Bleedover [Kindle Edition]

Curtis Hox (Author)

Book Description

Professor Harriet Sterling is under a lot of pressure. She's on the verge of fully
deciphering why books, TV, film, and advertising are suddenly being altered, a
phenomenon she named bleedover. But her controversial theories are ruining her
academic credibility.

She needs proof, and fast, before her career hits a dead end and before her
long time enemy, successful business man and psychotic Lovecraft fan Corbin
Lyell, can buy his way into controlling bleedover. That would mean Corbin's
golden ticket to fulfilling twisted prophecies of summoning dark monsters from
the worlds of his pulp heroes.

When Dr. Sterling's research team accidentally decodes a mysterious book
insertion and successfully generates an apple out of thin air, the world takes
notice. So does an enraged Corbin who plans a massive attack with deadly
consequences.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the most original works I've clapped eyes on in a long time (and another extremely hard working author who is dedicated to putting out quality work)..." -- Derek Prior at Homunculus Editing Services Blog

"This book was well written, fascinating and scary... Definitely an author to keep on the radar... I am going to be checking out his other books myself." -- Book Reviews by Tima

"From Lovecraft to Victor Hugo, ancient monsters and sword-wielding warriors to futuristic spaceships and giant red goddesses, there's a little bit of everything in this excellent novel." -- Gathering Leaves Reviews

"Bleedover is a novel which has elements of both fantasy and science fiction, just the way I like it! ... The writing is excellent... and the story is well constructed and fast paced..." -- Ritesh Kala's Book Reviews

From the Author

Bleedover's a novel that blends intellectual subject matter with popular genre tropes. I wanted a story that has elements of pulp fiction and popular culture. This emerges as a battle between the protagonist Dr. Hattie Sterling and an old book club member, Corbin Lyell. Hattie's a professor with an attitude who thinks she knows how to explain (and control) bleedover events seeping into reality. The conflict focuses on how Corbin counters her, and her response. He believes that the sword-and-sorcery fiction of R.E. Howard and the science horror of H.P. Lovecraft is just as important as the serious literature you get in an English department. I threw in a few fun pulp-fiction tropes like a sword-wielding barbarian, a demon-thing and monstrosities from deep space, even a red-goddess. These, I hope, are handled in an original fashion that avoids the clichés and contrived mechanisms we've all seen a million times. In the end, I tried to write a smart novel with all the fun stuff I liked as a kid.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 733 KB
• Print Length: 252 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B006999LQA
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #441,029 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great combination of science fiction and fantasy December 7, 2011

By Ritesh Kala

Format:Kindle Edition

Bleedover is a novel which has elements of both fantasy and science fiction, just the way I like it! Let me start by talking a bit about the concept of `Bleedover' which the author has created. All kinds of art such as books, movies as well as company logos are starting to get altered unexplainably. For example, the text of published books is altered, or new scenes get added to movies. The book's protagonists find a way to harness this Bleedover and end up bringing the fictional world into reality. Once this fact is accepted, the book becomes a fast paced suspense thriller.

Both the main characters subscribe to different views of what Bleedover is, how and for what it should be harnessed. Both of them live completely different lives. Dr Harriet Sterling is a tenured college professor who lives in her basement office, while Corbin Lyell is the head of a large conglomerate. This is a story about each trying to prove their worldview and their methodologies right. Their `war' ends up hurting a number of people who are caught in the middle, with people ending up dead. The stark difference in attitudes of Dr Sterling and Corbin Lyell is beautifully portrayed. Dr Sterling plays by the rules mostly and is unwilling to hurt anyone in the process of proving her point. On the other end of the spectrum, Corbin Lyell is ready to do anything to prove himself right, including murders. He is so obsessed with beating Dr Sterling, that he ignores all risks and ends up paying dearly for it in the end.

As the story continues, there clashes become more intensive and the use of fictional characters in these fights was quite entertaining. It is something every boy has thought and argued about, who would win a fight between Superman and Spiderman, Fantastic Four and X-Men (Sorry, but these questions are NOT addressed in this book).

