A Bloody Calculus

GRAND PRIZE WINNER Book Pipeline. WINNER IPPY Gold Medal for BEST SCI-FI/FANTASY/HORROR. WINNER Independent Author Network SCI-FI BOOK OF THE YEAR. WINNER London Book Festival BEST SCI-FI. WINNER Beverly Hills Book Awards BEST SCI-FI. "The genius is apparent from page one. . . . A seamless fusion of virtuosity and insight. . . . If William Wordsworth were alive today and writing cyberpunk, this is what he might write." -David Farland NYTimes Best Seller Lead judge for the world's largest genre writing competition "Like all great works, it manages to be great without trying to be brilliant. It just is, and effortlessly so. . . . Has a] rhythm that's sophisticated in its subdivisions of time and its impeccable sense of proportion and pace." -James Guymon Film Composer VP, Composers Guild of America Welcome, he says, to the "fabulous fabulous" Lawrence Booth show. His flamboyance is well-practiced. They all know him, he's world-renowned (he reminds them). Then he calls them the faceless masses, says he doesn't care who they are. It's a familiar deadpan, his particular brand of sensationalism through effrontery. Then he gets more personal, but it isn't sincere-how could it be? I'll be your guide, he says, your mentor, your guru, your spiritual advisor, leading you along the "sordid paths of the sublime, the seedy, and the sensational." And it's true, he will be. This is Lawrence Booth, host of a 22nd-century variety show; an ultimate evolution of vaudeville; a tangible expression of social media and a venue for the people's justice. And his favorite toy is a superhero-a popular bounty hunter called Beowulf. When New York's paragons turn to violent crime, it falls to Booth and Beowulf to restore order (and, more importantly, to make a good show of it). Is this an unraveling of the social fabric? Have our leaders turned, as parasites on a host? Or are they victims themselves of a society dependent on the wonders-and the dangers-of high technology? BEOWULF: A BLOODY CALCULUS, is a frenetic exploration of logical extremes. It's about superheroes as the products of marketing machines, social media as a fundamental and frightening social adhesive, summary justice as a Utilitarian exigency. It's part mystery, part thriller, all in the plugged-in context of a cyberpunk future. And it's one a helluva ride.

Milo Behr grew up in New York, Central America, Europe and the Middle East. His short-form fiction has appeared in the MechMuse Anthology alongside David Farland, Kevin J. Anderson, Eugie Foster, and others. He is an entertainment technologist, musician and writer. He has published academically through IEEE and others, and spoken at SIGGRAPH, BIA/Kelsey’s ILM, VFX and elsewhere. He invented DigiClay Animation, Cryptocast streaming encryption, and a variety of other tech-nologies. As a musician, Milo is a classically-trained countertenor, singing the works of Bach, Händel, Monteverdi, Babbitt, Britten and others. He lives among the Rocky Mountains with his wife and three children.