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Bimbos of the Death Sun (Windwalker Book)
by Sharyn McCrumb
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (1987-03)
ISBN: 0880384557
EAN: 9780880384551
Dewey Decimal #: 813.54
Paperback: 219 pages
Edition: 1ST
Reading Level: Young Adult
SKU: 351
Condition: Good
Comments: Binding: Softcover. Condition: Good. Slightly creased binding.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
"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 weekend, the annual science fiction and fantasy convention, Rubicon, has all but taken over a usually ordinary hotel. Now the halls are alive with Trekkies, tech nerds, and fantasy gamers in their Viking finery *all of them eager to hail their hero, bestselling fantasy author Appin Dungannon: a diminutive despot whose towering ego more than compensates for his 5' 1" height . . . and whose gleeful disdain for his fawning fans is legendary.
Hurling insults and furniture with equal abandon, the terrible, tiny author proceeds to alienate ersatz aliens and make-believe warriors at warp speed. But somewhere between the costume contest and the exhibition Dungeons & Dragons game, Dungannon gets done in. While die-hard fans of Dungannon's seemingly endless sword-and-sorcery series wonder how they'll go on and hucksters wonder how much they can get for the dead man's autograph, a hapless cop wonders, Who would want to kill Appin Dungannon? But the real question, as the harried convention organizers know, is Who wouldn't ?
"I loved BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN . . . Beautifully observed, funny, nicely constructed, even compassionate."
*Robert Silverberg
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Customer Reviews
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Jacquiline Kirby, You Have Nothing To Worry About!
Rating  (2)
Date: 2008-08-24
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I bought this book ( on Kindle ) because a reviewer or two had compared it as a spoof to Elizabeth Peters' book DIE FOR LOVE, which I found hilarious. I am also an avid SF and Fantasy reader, and aTrekker, even though I have never been to a "Con." Thougbht there would be plenty I'd recognize and enjoy. There was't. Not only didn't I laugh out loud, there was not even a gigglee. The Star Trek wedding was mildly amusing, as was some of the fan geekdom, but the mystery was so transparent that I was able to pick out the murderer before the murder was committed, despite the fact that my Kindle version lacked the back flap or blurb or whatever it was that other readers said gave them their clue to the murderer's identity! Jacquiline Kirby, you have nothing to worry about!
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I didn't laugh until I hurt.
Rating  (1)
Date: 2008-05-31
I hated this book. SM has some serious hang-ups to overcome, because everything she said about fandom, while true, was in the worst possible light at the most extreme. Her consistent haranguing about obesity, her complete disrespect for both fans and authors, her extremely negative mentions of homosexuality and, moreover, the plot that I solved BEFORE the murder was committed (and I am singularly awful at solving plots) made this the worst book I have read in ages.
Watch you some Galaxy Quest, Sharyn McCrumb, and get over your bitterness. Whatever fandom did to you, move on.
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Lots of fun
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-10-12
Boy this book sure is a lot of fun, and very entertaining! It's also a good book to hand to somebody who's about to go to their first science fiction convention, because it pretty accurately satires the subculture (though of course in some ways that part's a bit dated now). Anyhow, lots of fun!
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Quirky, good natured murder mystery
Rating  (3)
Date: 2007-10-11
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
The title, Bimbos of the Death Sun, is silly, strange, attention seeking even. According to the author, it was initially thrown out as a lark and circumstances conspired to generate a book to live up to the title. The result is a murder mystery which takes place at a low budget science fiction convention. I enjoyed this effort as a light, good humoured, dessert-like book. The mystery aspect doesn't work that well. I found that the murderer was fairly easy to spot, and the motive was somewhat questionable. But the book works on other levels. If you've ever attended a science fiction convention or hung around science fiction book stores or games stores specializing in role playing, you'll recognize many of the eccentrics, nerds, and nitwits who frequent such places. McCrumb admits to being of this crowd in her younger days and she is able to accurately and sympathetically portray the spectrum of hardcore SF fans. These are people who abhor the real world and refer to its denizens as 'mundanes'. So when a well known B-grade guest author with a galaxy sized ego and many enemies (meant to be somewhat of a take-off on Harlan Ellison perhaps?) is found murdered in his hotel room, its pretty easy for the killer to vanish into hallways and meeting rooms crowded with elves, wizards, Nordic goddesses, Star Wars characters, Star Trek characters, and other fantasy types. Most of the humour of the book comes from the incredulous reactions of outsiders -e.g. a second guest author who is a local engineer and who has written one hard SF book, and of course the police - thrown into a hotel filled with people from a sub-culture where Frodo, Mr. Spock, Darth Vader and the Easter Bunny not only live but might be out to kill you. There is even a Canadian character by the name of Diefenbaker. Recommended for those who want a break from the darkness, despair and slime of a lot of what passes for detective and crime fiction these days.
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A delightful sendup of both the SciFi Convention Scene, and the murder-mystery genre
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-08-21
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book is basically a send-up of the uber-geeky Science Fiction Convention scene. If you've ever attended one, you will positively laugh your butt off reading this book, because McCrumb's so utterly on target in the fun she pokes. Other writers, mostly outsiders to the SciFi scene, have tried the same, and fallen short, whereas McCrumb succeeds wonderfully. Her familiarity and comfort with the subject matter is instantly apparent to those who are equally familiar.
The basic premise for this book is simple: a popular (but rather misanthropic) author of B-grade Science Fiction novels (see the title of the book) gets murdered during a SciFi convention at which he's the GoH (that's "Guest of Honor", in fan speak) ... and several of his fans take up the challenge and try to solve the mystery before the con ends and the perpetrator can escape.
Subtract a star if you're not a fan of either genre, and if you've never been to a scifi convention or dressed up as one of your favorite Star Trek or Comic Book characters.
Highly recommended.
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