''Bimbos of the Death Sun'' is a 1987

mystery novel Mystery is a fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a re ...

Sharyn McCrumb Sharyn McCrumb (born February 26, 1948) is an American writer best known for books that celebrate the history and folklore of Appalachia. McCrumb is the winner of numerous literary awards, and is the author of the best selling "Ballad" novels, se ...

Plot summary

The novel takes place at Rubicon, a fictional

science fiction convention Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction subgenre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of ex ...

being held in the

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

suburbs of

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

, and at which the guests of honor are Appin Dungannon, a fantasy author noted for his books about hero Tratyn Runewind, and Dr. James O. Mega, an electrical engineering professor at

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

, who, under the pen name Jay Omega, has written one novel. That novel, a

hard science fiction Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell's ''Islands of Space'' in the Novemb ...

book about a space station crew whose female members are affected by radiation from a dying star (which causes them to become less intelligent), was retitled ''Bimbos of the Death Sun'' and given an R-rated cover by the publisher. Mega is somewhat lost in the world of hardcore SF and fantasy fans at the con, but his companion, Marion, a professor of English literature, is more familiar with these events, and she guides him through it. They have troubles, such as being asked to judge a fiction contest (which Marion tackles eagerly) and a costume contest. All seems to be going somewhat well for Mega, but his co-Guest of Honor, Dungannon, is making it a point to offend everyone at the con - he is highly successful with a series of adventure novels featuring "Tratyn Runewind," an alpha-male Norse warrior similar to

Conan the Barbarian Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero created by American author Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) and who debuted in 1932 and went on to appear in a series of fantasy stories published in ''We ...

, but he has come to hate the character when Tratyn becomes so successful there is more interest in the cheesy novels than his lone serious work on Norse mythology (which remains unpublished). It is hardly surprising when he is killed, a bullet through his heart. The fans react by buying up everything with his signature in the huckster room. The police are at a loss to find the murderer. Everyone had a motive to kill Dungannon, but it seems that no one had the opportunity. Jay and Marion begin investigating and discover many things about Dungannon - he was working on what was to be the last Runewind book, while revealing the depths of his hatred for the character, and that someone had tried to erase the last chapter that depicted Tratyn's humiliating death. Jay corrals the suspects into a scheduled role-playing game event and works out a confession in the way Hamlet did ("The play's the thing / Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King") with the police detective doing his best to understand the process of a role-playing game. The murderer is revealed to be a super-fan who found out about Tratyn's "death" and killed Dungannon to keep it from happening. As he attempts to kill Jay, Jay uses a plugged-in CRT monitor to block the sword the fan uses, which electrocutes the killer when he stabs the screen. While the murder investigation continues, the author satirizes a lot of events at science fiction conventions, such as

cosplay Cosplay, a blend word of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and Fashion accessory, fashion accessories to represent a specific Character (arts), character. Cosplayers often i ...

and the

filk Filk music is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction, fantasy, and horror fandom and a type of fan labor. The genre has existed since the early 1950s and been played primarily since the mid-1970s. The genre has a ni ...

songs that science fiction fans sing.

Reception

Dave Langford David Rowland Langford (born 10 April 1953) is a British author, editor, and critic, largely active within the science fiction field. He publishes the science-fiction fanzine and newsletter ''Ansible'' and holds the all-time record for most Hug ...

reviewed ''Bimbos of the Death Sun'' for ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a Compact star, stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very density, dense: in an Earth sized volume, it packs a mass that is comparable to the Sun. No nuclear fusion takes place i ...

'' #99, and stated that "McCrumb deploys her research with kitchen-sink enthusiasm, neatly caricaturing several SF fan stereotypes but striking an unconvincing note when all these wildly different and often mutually intolerant types sit down to play D&D together." The book currently holds a rating of 3.71 out of 5 on

Goodreads Goodreads is an American social cataloging website and a subsidiary of Amazon that allows individuals to search its database of books, annotations, quotes, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and readi ...

with 25% of a total 2,799 ratings being 5 stars.

Awards

The novel won the 1988

Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original Edgar is a commonly used masculine English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Edgar'' (composed of '' ead'' "rich, prosperous" and '' gar'' "spear"). Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the Late Middle Ages; it was, however ...

and was nominated for the

Anthony Award The Anthony Awards are literary awards for mystery writers presented at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention since 1986. The awards are named for Anthony Boucher (1911–1968), one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America. Categori ...

in the same category in the same year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bimbos Of The Death Sun 1988 American novels American mystery novels Edgar Award–winning works Ballantine Books books Mystery novels set in Virginia