Abaddon Books, p/b, £5.62

Reviewed by Matthew Johns

With a big photo of Judge Joe Dredd from the recent movie release on the cover, a casual reader could be mistaken into believing that this is the novelisation of the screenplay. However, other than having the same setting and lead character, this has nothing to do with the Hollywood blockbuster.

Three separate novels are combined into one rather meaty book. It contains almost 700 pages of rollicking action in Mega City One, with Dredd facing off against Judge Death and the Dark Judges in “Dredd vs Death”. In “Kingdom of the Blind”, Dredd finds himself pitted against criminal mastermind Jesus Bludd, who has taken control of some ancient, but deadly, satellites still orbiting the earth a long time after they were originally launched as part of Ronald Reagan’s space defence policies. The final novel is “The Final Cut”, a tale of Vi-izines, torture pornography magazines in which real citizens of the Big Meg are abducted and tortured to death for the delight of the twisted and wealthy.

All three are great fun reads, full of the intense action that a reader should expect from a 2000AD novel. If you’re a fan of Judge Dredd, then pick this one up. If you’ve never experienced Mega City One, then introduce yourself – you’ll never look back.