I'm sure I'm one of many, many happy readers that are grateful for Ms. Meding's decision to opt for the self publishing route. Why her publisher decided not to renew the Dreg City series is ridiculous. On to the book. Evy is back, and fully immersed as an enforcer, and keeping the Watchtower intact, whose numbers have dwindled down due to the deadly infection released upon the vampires in book four. Politics, war, and death are a a consistent theme in Dreg City, with book five bringing forth some bit of hope for the future. Tiny spoiler..don't hold your breath for all characters to make it to book six, and of course the book ends with a hell of a climactic cliff hanger. Last January, Meding’s publisher for the Dreg City series decided not to continue publishing novels in that line. So Kelly decided to go her own way and publish the fifth installment on her own in e-book only format. Now, it had been a long time since I read book 4 in the series but I was quite happy to find Meding dropped reminders throughout this installment to bring readers up to speed on things they may have forgotten from prior books. I have to say that is probably one of the hardest things to do as an author of a long-running series. You have to know how much to put in to trigger a reader’s memory but not enough to overload and detract from the current plot line. I think Meding did quite well on that front.The latest Evy Stone adventure picks up only a short time after the events of book 4. The Watchtower is understaffed and the unfriendly races of the city are making trouble for our ex-Hunter and her crew. We have a lot of familiar faces taking part in this adventure and I thought that when things took dark turns, they weren’t just for show. They were meant to propel the story forward, even if they were rather shocking and sad. But that’s the sign of a good storyteller. I* always love the way Meding can paint such a vivid picture of her world. I suspect she’s got a detailed map of her fictional city laid out somewhere for easy reference.Since this is a self-publishing venture, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the product (It can’t be easy to do all of the editing and copy-editing by oneself). I have to give props to Meding for finding a cover artist who captured the essence of the cover style from the previous books. It looks as though it fits right in. I will say I thought some of Evy’s internal narrative was a little repetitive (as was Evy and Wyatt’s declarations of emotion) but I also understand that it was an important milestone for the characters. But it did distract me a little as I was reading. I was also impressed with the way Meding handled the storyline, setting up numerous problems which needed to be resolved but only resolving one part, eaving the rest to be hashed out later. It reminded me of the way a lot of the plot in the Dresden Files was laid out and later revisited (and anyone who can even remotely get close to Dresden plotting is a good person to read for urban fantasy in my book). It is very clear from the book’s ending that Meding has more planned for Evy and company. And I will definitely be looking forward to what comes next.
What do You think about Requiem For The Dead (2013)?
More copyediting please. Aside from that, I'm glad that Evy and Wyatt and Co are back!
—countrygirl07
Not nearly as good as the other books but the pacing was good. I missed Phin
—rajusutar