I would have given this book five stars if it was just a suspense thriller with some elements of science or fantasy. The writing is excellent for most parts, and the story is well constructed and fast paced, the way all thrillers should be. The relationship of both the main characters was developed in detail, clearly describing the history which leads them to be at loggerheads with each other. I also thought the emotions of each person came out very well (which many science fiction novels lack). The place where I found the story lacking was in the explanation of the concept of Bleedover. It remained unclear for large parts of the book, and how it went from the alterations of media works to the physical manifestation was not well brought out. This being the central idea on which the book is based, it was inexcusable. Also, I got somewhat lost in the pseudo-science as most of the science fiction parts were created rather than being based on scientific fact. I understand that the author had to develop a whole new language for the science stream he created, but here as well, better explanations would have made the story more enjoyable.

Overall, I would rate this book a solid four. However, people who cannot enjoy science fiction should stay away as they will not find this to be light reading, and would end up referencing Wikipedia repeatedly.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Scary Sci-Fi Fantasy January 26, 2012

By RJ Parker TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Kindle Edition

Bleedover by author Curtis Hox is in a word 'SCARY'. I am not a fantasy/science fiction lover, however, I stumbled across this book and dove in anyway. It was a tad bit hard to get into but once there, it's gripping. A real page-turner, well-written and fast paced book. Fine work of creativity Mr. Hox. Congratulations on this book and I highly recommend it to those who enjoy this genre.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Bleedover is not your run-of-the-mill sci-fi novel May 11, 2012

By David E. King

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Bleedover presents an ancient mythical concept with a few entertaining tools. The idea of "conjuring" something-or even someone-based on the "just-right" combination of words, grunts, screams, musical intonations, etc. is as old as mankind. In Bleedover, even the power to conjure a portal for traveling back in time is presented. The main character, Hattie, uses one such portal to visit Margery, her deceased friend and mentor. The novel begins with Towns, a local boy, who proves that he has the "gift." Later, Hattie and her cronies agree that they must somehow rescue Towns from Corbin before the rogue scientist kills him.

The literary work of HP Lovecraft, the creator of the Cthulu mythos line of dark horror/fantasy fiction, is featured throughout the novel, especially as Hox develops Corbin Lyell. I enjoyed reading a bit too much of Lovecraft when I was in HS, and it was entertaining as I read Bleedover to be challenged to recall those scary stories about the Elder Gods.

It was hard to enjoy much of the first third of the novel due to a large cast of characters who popped into the narrative to add a few more pieces to the plot and then were gone.

Throughout the novel, Hox includes short excerpts, etc. from some famous and even some relatively-obscure pieces of literature. And because of this, I too often found myself being distracted by the allusions and references to the point that I had to backtrack and re-read more than a few pages of the novel. And a few days ago, I stumbled upon a blog post where the blogger was commening about when, as a college student, he would insert completley unrelated text into a research paper just to see if the professor would even notice. When I read this blog, I was reminded of Bleedover.

In part II of the novel, a handful of major characters are discussing their usage of bleedover as if they had been blessed with super-human powers; as they admonished one another about how they should agree to not use this "gift" for monetary and/or political gain, I had to chuckle as I imagined any of the X-men characters discussing the same thing. Anyway, when one of Hattie's trusted assistants is killed by an instantiated creature, the pace of the action picks up, and the novel becomes much easier to follow.

Now on the editing/proofreading issue, I noticed only a few typos and formatting problems. But only a few. And none of these distracted from my enjoyment of reading Bleedover.

In this novel, Hox, English professor by day and sci-fi writer by night, demonstrates a mature writing style that will probably scare off many younger, less-experienced readers. Via a recent blog posting, Hox wrote: "Striving for originality has its own pitfalls, but I enjoy taking risks with my stories (even though they don't always work)." So if something more than mindless action-driven, vampire/LA dectective-laced, cookie-cutter sci-fi is desired, then Bleedover may just fit the bill.

More About the Author

I'm a full-time dad by day and a fiction scribbler by night. I've been writing fiction since I was eleven and have never stopped. I launched my debut novel, Bleedover, in Nov. 2011, and have published five others ever since. Writing science fiction and fantasy is my passion, and I'll continue until my fingers turn to stone. Since starting my self-publishing journey the money hasn't been big enough to quit my day job, but I've gained valuable rewards: readers and fans who enjoyed my work. If you fancy my scribbles, feel free to contact me. There's nothing more encouraging to a new author than to hear from fans!

I can be reached at curtishox (at) gmail (dot) com.

If you would like to sign up to receive news and alerts, go to: http://eepurl.com/wUhlD