En route to a sci-fi convention and reunion of the Lanthanides, Dr. James Owen Mega--engineering professor and science fiction author known as "Jay Omega"--and literature professor Dr. Marion Farley stumble into a web of dark secrets and murder The world of science fiction fandom forms the background for this second outing featuring engineering professor/sf writer Jay Omega and his English professor ladyfriend Marion Farley. Invited by a colleague to an exclusive reunion of a once-famous clique of sf writers known as the Lanthanides, Jay and Marion uncover a bizarre mystery surrounding a 30-year-old time capsule and a twice-dead reunion crasher. The author of Bimbos of the Death Sun (TSR, 1987) pays affectionate tribute to the sf fannish phenomenon while unraveling a mystery whose roots lie in the halcyon days of science fiction. Highly recommended for both sf and mystery collections. - Jackie Cassada, Asheville-Buncombe Lib. System, N.C. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. Here, the frisky McCrumb (If I Ever Return, Pretty Peggy-O, The Windsor Knot--both 1990), with deadpan humor and bull's-eye accuracy, skewers the science fiction genre, its eccentric authors, and outlandish fans and their nitpicking fanzines. Jay Omega and Marion Farley (the paperback Bimbos of the Death Sun) agree to accompany fellow professor Erik Giles (a.k.a. sci-fi writer C.A. Stormcock) to a reunion of the ``Lanthanides,'' a group of would-be writers who lived together in Wall Hollow, Tennessee, back in the Fifties. Now, one is dead, one is a Hollywood nabob, one is publishing a fanzine, and a couple are still writing and have become sci-fi stars. At Wall Hollow, they plan to dig up a time capsule they buried with some of their early work and cash in on their later fame by auctioning off publication rights to the highest bidder. Then someone starts killing them off, beginning with the reunion crasher--the supposedly dead author Pat Malone. Omega, with the help of computer log-ons, finally figures out not only whodunit but why...or does he? Author McCrumb has one more twist up her sleeve. Funny bits throughout, but the constant sendup of beloved sci- fi shticks begins to seem mean-spirited, and Omega and Marion are little more than walk-ons. Still: an engaging read. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Used Book in Good Condition