Rating: 
Summary: One of the best in the sci-fi-con murder subgenre
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun little murder mystery set at late 80s sci-fi convention
Review: This book is a bit dated, the police Lieutenant investigating the crime has never heard of Macintosh. The technology is obviously of the period before the Photoshop, browsers and back when only engineers used email. The hero Jay Owens Mega, author of "Bimbos of the Death Sun" is a likable but socially reticent engineering professor; his girlfriend Marion teaches Science Fiction at the same university; she too has a PhD. They attend a sci-fi convention to market Jay's book then meet the perils of con life. The biggest peril is an obstreporous sci-fi author Apin Dugannon who writes a mass market fantasy series around a character named Tratyn Runewind. The author is excellent at showing the disparities between the personal lives of the characters and their constant role playing, but she gives each of the more pathetic reality evaders a personality of their own. And Mega, Marion, the police Lt Ayhan, and a scottish folksinger stand as outsiders to this cultish community. This is a funny, simply but well-written story with good characters. Though the actual murder mystery is nothing special, the story gives an entertaining portrait of the sci-fi con dynamic without being condescending. I read this as an e-book in Adobe e-book Reader which was a very enjoyable experience.
Rating:
Summary: Fun little murder mystery set at late 80s sci-fi convention
Review: This book is a bit dated, the police Lieutenant investigating the crime has never heard of Macintosh. The technology is obviously of the period before the Photoshop, browsers and back when only engineers used email. The hero Jay Owens Mega, author of "Bimbos of the Death Sun" is a likable but socially reticent engineering professor; his girlfriend Marion teaches Science Fiction at the same university; she too has a PhD. They attend a sci-fi convention to market Jay's book then meet the perils of con life. The biggest peril is an obstreporous sci-fi author Apin Dugannon who writes a mass market fantasy series around a character named Tratyn Runewind. The author is excellent at showing the disparities between the personal lives of the characters and their constant role playing, but she gives each of the more pathetic reality evaders a personality of their own. And Mega, Marion, the police Lt Ayhan, and a scottish folksinger stand as outsiders to this cultish community. This is a funny, simply but well-written story with good characters. Though the actual murder mystery is nothing special, the story gives an entertaining portrait of the sci-fi con dynamic without being condescending. I read this as an e-book in Adobe e-book Reader which was a very enjoyable experience.
Rating:
Summary: YOU WILL LAUGH UNTIL IT HURTS!
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: You'll laugh because it hurts
Review: This isn't much of a mystery. (The reviewer who said he solved it by reading the back cover blurb was dead on.) The murder doesn't occur until halfway into the novel and then there really aren't any suspects to speak of. But... As a look at the cultish world of SF Cons and SF in general, it is flat out hilarious! Anyone who has set foot inside a Holiday Inn ballroom during a con will recognize the characters and probably see a little bit of themselves: All those annoying "filk" singers, overweight virgins in Spock ears, horrible fan fiction ("The D&D transcripts are in that pile, the Dune ripoffs are over there...") Some have said that the book is too mean towards the world of fandom, but I don't think so. This is a brilliant, comic roast, done by someone who has genuine affection for the characters she is skewering. You need to read this if you want a good laugh.
Rating:
Summary: A pleasant surprise
Review: This was a surprise to me because the only McCrumb I'd read before was "If Ever I return Pretty Peggy-O" That was a great book but somehow grim and tragic. There is something poignant in this this one too - the descriptions of shy and unsuccessful people for whom the con is the biggest event in their lives. I felt a little guilty laughing at some of them but I did laugh. I'm not a hardcore SF/Fantasy person (I own one shelf of SF, a set of Tolkien and a subscription to Isaac Asimov'e magazine and I've never played Dungeons and Dragons) so I missed some of the references. Now that I've found this aspect of McCrumb I look forward to more.
Rating:
Summary: Hysterical mystery set at a science fiction convention
Review: When nasty fantasy author Appin Dungannon is murdered in his room at a science fiction convention, there are as many suspects as attendees, for everyone hated him. The guy who presented Dungannon with a tall stack of books to sign and had them returned signed "J.R.R. Tolkein", the convention organizers whom Dungannon had on the hop finding British candy for him, and even the guy who likes to dress up as Dungannon's famous character--all are on the suspect list. Unless it is the Girl Scouts eliminating the author for discovering their plans for world domination . . . . Fellow Guest of Honor James O. Mega (a.k.a. Jay Omega), who, when he isn't writing a hard SF novel (whose name, to grab the adolescent crowd, was changed by the publisher to "Bimbos of the Death Sun") is a professor at Virginia Tech, and his fellow professor and significant other, Marion Farley, must play mystery detective, since the local police seem more confused by the goings on at the SF convention than anything else. A delight to read. McCrumb populates the halls of the convention with types that anyone who has been to a SF convention has seen. Quick moving, and very readable. A minor quibble: The convention is supposed to be about thirty miles from Washington DC (perhaps near Dulles Airport?). It is hard to believe that a SF convention could be held in an area with no public transportation (Dulles has some) so the folksinger would be unlikely to be stranded at the hotel. In addition, it is at least implied that Virginia Tech is local to the convention site--so it would make sense that a Tech student would bring a roomful of computer equipment over (rather than using a northern Virginia or DC school). In point of fact, Virginia Tech is a good three or four hours from there. All the same, the best novel ever set at a SF convention, with the possible exception of Diana Wynne Jones' "Deep Secret".
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