Rating: 
Summary: Comedy/mystery for the misfit in us all
Review: As mysteries go, this book isn't much, but as a comedy/life study it still ranks as one of the best, in spite of being slightly outdated.Sharyn McCrumb is a noted mystery writer, better known for her serious work, but here she sets her "mystery" at a sci fi/fantasy convention filled with a host of zany misfits and social outcasts and pays homage to a slew of science fiction and fantasy greats. The author shows a genuine fondness and respect for the people who are grocers, hotel workers and students in their every day lives, but come alive when given a chance to get together with their fellow geeks and dress up as sci fi/fantasy characters to play role-playing games, watch classic old movies and hear well-known authors speak. One such author is Appin Dungannon, the diminutive and hostile writer of a fantasy series featuring the Celtic warrior Tratyn Runewind, who is the source of both the author's fame and his reknowned wrath and disdain for his fans. When the author turns up dead at a sci fi/fantasy convention, Lt. Ayhran, the police officer assigned to investigate the murder, must deal with wargamers, elves, filksingers and Jay Omega, an engineering Ph.D. who has written the unfortunately titled "Bimbos of the Death Sun," and is attending his first con with his folklore professor girlfriend, Marion. The two team up with the police to help solve the murder, but not before taking us on an adventure through the world of the fantasy convention. I fell in love with the fat girls, the skinny nerds, the would-be authors, the tech geeks, and all the other characters that populate this novel. The book is laugh out loud funny in places, educational about folklore, and compassionate in the extreme. A fun, quick read that you'll come back to time and time again, because even when you know who did it, you'll still want to hang out with the characters.
Rating: 
Summary: A book about a Sci-fi / fantasy convention, oh and a murder.
Review: Don't let the title fool you there are no bimbos and well the death sun only exists in the imagination of a fictional Sci-fi author Dr. James Owen Mega (a.k.a. Jay Omega). The story follows Jay as he attends his first ever Sci-fi / fantasy convention and gets introduced to convention etiquette along with the accompanying archetypal characters found at such events.
The book gives you an insiders (organizers) view of the systematic chaos that go on at most Sci-fi / fantasy conventions worldwide. Having an added murder / who done it sub plot adds just one more layer to the convention organizers ever growing list of issues and problems to straiten out all in the name of 'Fandom'.
If you have ever attended a convention you can read this book and laugh at the situations portrayed, if you've never been to a convention then hopefully if the book hasn't put you off the whole idea it has at least prepared you for what your going to come up against. ;0)
In all its a good story, not gripping but good for a few chuckles. Get the paperback and read it when you have nothing meaningful to do.
Rating: 
Summary: I couldn't put this book down!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Great read -- Even for outsiders
Review: If you've never been to a science fiction convention that's all right, you'll still laugh your way through this fun murder mystery. If you have been to a sci fi con, you're going to die laughing. Sharyn McCrumb did a wonderful job capturing the flavor of the sci fi crowd with the gamers and the Star Trek weddings and the costumes and the filking (folk songs with sci-fi lyrics). This is a delightful book that pokes fun at the sf crowd without getting too mean. You'll have fun with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious Infomercial on the SFCon Phenomena
Review: Sharyn McCrumb is in top form, setting a blistering pace through what, for most of us, is as exotic as an Amazon rain forest. Science Fiction enthusiasts have gathered at a hotel in a southern city for a conference on the latest happenings, gossip, and technical advances in their field. They are stratified between professionals (authors), gamesters, Trekkies, hard science and fantasists. Ms. McCrumb spares no one; yet is sympathetically insightful to many of society's misfits who seem drawn to these events: "Children stared at Brenda when she passed on the streets; people made remarks about her in public, seeming not to care if she heard them They seemed to think they were giving her constructive criticism, or perhaps alerting her to a hitherto overlooked fact-as if it had somehow escaped her notice that she weighed two hundred and sixty seven pounds." With all the fantabulous people and their jaw-dropping activities, it doesn't seem of major importance that a particularly successful, acid tongued author is dispatched. There is speculation as to how much his autograph might now be worth and some scuffling over the rights to his last manuscript but few are interested in who did the dastardly deed. The voice of sanity belongs to a Scottish folk-singer who just was passing through and was bewildered by and sometimes appalled at this strange group. I confess I was at one with the conners in not caring particularly whodunnit. I didn't want to take time out from the party and seriously investigate. A fun outing, and you will learn something new-the easy way.
Rating:
Summary: Funny look at Sci-Fi and Fantasy Conventions...
Review: Star Trek fans, computer nerds, DR WHO? lovers and AD&D role-players fill the pages of this book. One of the greatest, funniest AND weirdest "whodunit" mystery you will ever read about. A man is murdered, a famous author, and who wished him dead? The question should be, who DID NOT want him dead! Yet, James Owens Mega, creater of the sci-fi novel, Bimbos of the Death Star, must solve the crime! A crime set among a crowd of barbarians, Yodas, elvies, Gods and dragon slayers! He'll need all the help he can get!
Rating:
Summary: Give this one to a Star Trek Fan or Sci Fi Fanfic!
Review: The Absolute best! Good things come out of "fooling around" Sharon McCrumb wrote this with serious tongue and cheek ( check her latin jokes in here)basically to annoy her Master's Thesis board and poke fun at her husband's involvement with the Civil War role playing conferences. Instead what you have is pandimonium at "the" Fancom conference where one of the primary authors of a multi-series novel gets killed at the conference. You've got a Star Trek wedding, you've got fans going too far. Never ending jokes about the lifestyle sci fi fans go to, to 'be' their alter egos.
Rating: 
Summary: Good SF conventionhandbook, but nothing else.
Review: The blurb for this book... and the reviews here... correctly state that this book is a good handbook for the overall "feel" of a science fiction fan convention. Beyond that, however, the reviews depart from reality. I was expecting a good murder mystery wrapped in tightly written, funny sci-fi insider jokes. I got a grammatically correct novel with weak, unengaging characterizations, unworkable murder plot & plot resolution, and only a very, very thin scattering of humor aimed at things only sci-fi insiders would understand.
This book was written for the sci-fi OUTSIDER, laughing WITH the outsider, not embracing the insider fans & trade. So, if you're a sci-fi fan, or looking for an engaging murder mystery, then look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Good SF conventionhandbook, but nothing else.
Review: The blurb for this book... and the reviews here... correctly state that this book is a good handbook for the overall "feel" of a science fiction fan convention. Beyond that, however, the reviews depart from reality. I was expecting a good murder mystery wrapped in tightly written, funny sci-fi insider jokes. I got a grammatically correct novel with weak, unengaging characterizations, unworkable murder plot & plot resolution, and only a very, very thin scattering of humor aimed at things only sci-fi insiders would understand.
This book was written for the sci-fi OUTSIDER, laughing WITH the outsider, not embracing the insider fans & trade. So, if you're a sci-fi fan, or looking for an engaging murder mystery, then look elsewhere.
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.
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