‘Judge Dredd Crime Chronicles: Stranger than Truth’ – David Bishop (Big Finish)

I like to try and mix things up a little, on the blog, and try something new every now again; very much in a ‘how do you know that you won’t like something if you don’t try it first?’ kind of way... It worked for me when I gave anime a go last year (and the year before) and I figured that now was the time to give audio books another try after having listened to James Swallow’s ‘Heart of Rage’ back in June. While I’ve got Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson’s ‘The Gathering Storm’ on the go I’m finding that it’s a little too long (something like thirty six hours!) for me to really find the time to get into. I realised that I was after something a lot shorter and that’s where Big Finish came in. Their audio books are a lot shorter and snappier and that’s what I’m after. Add Judge Dredd to the mix and you can’t go wrong... can you? No, you can’t go wrong at all...

Mega City One’s top assassin is on the loose and killing to his own inexplicable agenda. The only thing is though... does he really exist? Truman Kaput’s ‘Slick Dickens’ detective series saw him inside an Iso-Cube for ridiculing the Mega City Judges, Dredd in particular. While Kaput languishes inside however, his most famous creation roams free and has murder on his mind. Or does he? All Dredd knows is that no matter what’s at the bottom of this mystery, he must solve the case before his name comes up on Slick Dicken’s list...

Judge Dredd’s adventures in 2000AD can be a little dark sometimes but I wasn’t expecting something this dark! David Bishop’s tale of the blurring boundary between truth and fiction doesn’t pull any punches and isn’t afraid to follow a dark path right down to its disturbing conclusion. Was there one twist too many right at the very end though? I was left wondering if this was the case but, at the same time, it did work very well; leaving the listener wrong footed just as they thought they had their balance back. I didn’t see that ending coming at all...
Bishop’s tale is certainly worth the price of admission with a narrative that has the reader constantly on their toes and asking where things are going to go next. There’s a real sense of menace underpinning it all as well; both from the unstoppable march of Slick Dickens and the heavy handed approach of the Justice Department itself. You know something big is coming and you want to be there when it finally kicks off...

From what I’ve listened to (so far) I’ve found that I much prefer audio books where there’s a few sound affects to give the narrative a little more punch. ‘Stranger than Truth’ certainly delivers on this score; the theme tune didn’t do a lot for me but the background sound really worked in terms of delivering that edgy menacing atmosphere. Helen Kay’s academic ‘Fan Girl’ ‘Eliza Blunt’ really drew me into the story in terms of her conflict between being a fan of Truman Kaput and her becoming embroiled in the ongoing case. Toby Longworth as Judge Dredd though... It wasn’t so much that he did anything wrong as it is the case that Judge Dredd is such an iconic character on the page that any attempt to give him a real voice is never going to hit the mark dead on. Like I said though, that probably says more about me than it does Longworth. To be fair, he certainly gives Dredd the right amount of ‘I am the Law’ attitude; you have no doubt about whom he’s playing!

‘Stranger than Truth’ might just miss the mark in a couple of areas but there’s question of you not getting anything less than one hell of a ride if you give it a go. If you’re a fan of Dredd and you haven’t checked this stuff out, you really need to...

Nine out of Ten

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