4 out of 5

Contents reviewed separately: Michael Carroll‘s entry; Matt Smith‘s; Cavan Scott‘s.

As usual, then, this is rated on value and presentation, to which I say: aces. $10 for 400 pages of a nicely printed softcover seems fair enough, but when you think of it as three separate books – which it is – I feel like the value goes up. The Neil Roberts cover art on this is really grabbing, and it’s really complimented by the design and title font choices on the cover and interior – design credited to Sam Gretton, Oz Osbourne, and Maz Smith. Assuming you’re a Dredd fan, it just looks exciting to dig into.

The cover and paper stock are sturdy but very flippable and lightweight; good for one-handed reading. The typeface, kerning, and gutters are all well effected – you don’t have to crack the spine to read the page, and the text is easily readable in various light levels (meaning good page contrast and spacing).

While they did one thing very right by putting the individual book titles at the top of the relevant pages – allowing for easy flipthrough to your book of choice – I’m knocking off a star for not listing the author there as well. This maybe wouldn’t be something to note, except the title page (and the back of the book summary, actually) lists the authors out of order from how they’re actually sequenced. So maybe something was shuffled around, there, but if I look at the front page and want to go to the second author listed’s book, I’d flip through and find the wrong writer. ‘Tis what it ’tis, I know, but I gotta get my criticisms in there somewheres.