Main Menu

Judges: The Avalanche (vague spoilers)

Started by wedgeski, 29 May, 2018, 11:06:16 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

wedgeski

I haven't read any Dreddworld novels so I thought I'd give this a go, as the period it deals with seems ripe for good storytelling.

The transition from due process to instant justice is fertile ground. The Judges are here, they're not going away, and yet no-one gets it. The villains play the usual games and get blown away. Law enforcement keeps citing lawyers and union reps and gets rolled over. It's really cool.

There are various problems. It's over too quickly. The end is a little pat. The conspiracy at the heart of the story parachutes in out of nowhere. What little is made of the Judges' background and their reasons for joining the program is kind of feeble (perhaps the biggest oversight IMO). Also, the book pulls the rug out very effectively right near the start, but never cashes-in. It feels like there's a whole middle third that's just missing.

Considering I only paid a couple of quid for it on Kindle, I wasn't disappointed. It is often very well written, but just feels like it was over-edited, perhaps in a misguided effort to keep the page count down. I'll follow the series, though; it's an intriguing setting, and with what we know of what's to come, could get very exciting indeed.

I don't know what the producers of MC1 are planning (does anyone?) but a serial set in this period would be amazing. You get all the procedural stuff, all of the conflict of old versus new order, a world on the brink of nuclear annihilation under a nutjob president, against a backdrop that doesn't look so different from what we live in now to keep the budget down. Would watch!