Bimbos of the Death Sun

by Sharyn McCrumb

Book Overview

"Sharyn McCrumb is a born storyteller." *Mary Higgins Clark WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD "Sharyn McCrumb has few equals and no superiors among today's novelists." *San Diego Union-Tribune For one fateful... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 034541215X
• ISBN13: 9780345412157
• Release Date: December 1996
• Publisher: Fawcett Books
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

One of the best in the sci-fi-con murder subgenre

The sci-fi-con murder subgenre, you ask? Well, yes, there is a whole subgenre of murder mysteries where the murder takes place at a science fiction convention. (There are similar subgenres of murders that take place at romance writers' conventions, and at mystery writers' conventions...) The worst - and therefore funniest - stereotypes about the bad habits of science fiction geeks are brought out. The costumed wackos, the people who can't stand real life and escape into Star Trek, the dedicated gamers... the slightly lost, slightly underweight guys who sometimes forget to eat... I'd say this book is tied for my favorite in the subgenre; my other top favorite is _Sci-Fi_ by William Marshall, which takes place at a science fiction convention in Hong Kong. (It's out of print, but as of this moment, there may be a used copy available...) If you read both books back to back, your stomach muscles will hurt from laughing.One of the things that annoyed me about the title of the book, funny as it is, is that when the book first came out, bookstores kept classifying it under science fiction instead of mystery; luckily I read both, so I found it. Other than that confusion about the title, nothing whatsoever was wrong with this book. It was funny all the way through. So what if the nasty little author who got murdered was a stereotype of nasty, demanding, little authors? He was funny!! Our hero is a bit of a stereotype of the absentminded young professor, too, but he's funny also! Only the pickiest reader would mind a little bit of stereotyping in order to move the plot along at its hysterically funny pace.One of my favorite bit characters in the book was the Scottish folksinger. As he's thinking about heading home to Scotland from his American gig, he's contemplating what he's going to tell his friends when they ask what he did in America: "I fed candy to the Martians." There's also a great cop, who delivers a very funny "I love this job!" There's not a bad line in the book.

YOU WILL LAUGH UNTIL IT HURTS!

This is without a doubt the FUNNIEST mystery I have ever read! Sharyn McCrumb is a gifted author with a real flair for creating voice, character and setting. In this case, the setting is a science fiction convention and the characters range from the scholarly Dr. James Owen Mega (aka "Jay Omega") and Marion, a professor. These two literati encounter an ecelectic group of students, people dressed as sci-fi characters, authors and other interested parties. Appin Dungannon, a man small in stature and long in chutzpah and crudity dominates the convention. An angry little dynamo, he manages to deliberately rile everybody at that convention. He ends up dead and the REAL mystery is WHO DID IT? I have never read such a hilarious mystery as this. As good as its sequel, "Zombies of the Gene Pool" is, this book is still the better of the two. The characters who have actually crossed over and believe they ARE the sci-fi characters and good old Appin himself will leave you laughing. One singularly hilarious part in the book is when Appin refuses to autograph his books. When pressed by an autograph hound, Appin signs the name of another very well known author, thus enraging the autograph hounds. This book is a work of comic art. I loved it!

Does to cons what should be done to cons

Before I start, let me say that I'm a minor SMOF (secret master of fandom) who has been a panelist and masquerade MC at several regional cons and one Worldcon. I wrote fan fiction, married an APAhacker, and participated in regular D & D runs until recently. I didn't go to cons for a while due to financial problems, but I'm going to Readercon next weekend. I'm also in the SCA.And I thought this book was hilarious, and very much on point when it came to cons. I know a lot of fen who hated it because it stereotyped fandom...unfortunately, they forgot to remove the beam from their own eyes when contemplating the mote in Sharyn McCrumb's. This is a devastatingly accurate portrait of a small con, down to the enthusiastic fen who do nothing except write comments for each other's zines. There are plenty of everyday, normal weight folk who go to cons and live their lives, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of the Bernard Buchanans out there.I loved it. And I really wish she'd write a third book in the series, maybe set at an SCA war. I know Mary Pulver did it already, but McCrumb can write her into the ground....

I couldn't put this book down!

I thought that Highland Laddie Gone, in Ms. McCrumb's "Elizabeth MacPherson" series was one of the funniest mysteries I'd ever read. That was until I picked up this book and spent one side-splitting night reading it.As a person who has attended various science fiction conventions, I recognized many of the characters in the book. The characterizations are too funny and very realistic. Dr. James Owen Mega (aka Jay Omega) is an engineering professor at the local college, and the author of "Bimbos of the Death Sun", a new science fiction novel. He is attending his first science fiction convention as a guest author, and is bewildered to discover that he has literally entered another world. Guiding Dr. Mega through the world of sci fi fandom is english professor, Dr. Marion Farley, Emma Peel fan and Dr. Mega's significant other.The entire convention is thrown into a tailspin when the main guest of honor, author Appin Dungannon, is found murdered in his hotel room. Jay and Marion decide to help the police discover who would kill him.A must for anyone who has ever attended a science fiction convention.

You'll laugh until your face hurts!

A university engineer and computer nerd writes his theories as science fiction, the publisher gives the book a racy title, and suddenly he's invited to a SF convention. And he thought *he* was odd... When the star author is found murdered, guess who has to help the poor detective figure out who done it, who existed, who was imaginary, and how do the computer illiterate find clues on the computer, anyway? Every character is well drawn, the plot believable, and the entire situation is hysterically funny. Flaunt this book at all your friends, carry it prominently on public transportation, and never, ever loan your copy.