Beowulf: A Bloody Calculus is a dry sterile tale in a world that should be brimming with the smell of ozone, sweat and concrete. Instead we're dealing with stop-start stream of consciousness that doesn't build people or the world they live in. It's hard to get into, hard to stay in, and I feel like little was gained when I left it behind. This is not a book I would buy the next in the series too, and felt blessed that it was a loaner.

Styling jumps strange places, chapter to chapter, and I think that novella was the wrong medium for this particular work. It would have been better served in motion - comics, short film, whatever. But we are given little to no detail of Beowulf's world, just a suggestion of the throng of humanity that's become a bigger clusterfuck than it is now, a bizarre legal system, and a world that has as much substance as a soap bubble.

This isn't to say it's bad. It isn't. It stops short of being bad. It's just not very good. It hits several of the right cyberpunk notes, but it seems like a list of tv tropes tossed in a salad spinner than any coherent worldbuilding or character creation. Beowulf is a grizzled murder man in a city that lauds them. He does the killing. Occasionally he regrets it. A hot dame is rescued, a conspiracy uncovered. It's paint by numbers techno-thriller with no thrills. There's so many points where I see glimmers of potential, only to never have them touched upon or explained.

There could have been a magnificent book here. Behr's got some good lines (the "red meat" line was fucking on point!) but he needs to give me a lot more to have me come back, because I definitely won't be picking up the rest of the series. Maybe we'll see what shakes out of him a couple of years down the road, with a couple more books out. ( )

Fast-paced action, intriguing characters, and a universe that I can’t wait to further explore in Milo Behr’s second novella… I think it’s fair to say that “Beowulf: A Bloody Calculus” is one of the best cyberpunk reads I’ve come across lately. The story grabbed my attention from page one, and I couldn’t put my Kindle down until I finished it. I simply had to know what happened next.

Beowulf is a different kind of superhero. It’s the kind of superhero that people of a highly technologized 22nd century need to assure them that they’re still in control of their own lives and what happens out there, in the world, when their implants allow them to experience anything they want from the comfort of their home. Together with Booth, the host of the most popular variety show, Beowulf tracks down outlaws and punishes them for their crimes live, at the public’s request. Sometimes, this means killing them. So, yes, Milo Behr’s novella is dark, gritty, and it explores a possible outcome of allowing technology to take over our lives. The enhancements do make things easier, but they also make people vulnerable, as it happens to the victims in “Beowulf”. Also, they may give a truly smart hacker the possibility of playing God.

The author starts from an interesting premise, which, of course, has been present before in cyberpunk works, and delivers an action-packed story that keeps readers guessing. The characters are well defined, and by the end of the novella I found myself liking a character that I initially disliked. And I’m talking here about Booth, who seems to be only interested in the rankings of his show, and not about morality and justice. The final scenes, however, put him in a different light, and I started to see that he does care about the people’s safety and freedom. I think Booth is a good example of character development done well in the limited space given by a novella.

“Beowulf: A Bloody Calculus” is a must-read for all fans of science-fiction and cyberpunk. The author’s original writing style is immersive, and the action scenes have just enough details to give you a clear view of what is happening and how. Bottom line: it was a fun and intense read that got me thinking about how it would be if we had everything we needed – information, medicines, entertainment –, just a thought away, and how much we’d have to pay for this comfort. ( )