Some of the best work 2000AD every produced, the Strontium Dog stories and illustrations are by far the best in my book.

The PDF scans are excellent, the stories by Alan Grant as gripping as ever and illustrations by Carlos brought back all my memories of childhood. I've bought all four books and luv reading each one over and over again!

Some of the best work 2000AD every produced, the Strontium Dog stories and illustrations are by far the best in my book.

The PDF scans are excellent, the stories by Alan Grant as gripping as ever and illustrations by Carlos brought back all my memories of childhood. I've bought all four books and luv reading each one over and over again!

Fantastic as always. I can't get enough of Dredd, and if you aren't reading this, you should be. Love the art and writing, love everything about this book. Don't miss it!

Another great Judge Dredd book. It's tough to go wrong with these collections, especially for the price. Dystopian fiction at it's best!

This book is awesome! Judge Dredd at his best, and you can't any better than Grant Morrison and Mark Millar! Don't miss this book!

Judge Dredd is a classic, and these stories don't disappoint. Highly recommended!

Dredd is always wicked, although the story is a little bureaucratic, not quite the poetic/violent Dredd of old. Some of the other stories aren't really strong enough to lure me back into being a regular 2000AD reader.

The Age of Ra has an interesting setting and reinvents the Egyptian gods in a very human manner full of flaws and failings. Events take place during the present day on planet Earth, but it is not the Earth we would all recognize. Around the time of Howard Carter, the Egyptian gods made themselves known to humanity and waged war upon all of the other human religions and deities that had ever existed. Once victory had been achieved, the gods then split the Earth amongst several of the more prominent members of the pantheon. Osiris, Isis, Nepthys, Set, Horus, & Horus’s children all then organized their territories around their worship and used those earthly assets to wage war amongst each other. The Exception to this is Egypt. It has been renamed Freegypt as part of a treaty amongst the gods whereby it was agreed that the birthplace of the faith should be independent from any one god’s rule. Human technological development has also been altered in that many of their devices and weapons are powered by the energy or “ba” of the gods.

The novel is also divided into two parallel story arcs. The main arc follows elite paratrooper Lt. David Westwynter as he comes to term with his own personal issues and the fallout of being swept up in the wars of the gods. After a botched mission, Westwynter flees to Freegypt and ends up coming into contact with the Lightbringer, a messianic guerrilla leader out to overthrow the gods and free humanity from their machinations. Westwynter ends up becoming part of the Lightbringers revolution and is forced to come to terms with his own personal issues.

The other story arc is very different. It follows the Sun God Ra as he interacts with the other members of the Egyptian pantheon. As king of the gods, Ra has a great deal of influence over his peers, but does not seem to actually rule over them and has no territory on Earth. Ra is a sympathetic figure; he is tired of the feuding between the gods and saddened at how all of their conflicts have spilled over onto human beings. As Ra attempts to broker peace amongst the gods, the Lightbringer’s revolution affects the outcome of his plans.

The Good: I like Lovegrove’s writing style. His writing flows well and the narrative is balanced between the internal and external conflicts faced both by Ra and Westwynter. His treatment of dialogue is also well done and the characters speak and act genuinely. I was a bit put off by some of the over-use of British slang. Despite being a bit x-rated, I also enjoyed how the gods were depicted. Even though they are divine beings, their problems and motivations were understandable. Not a whole lot has been done with the mythology of Egypt and the novelty of having them featured was fresh and provided an exotic element to the story. I enjoyed the setting of the novel; the human nations were interesting and the integration of divinely powered technology into human science was unique. It was clear how the gods had influenced the cultures under their respective control. One passage in the book that depicted some Anubian commandos stood out as having been well done. This was a well thought-out and solidly constructed world for the story.

The Bad: I liked David Westwynter as a character, but some of the focus upon his personal issues may have been overdone. Instead of coming off as a guy who struggles with taking emotional risks, he came off a like a kid at his first boy/girl social event. The culmination of the Lightbringer and his revolution was anticlimactic. It made sense and had some bite, but as far as resolving the story arcs of both Westwynter and Ra went, I found it to be a little flat. Too much was done too quickly without actually providing the reader a satisfactory resolution to what had happened.

Final Word: This is a unique story in a unique setting. The characters are interesting and the novel reads fast and furious. However, I felt that the climax and ending of the book were a bit flat — too many things fit entirely too well for how things were worked out. I was also able to predict a good bit of the secrets revealed to the reader well in advance. I would not recommend this book for younger readers as there are a few sexually explicit scenes.

If you are unfamiliar with Judge Dredd, then this is a fantastic intro to the universe. Garth Ennis pulls no punches and crafts some fine tales of the legendary Dredd that are gritty and weird, just like the Ennis we all know and love. Fans of Preacher will be happy to see Ennis and Steve Dillon working together on Emerald Isle, which has elements of Ennis' run on The Punisher, and those unfamiliar with British comics just may discover some great new artists. Don't pass on this fine book.

Good fun from the back-catalogue of 2000AD.

Part of this purchase was nostalgia for me - I remembered enjoying Rogue Trooper (amongst the other 2000AD characters - Dredd, Slaine, ABC Warriors) through the late 80s/90s - and the comics hold up after all these years. Fun!

Nice art, but I just didn't care about any of the characters.

The comics found in the collected Dredd volumes are brilliant and well written. I really enjoy the new details and ideas of Mega City One, like their TV Shows and sporting events. The appearance of Death at the end of this volume was also a very good story. These are definitely must reads for any fans of Dredd who want to start from the beginning.

This book is VINTAGE awesomeness! See the earliest days of Judge Dredd, including an original treatment of him as "judge, jury and executioner" that was adjusted down for the ongoing stories.

This book collects the earliest Dredd stories from 2000AD in the late 1970s. What the stories lack in subtlety they make up for in old-school action. The character is not fully fleshed out, and these early stories have some of the same noir feeling as the Batman stories from the late 1930s.

There are better Dredd books, but this volume is essential if you are relatively new to the character and want to dive into the earliest days.

This book is also worthwhile if you are a child of the 70s and miss some of the straight-ahead storytelling and action from that era.

Plus, be on the watch for early work from well-known creators like Brian Bolland. It's a visible surprise when his work pops up (like Bolland's one-page artwork in Walter the Wobot near the back of the book)

I give it a good rating because I found that the product was scanned in clear and high quality resolution.

a humorous sci-fi read. I loved it. I would recommend it.