From: Mats Ohrman <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 87 18:53:02 +0200

Path: liuida!enea!mcvax!seismo!columbia!rutgers!mtune!mtgzy!ecl
From: [email-masked] (Evelyn C. Leeper)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.arts.sf-lovers
Subject: BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Date: 22 Jul 87 12:20:23 GMT
Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ
Lines: 61
Xref: liuida rec.arts.sf-lovers:3790

		  BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN by Sharyn McCrumb
		 Windwalker, 1987, ISBN 0-88038-455-7, $2.95.
		      A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
               Copyright 1987 Evelyn C. Leeper

     I'm not sure who Sharyn McCrumb is, but I'd bet you'd find her name on
the membership lists of several science fiction conventions.  BIMBOS OF THE
DEATH SUN is a novel set in a real fantasy world--that of a science fiction
convention.  (Lately, it may seem more horror than fantasy, but that's
another story.  Appin Dungannon, the Guest of Honor of this particular
convention, is the author of the incredibly successful series of Tratyn
Runewind books.  He is described as a "malignant midget," but McCrumb--in
what must be a ploy to fend off a Harlan Ellison lawsuit--makes sure to
mention that he is NOT Harlan Ellison.  Dungannon apparently has all the bad
characteristics of Ellison without any of the literary talent, since Tratyn
Runewind does not seem to be a character on the level of, say, Hamlet.
Therefore, it is not much of a surprise when Dungannon is found murdered in
his hotel room.  It's not even much of a loss so far as most of the people
are concerned.  But the police think it would be nice to find the killer.

     But why BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN?  Well, the protagonist of the story is
Dr. James Owen Mega, a.k.a. Jay Omega, author of the recent not-best-selling
science fiction novel...BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN.  The book, he claims, is
based on a new scientific theory he was working on; the title were dumped on
him by the publisher.  Mega is especially outraged at the cover, showing a
"female bodybuilder in a fur bikini."  Just as BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN is
the title of both this book and the book-within-the-book, the cover of this
book is very similar to the one described.  In the true tradition of cover
art, though, the cover of this book differs in several details from that
described for the book-within-the-book.  Perhaps this is a meta-statement on
how cover art is often inaccurate, but I doubt it.

     Anyway, McCrumb has the characters, and I do mean characters, that one
meets at a science fiction convention down cold.  The costume fans, the
gaming fans, the outsiders who have discovered that science fiction fandom
will ignore many things the mundane world places great importance on--
height, weight, appearance, the ability to "fit in"--they're all here.
McCrumb may seem at times cruel to those whom she is portraying, but it is
more a question of accuracy than of hostility.  One brief example: when it
is finally announced to the convention members that Dungannon has been
murdered, the audience at first doesn't know what to make of it.  Then,

     Suddenly a clarion voice rang out like a battle cry above the
     babble. "The hucksters' room!  While we still can!"

     ... "The huckster's room?" she echoed.  What does that have
     to do with Appin Dungannon's being murdered?"

     ... "Not a thing," he replied.  "But life goes on.  And now
     autographed copies of Appin Dungannon's books are worth
     triple what they were five minutes ago."

     While this is not a book from which a non-convention-goer could learn
about conventions, it is a book that convention-goers will love.  Highly
recommended.

					Evelyn C. Leeper
					(201) 957-2070
				UUCP:	ihnp4!mtgzy!ecl
				ARPA:	[email-masked]