It's a new week and it's time to take a look at one of the many stories that are posted for your enjoyment on Gay Authors. Today, PKChrichton has provided us with a review of MetaDeaths, book 5 in the Meta Universe by JohnAR. Enjoy.

MetaDeaths is the 5th of 8 books in the MetaWolf Series. Being the fifth book it sits at one of the great turning points that will determine just where things will go. If you haven't read the previous 4 books before you touch this one you may be able to follow the story but you will be missing out on a lot of the true depth of it so I would direct you back to MetaWolf Book 1 Meta before continuing.

This series follows Colt Parker, Prime Loope, Brian Pratt, Burt 'CE' Thunder, Sam Thomson, Isaac Sykes, Warren Vanguard, Al and Leo in their efforts to be the Inner Circle of a modern wolf pack while having an ominous unknown prophecy that has had people from multiple parties trying to control the course of their lives from the moment they were each born. One mustn’t forget that all of them are gay and in a group relationship with Colt at its center as the Meta of their pack. As well as the fact that Colt found out a while ago that he was part vampire due to his mother being a half vampire shaman named Betsy.

The first book centered around the formation of the first five members of this Inner Circle and them having to facing a number of trials during that process of people wanting to break them up or control them. In the second we learned more about the mixed pasts of now six members, how their paths weren’t what they thought they were but instead had some guiding hands pushing them in certain directions at different moments. The third had them finding two more members and stepping out into the world to find what was best for their future. The fourth had their inner circle complete, holding land, holding companies, a strong pack being formed from two others merging and the gearing up for an impending showdown with the Vampires. There are also a series of Prompt chapters that are set at various time periods throughout, before and even after the time period of the 8 books of the MetaWolf series that work to expand, add depth, make you question, add clues to events and make you have hope for things if you read them all regardless of if you read a prompt set ‘in the future’ compared to where the main narrative of the the most current chapter of the main series you are reading is.

MetaBattles the fourth book left off with as the name suggests a major battle taking place. There was a force of 800 wolf shifters from 84 packs from around the world against what they thought was going to be 13000 vampires but was really over 17000 vampires along with 8 Vampire Queens of even greater strength than normal vampires. The 8 members of the Inner Circle of Colt's Pack had been tasked with tracking down and dealing with each of the 8 queens and finding the believed 9th queen. Sadly things were not going as planned and they were all being over whelmed at the end of Battles such that Colt gave up his protection detail in hopes they could help as well only to find himself smelling a vampire near by who he believed to be the 9th queen before he passed out. What would the fate be of all these characters that everyone has come to love or hate over the course of the previous books?

Deaths opens not where we would expect. You would think it would either pick up right where Battles ended or flashing forward to the aftermath with the good or bad of that. Instead we find ourselves doing something that was first brought up back in Book 1 Meta and questioning the reality of the series itself. It will cause you to wonder just what is and isn't real. The motivations of many people and previous actions will both be called into questions, have extra light shed upon them and even have the assumptions of who did different actions shifted from party to party. This book is roller coaster that is to be enjoyed, feared, dreaded and in the end will pull your heart in ways you didn't think it could be by a simple work of writing.

Deaths is at the middle of the MetaWolf series and there are a lot of questions that start to get answered in more depth. Why is this pack so important? Why is it these people who have made up the inner circle? Why is Colt so important? Why have people tried to kidnap or kill Colt repeatedly in his life? Is there a White Wolf? Yet for every part of a question we get answered more questions keep coming to light.

Each book is named due to a major ‘theme’ of sorts of the book. The first dealt with the Meta. The second with more of the past of the members, the revelation that Colt’s parents are not his parents at all and that he is in fact part vampire. The third with the desire for land but the shadows and fog that were clouding Prime. The fourth had the battles of not only cementing their new pack, obtaining some of its members, gathering support for the pack amongst the other packs but preparing for the great battle between Vampires and Shifters at its end. This book is named Deaths so we have to learn just what that will entail. Is it deaths from the Battle of book 4? Could there be other deaths of more characters as the book progresses? Could it be a different meaning or kind of death than that of a person but of a perception of reality? There is one very unexpected and impactful death towards the end of this book that will leave you and the others within the book quite affected and questioning the future of the series and the sanity of the author.

I have read many works in the Fantasy genre ranging from stories about Dragons, Werewolves, Vampires, Magicians and Knights set in or during similar time periods to Rome, the Dark Ages, the Modern and even Future Eras. But it is the MetaWolf series that I find as one of the best to take both the Vampire and Werewolf genres bringing them into not only modern times but altering both of them in a way that a real mythology or history for them is cemented into the ancient past. It grounds them and makes them more real for the reader in ways that many other works have never fully accomplished.

This book will throw your mind for loops. It will make you rage at the night. It will cause some to cry in joy, frustration and sadness. It will bring you to heights of happiness, drive you insane as you try to figure out the puzzles and spot the clues. But most importantly it will make you want to pick up Book Six of the MetaWolf Series MetaProphecies to go through all the wheel of emotions and delve even further into the puzzles of the series.