David Annandale’s 22-minute audio drama Judge of the Wastes is at once a 40k ghost story, and a tale of a man whose rigid faith and fervour have left him ill-equipped to cope with doubt. Commissar Selander stands in judgement over the Imperial forces locked in a seemingly endless stalemate on Solennes, fighting and dying over a bleak wasteland. After the execution of an apparent deserter fails to provide sufficient motivation for a decisive advance, Selander begins to see the shade of the executed soldier, and finds doubt creeping in to undermine his certainty.
With no narrator, Annandale keeps things tightly focused and dialogue-heavy, allowing the SFX and powerful, atmospheric music to infer action and momentum. Selander is the focus of the story, and Matthew Hunt brings a fragile strength to his depiction of a character slowly buckling under psychological pressure – whether you believe there’s an actual ghost at play or not. There’s a pleasing, bleak inevitability to the story as it progresses and comes full circle, and despite its brevity this proves to be a satisfying, appropriately dark story that works very well as an audio. Look elsewhere for fast-paced action, but if you fancy a bit of creepy character horror then this is well worth checking out.
