel, I was surprised to see reference to Sector Zero in one chapter, which turned out to be the focus of a present-day Judge Dredd story running in 2000AD at the time of which the book was published. This is a brilliant bit of foreshadowing, and I'm sure that not many people picked up on that sly bit of continuity. Another aspect of Carroll's storytelling that really impresses me is how he deals with plot threads that I hadn't even considered – it hadn't even occurred to me that the Justice Department would be suspicious of Joe Dredd following Rico's arrest, and Carroll manages to use this sub-plot to create a background of tension throughout his tale.

The novel itself feels like two stories weaved together, much like with Carroll's earlier Judge Dredd novel, “The Cold Light of Day”, which used the Mega City 5000 race as a backdrop to Dredd's investigations. The SJS investigation into Dredd's past forms the backbone of this novel, whilst the forefront revolves around Dredd and a small team of Judges being sent to a mining village on the outskirts of the city to deal with Cursed Earth raiders. This part of the novel feels reminiscent of The Seven Samurai, although in true Justice Department fashion, they don't waste the resources of seven samurai and instead send three Judges. I'm not sure whether there was an intentional decision to evoke memories of that movie, but I enjoyed that feeling of Dredd attempting to protect a small town and its colourful inhabitants from an external threat. Of course, there is more to the plot than that and Carroll introduces some wonderful curve-balls throughout the novella to challenge the reader's expectations.

As one of the recurring voices in the Judge Dredd comic strip, Michael Carroll clearly has a firm grasp on the character and the world he lives in. Even dealing with the series' early continuity – an era seldolm explored in the comics – Carroll demonstrates an encyclopedic knowledge of the universe and manages to create stories that fit seamlessly into existing continuity and actually enrich those original stories, fleshing out weak spots and righting inconsistencies. As a leading expert in early Dredd, it is reassuring to know that he will be shepherding the upcoming Judges series of novellas, offering his expertise and knowledge to other writers playing about in the Mega-City One sand-pit.

While I am eager to praise Carroll's attention to detail, I don't want to overshadow his strength in writing strong and exciting prose. The action sequences in this adventure are wonderfully choreographed and flow straight from the words on the page into my imagination where they are re-enacted with all the efficiency of a Crimewatch reconstruction. His characterisation of Dredd, young or old, is perfect and he explores the character's human side in subtle ways. Obviously, Dredd will always be an impassive, uncaring bastard but Carroll gets under his skin here, thanks to the novella format, and showcases a self-awareness of his faults that is fun to read. “The Righteous Man” is another knockout of a novel from the Judge Dredd: Early Years range, answering questions about Rico's downfall that readers probably didn't realise they had and continuing to mould Joe Dredd into the firm, but fair lawman that we love to hate. These novels are some of the best Judge Dredd stories that I've ever read, and those readers reluctant to switch from panels to prose should definitely reconsider as they're missing out!