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A review by rebeccacider
Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb
3.0
I know Sharyn McCrumb for her Appalachian fiction, but when this luridly illustrated paperback was donated to the library, I learned that she apparently wrote SF-themed paperback murder mysteries for TSR in the eighties.
This book is a satirical mystery set in a science fiction convention in Virginia, and is a glorious lampoon of old-school fandom, probably the best I've read. The characters were ALL TOO REAL and the setting made me nostalgic for my own glory(?) days frequenting Virginia science fiction conventions a couple decades later.
Alas, as an actual mystery, I thought this book failed pretty hard - the solution was simply not that interesting and the last few chapters stretched plausibility farther than I would have liked. I was also put off by Brenda, whose character is almost a sensitive portrayal of a fat woman who finds her tribe, but who is constantly fat-shamed by the text and whose arc paints a pretty unflattering portrait of young women in fandom.
Still a super-fun read, and highly recommended to anyone interested in the history of fandom (especially women, who can read in horror about the bad old days when white men roamed the earth).
This book is a satirical mystery set in a science fiction convention in Virginia, and is a glorious lampoon of old-school fandom, probably the best I've read. The characters were ALL TOO REAL and the setting made me nostalgic for my own glory(?) days frequenting Virginia science fiction conventions a couple decades later.
Alas, as an actual mystery, I thought this book failed pretty hard - the solution was simply not that interesting and the last few chapters stretched plausibility farther than I would have liked. I was also put off by Brenda, whose character is almost a sensitive portrayal of a fat woman who finds her tribe, but who is constantly fat-shamed by the text and whose arc paints a pretty unflattering portrait of young women in fandom.
Still a super-fun read, and highly recommended to anyone interested in the history of fandom (especially women, who can read in horror about the bad old days when white men roamed the earth).