{"id":8502,"date":"2021-03-23T19:43:43","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T23:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=8502"},"modified":"2021-03-23T19:43:43","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T23:43:43","slug":"book-review-eight-cylinders-by-jason-parent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-eight-cylinders-by-jason-parent\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Eight Cylinders by Jason Parent"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cover<\/a><\/p>\n

Eight Cylinders <\/em>by Jason Parent<\/p>\n

Crystal Lake Publishing, 2020<\/p>\n

ISBN: 9781646693061<\/p>\n

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition\u00a0(\u00a0Bookshop.org<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a> )<\/strong><\/p>\n

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A motor with eight cylinders represents power, a strong machine that can outrun the competition with minimal difficulty.\u00a0 That being said, Eight Cylinders<\/em> is closer to a six, maybe seven cylinder story.\u00a0 It’s a solid piece of machinery that will give readers a smooth ride to the destination, but it could have used a few more ponies under the hood to turn the story into a real road-burner.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is one of those stories with little explanation for what happens: it’s a classic ‘here’s a crazy situation, how do we get out of it?’ story.\u00a0 Seb McCallister is a lifetime crook who winds up on the wrong end of a shootout in a dope deal gone bad in Las Vegas.\u00a0 Badly wounded, he powers out of Vegas behind the wheel of his V8 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, driving off into the desert.\u00a0 He passes out from loss of blood, and wakes to find himself in a dilapidated camp in the middle of the desert, surrounded by mountains on all sides.\u00a0 \u00a0The camp itself is inhabited by a small group of vagabonds, some of whom have been there a long time.\u00a0 When he tries to escape, Seb quickly learns that the mountains are riddled with caves occupied by a huge, tentacled monster that somewhat resembles a crazed land squid, and the squid makes mincemeat of anyone who tries to leave.\u00a0 Within a day, Seb helps to convince the camp residents to make a run for it.\u00a0 What follows is the inevitable Mad Max-<\/em>style race across the desert, complete with tricked-out vehicles packing plenty of blasting power, both under the hood and in the form of armaments.\u00a0 Seb and his new friends must outwit and outfight the monster if they want to escape the desert.<\/p>\n

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Everything in the story is a quick setup for the final chase, and thankfully, it’s worth it.\u00a0 Jason Parent knows how to write an exciting, end of the book blast.\u00a0\u00a0 Complete with awesome vehicles, firepower, nitrous, and some nice creative touches with parachutes, the last forty pages are a full roar towards the finish, with all the excitement anyone could want.\u00a0 This part of the story isn’t running on eight cylinders, it’s running on twelve.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s the part leading up to the end where the story could have used a little chrome and paint, in the form of more detail.\u00a0 Little explanation is given for the backstories of the other characters, or the camp itself, or even where (or when) the camp and characters exist.\u00a0 Another twenty pages or so to flesh out the beginning and middle sections of the story could have turned this one into a real monster.\u00a0 Eight Cylinders<\/em> is a perfectly good, exciting story, but it almost feels like a test run for what could be a much bigger version in the future.\u00a0\u00a0 The parts are all there in terms of character, mystery, and storyline, and the way the story ends, it could easily keep going.\u00a0 The question is, will it?<\/p>\n

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This is certainly worth the read, and will likely leave readers clamoring for a novel-length sequel (this is only 100 pages)\u00a0 There are a lot of unanswered questions in the story, and it would be nice to see where it goes next.\u00a0 Recommended.<\/p>\n

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Contains: violence, mild gore, profanity<\/p>\n

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Reviewed by Murray Samuelson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eight Cylinders by Jason Parent Crystal Lake Publishing, 2020 ISBN: 9781646693061 Available: Paperback, Kindle edition\u00a0(\u00a0Bookshop.org\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Amazon.com )   A motor with eight cylinders represents power, a strong machine that can outrun the competition with minimal difficulty.\u00a0 That being said, Eight Cylinders is closer to a six, maybe seven cylinder story.\u00a0 It’s a solid piece of<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3108,4838,645,4818,1133,1072,4839,1179,2313],"class_list":["post-8502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-desert-horror","tag-eight-cylinders","tag-horror-book-reviews","tag-jason-parent","tag-killer-animals","tag-lovecraftian-horror","tag-mad-max","tag-monsters","tag-novellas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8502"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8505,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8502\/revisions\/8505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}