Book Review // Judges: When the Light Lay Still

Here we are with the third short novel in the 2033 Judges series, the books that explore the genesis of Judge Dredd and the early days of the Judges system. So far, I've really enjoyed the first two stories, Avalanche and Lone Wolf, so When the Light Lay Still brings me to the end of Volume 1.

Across the first two books, we've seen the Judges system from some interesting perspectives. We've dealt with both small-town America and the big city, seeing how this new form of law enforcement is affecting ordinary people. We've also had a look at the Judges themselves. These early Judges feel considerably more human than their future counterparts, which has been one of the more interesting aspects of the series for me.

So, with all that going for it, I was pretty keen to see how the final story of Volume 1 would play out. Unfortunately…Yeah. Not good. But enough waffle. Less chat, more reviewing!

The Details

Title: When the Light Lay Still
Author: Charles J. Eskew
Publisher: Abaddon Books
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 137

The Blurb: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2038 A.D.

Ezekiel Jones was a cop, and proud of it—until his partner shot a kid and covered it up. Ezekiel testified against her, but the inquiry went nowhere, leaving everything he’d believed in ruins. He joined the new Judges programme the next day.

Moulded and shaped to be the first of the new breed of law-makers, Jones hits the streets again. But as a new weapon gets into the hands of radicals and the tension rises, both Jones and those he serves have to decide where their loyalties lie.

Review

Hmm…Where do I even begin? Let's start with the title. When the Light Lay Still. What on earth?

I'm still not entirely sure what it's supposed to mean, and as far as I could tell, the title isn't particularly important to the actual story. Maybe I've completely missed something, but it felt like a very wordy title for the sake of having a wordy title and unfortunately, that pretty much set the tone for the rest of the book.

Of the three books in Volume 1, this is by far my least favourite. Actually, that's putting it mildly. I really struggled with this one. The first two books gave me something I was enjoying: different perspectives on the early Judges system, interesting characters and a look at a world that was slowly moving towards the Mega-City future we know. This one just didn't grab me. There are some pretty significant problems with the writing that completely pulled me out of the story.

For me, the biggest problem was the way the story handles its point of view. A lot of the book is written in the first person, but the narrative constantly shifts around. At times I found myself having to stop and work out who the hell I was actually reading about. Then you throw in frequent jumps through time and changes of location, and things become unnecessarily confusing. Instead of making the story feel clever or complex, it just made it difficult to follow. I found myself spending far too much time trying to work out where we were, when we were there and whose head I was currently inside, and that's never a good sign.

The book also tries to tackle a lot of political and social commentary. Normally, I'm absolutely fine with that. In fact, when it comes to Judge Dredd, political and social commentary is practically part of the furniture. But here it felt forced and heavy-handed. There is a lot of racial and political commentary throughout the story, but rather than adding something meaningful to the narrative, I found it distracting and, at times, confusing. The constant swearing also became irritating. I'm certainly not against swearing in a book, especially one dealing with Judges, criminals and a society heading towards Mega-City One, but here it often felt unnecessary. Eventually it just became background noise.

Where Did the Story Go?

Perhaps the biggest disappointment is that this doesn't really feel like the same series. Avalanche and Lone Wolf had their own stories to tell, but they still felt connected to this larger exploration of the early Judges system. When the Light Lay Still felt completely different, and not in a good way either. I kept waiting for the story to pull everything together, but instead I found myself increasingly disconnected from what was happening. By the end, I was honestly just happy to have reached the final page, and that's not something I particularly enjoy saying about a book.

Final Thoughts

This one left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. I went into When the Light Lay Still expecting to finish Volume 1 on a high. Instead, I got a confusing narrative, too many shifts in perspective and time, heavy-handed political and racial commentary, and far more swearing than I felt the story needed. Most importantly, I just didn't enjoy reading it. That's always going to be subjective, of course. There may be readers who get far more out of this book than I did, and that's perfectly fine.

But for me? This is easily the weakest book of the three. In fact, if you're thinking about picking up the 2033 Judges series, I'd be tempted to say skip this one. The first two books showed me why the series was worth exploring. This one nearly put me off continuing.

Hopefully Volume 2 can get things back on track.