When one is in a used bookstore with a bunch of writers, it is only natural to expect that you will end up with a couple of purchases you would not ordinarliy consider. I was at a science fiction writing conference, so naturally we were clustered in the SF section of Half-Price Books. The selection was impressive. As I browsed the colorful spines of the books, one title caught my eye. “Hey, guys!” I said, “Check this out. Bimbos of the Death Sun!”
The response was not quite what I expected. “That’s a good book,” one of my party said. “Really funny,” another concurred. Then I noticed a badge on the cover proclaiming that it had won the Edgar Allen Poe Award in for best paperback mystery in 1988. What was I to do? Bimbos joined my other unplanned purchases.
Note that the cover pictured here looks nothing like the version I have. Just look at that picture. Can you imagine a worse cover for a book with that title? Seriously. [Update – the current picture is a major improvement.]
It took me a while to work through the reading pile to get to Bimbos of the Death Sun
It follows the pattern my sister likes so much: create a really nasty guy, have him anger just about everyone, then kill him off. Lots of suspects, lots of motives, a crazy hotel scene with people coming and going to provide unlimited opportunity for mischief.
The title of the book is simultanelously ironic and exploitative; one of the characters is a writer who wrote a hard science fiction novel that involved the effect of solar radiation on computers, and (as an afterthought) on women. The book is not at all sexist — the author’s girlfriend made sure of that — and has no sex in it. The publisher decided to call it Bimbos of the Death Sun and give it a suggestive cover to promote sales. The author in the story is embarrassed; I suspect that Ms. McCrumb was chuckling gleefully when she thought of the name. (Can you blame her?) In fact, I imagine her at a convention, sitting with friends, drunk, when an informal Most Salacious Science Fiction Title contest breaks out…
[Hmm… I have a short story that needs a title. Maybe I’ve been going about it the wrong way.]
This was a fun read. It’s not really a whodunnit because the reveal is gradual and begins long before the big final confrontation scene. There is a lot going on, however, and there is no shortage of odd characters. Every stereotype of trekkie and gamer and SCA member and fantasy addict is (lovingly) packed into a single hotel, and it looks like a pretty good time. You know, except for the murder.
The book was marred for me by a couple of things. Foremost, some of the characters behave in ways I just could not accept as real. I’m not talking about the wacky Rubicon attendees, but about the people around them who are supposed to be normal. The police detective is the biggest offender in this department. More than once I thought to myself, “no cop would ever do that, let alone one who’s been promoted to detective.”
My other complaint is that someone was given a very complicated task with almost no notice, then took it upon himself to make the task even more complicated to catch the killer, and then pull that task off with grace and style. In the movies, at least he would have had a chance for “Montage Training.”
Despite those complaints, I greatly enjoyed reading Bimbos. It was a good light read with many, many chuckle points as it went along. I think folks who attend conferences like the one in the story would find even more humor that I missed. Oh, yes, they do exist, and probably thirty years later are even crazier — though perhaps more commercial.
The book is not science fiction, but it belongs in the SF section of the store, all right, since that’s where the readers this book is aimed at hang out. If you run into this title in the used book store, take a look!
Note: if you use the above link to buy this book (or a Kindle
So what DOES the cover look like on the edition of the book that you have?
BTW, coming up in November … Murder at the Little Theater!
Of course, I still have some work to do on Murder at the Family Reunion to get some loose ends tied up before I can move to the new one … (Oh, and do you remember Cy and Jane Hoffman? They’re now doing little theater things in Albuquerque.)
montage training? good one. Is that yours?
Although I’ve never heard the actual phrase “montage training” (that I remember), the concept is an old one. There’s even a song about it in Team America: World Police.
I want to make one comment about your review of “Bimbos of the Death Sun”. You said that no homicide detectives would have acted that way. True, most are very serious, but I have known my fair share of them, and they are a varied lot with lots of quirks. And there are about 6 that I know that definite have that sense of giggling kind of wit about them. One of them is even sillier, but somehow he carries it off brilliantly. I don’t know how he does it, but you should see him work with gangbangers and the like. Then he turns serious when he has to report to the media (mostly) and to other agencies. Don’t narrow your focus so much. Humanity is diverse, and SF conventions reflect some of best and worse. I guess that is why I love them.
It wasn’t his finding humor in the situation that undermined his credibility as a cop, it was more that he did things that no cop ever would. Plain bad police procedure in support of the plot of the story. I didn’t need him to be hard-boiled, I just needed him to be a better detective.
It’s a quibble, though. The book really is a fun read.
Upon going through and updating and repairing old links, I found a version on Amazon with a much better cover. Maybe not as good as the one on my volume, but I think you’ll agree it isn’t bad.