David Bishop's Stranger Than Truth is the first installment in Judge Dredd: Crime Chronicles, a new line of 2000 AD audio dramas from Big Finish Productions. They're done in a similar style to Big Finish's Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles, with one actor narrating events in the first person and occasional interpolations from another actor. In this case, the primary voice is Helen Kay as Eliza Blunt, alongside Toby Longworth as Judge Dredd, reprising a role he originated for Big Finish in their 2002-04 2000 AD series.

My familiarity with 2000 AD is pretty minimal, but I certainly enjoyed Stranger Than Truth. The story is fun and over-the-top, as Slick Dickens works his way through everyone who’s ever offended him: his editor, literary critics, fanfiction writers, and Judge Dredd himself. His crimes are committed quite preposterously, and there are a lot of references to literary theory-- I was not expecting a reference to Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish in a story like this! As an academic myself, I appreciated the in-jokes at the expense of the academic and literary world. I think the discussion of fanfiction was my favorite part.

To this 2000 AD neophyte Stranger Than Truth was a load of fun, and it promises well for Big Finish’s new line. How could you not like a story where one of the characters claims to have replaced the literary canon with a "literary six-shooter"?

You can read a longer version of this review at Unreality SF.