Judge Dredd: Year One (Judge Dredd: The Early Years)

I like Judge Dredd and found this to be good for filling in his story. There is more then one story in this audible book. I would prefer that it was a full story.

Good read, same or near comic quality. Judge Dredd at his youngest best. Good character sketch of Big bad Judge Dredd

I'll give a quick rundown of the 3 stories but would like to state plainly these are prose novels NOT comics. I find the title to this collection very misleading considering it's starring a comic book character and uses the terms "Year One" and "Omnibus" which are two phrases used frequently in comics. To further add to the confusion Matt Smith has actually written a Judge Dredd Year One Comic for IDW, but I digress.I found the opening story "City Fathers" by Matt Smith to be exceedingly slow, humorless, and lacking in action. Simply put, it is not very good, nor does it bear the slightest resemblance to what has made for a good Judge Dredd story. I also felt his characterization of Rico Dredd was lacking. Smith portrays him as an overweight burnout even though he would be fresh out of the academy in his first year, which doesn't make sense and was not threatening in the slightest."Cold Light of Day" by Mike Carroll is a step in the right direction. It features a cross-Meg race by crazy biker gangs which is more in line with the Mega City I'm familiar with. The problem with this story is it is plagued with uninteresting flashbacks that seemed to bog down the finale of the story just as it was picking up speed."Wear Iron" by Al Ewing is easily the best and most enjoyable. I thought of this one as "Rico's Big Score" as Rico puts a crew together to knock off a Fatties competition. This is the only story that passes muster. I love how sinister Rico is, and how powerful his brother Joe seems by the way he's portrayed. The opening scene being a great way to introduce a legend.

As a fan from way back I was thrilled to get to read this one. Having finished it I can safely say that I've read it before, probably when it was originally released. I can honestly say that it was just as enjoyable this time around. I have always enjoyed Judge Dredd and have an extensive collection of comics. These stories from different authors blend so well together and tell a great story of life in Mega City.

Absolutely love reading Judge Dredd stories. Call it my guilty pleasure, I've been a repeat offender going back to my early years in high school. Great job as always to Al Ewing, Michael Carroll, and Matt Smith. So it's only fitting to complete my sentence by reading " year two" of the series. Off to the cubes I go!

First 2 books had adequate amount of dredd, but third was all about rico, which was disappointing. That book should've been in omnibus Rico's Year One, not Dredd - yeah, exactly no one wants to read that.

My Dredd reading background is coming from someone who impulse bought and plowed through the complete case files 1 to 15 without taking a break. I feel like the characters and universe fits very well in the written format. It feels like blasphemy to say these stories work without the wonderful art you get from the comics, but reading these stories was a real treat. I don't know if someone unfamiliar with the comics would get the same out of the novels. I had a great time reading this one and I'm ready for more.

I enjoyed this quite the bit. How Dredd and Rico's personalities are explained and how they dole out justice in a dystopian future are quite interesting. The stories are brutal and enthralling, highly recommended for Judge Dredd fans.

I really enjoyed this. A handful of comics many years ago, the Stallone film misstep (although his was a great looking Mega City) and the superb Karl Urban Dredd movie were my only main sampling of Dredd and his world. I was lucky enough to download this and the Judge Anderson books in an amazon sale thinking it was a comic. To my surprise this is actually a novel version not a comic. The author describes him as I imagined him to be: logical and confident in who he is, what he does and that his interpretation of the Mega City law is pretty much perfect. The gritty version of Mega City One feels very much in keeping with the Dredd film version for the most part. The author keeps the stories zipping along at a good pace and I really liked the way this world plays with simple vocabulary to make mundane things have a futuristic alternative. The Anderson Year One book is also great. This feels like a brilliant jumping in point for a Dredd novice.

I bought both Year one and Year two of both Dredd and Anderson, as I love both characters, and always preferred the books to the comic strips, and this book and the others have NOT disappointed in the least :-)You get a good insight into the relationship between Joseph Dredd and his clone brother Rico, a relationship that is as different as night from day, as both epitomize different character traits of their clone father Judge Fargo, and Rico goes from bad to worse along the way. We also see just how isolated Joe Dredd is from humanity, as all he lives for is the Law, and nothing else. He has no friends, no social life, and no personal interests outside of his duty to uphold the Law, no matter what, even when he is arrested himself at one point, offering no resistance to the Judge who carries out the arrest. Dredd has a troubled psyche, it seems, when it comes to his brother, and the deterioration of the bond between them is thoroughly exposed as Rico slowly derails himself, and even impersonates his clone brother in order to commit crime. The stories are good, the plots just get thicker as they go along, and their are some moments of humour, both light and dark at times. Dredd has such a strong belief in the Law that even in his first year on the streets, his arrest record outstrips those of senior judges, and things go from bad to worse as he is sent to one of the most troubled sectors of Mega-City One, where the Law isn't exactly feared, and Muties are allowed to co-exist with regular citizens. We see just how Dredd copes with his adherence to the Law in all matters throughout the stories, and the problems it causes even other Judges around him, who come under Dredd's personal scrutiny in their duties and how they are deemed lacking in Dredd's eyes. I just LOVE these books, and the Year Two sequel is even better, as we see Dredd, barely out of his teens, and even more dogged in his duty to uphold everything the Law states he should believe in. I honestly cannot wait to see how this series hopefully continues, as it adds flesh to the bones of Old Stone Face as a newly badged Judge, and how he grew into the man we only saw as an adult from Issue 3 of 200AD comic (The Judges were first seen in Issue 2, but Dredd's first appearance was in Issue 3). I'm definitely going to get the other Judges books, as the teaser at the end of the Year Two book has seriously whetted my appetite for more, especially the early years of the Justice Dept and the first Judges :-) I cannot recommend these books highly enough, as they are far more insightful than the comic strips, and are now canon for the history of one of the greatest lawmen in comic history.

I havent read much Dredd for many years and collected it for about 8 years in the 80's. I feel this book really captures the feeling of MC1 and it's streets. Great use of MC1 slang and appropriately done. Not over the top or misused. First book I have really enjoyed reading for a long time.

This is the first ever Judge Dredd fiction book that I have ever seen which covers the first year of Dredd's serviceas a brand new Judge -as background I was reading 2000AD way back in 1977 and only stopped reading it when I got a job in the mid 1980'sHowever I have always been a fan of Judge Dredd and re-subscribed after the 2012 Dredd Film(one of my best ever decisions as Megazine and 2000AD are superb reading )- so to the book review - I am very , very impressed how well written the book by Michael Carroll's book is , and how good thenovel links up with your view of Dredd as a brand new Judge - I wont go into the book contents - as you should read it yourselfnote this is a thick ( American size ) paperback , so its a slighly smaller sized book than a British one , but is really good quality from Abaddon Books

I honestly wasn't expecting much as I thought this was basically fan fiction. Turns out I was totally wrong. Well written, good characterisation and really entertaining stories. I'm hooked and going to buy the next book in the series. Highly recommended!