Book Review

Coffee: 14 Tales of the Fantastic, Edited by Alex Shvartsman

Coffee: 14 Caffeinated Tales of the Fantastic, is a delightful short story collection that will warm the darkest, coldest winter day. There’s adventure, humor, pathos, and just dash of romance in these stories. This is the book to grab when you have a precious fifteen minutes to yourself – preferably in a coffee shop.

All of these stories have an element of science fiction or fantasy. The two stories with the most romance are “A Perfect Book” and “The Cup of Truth.”

“A Perfect Book,” by Ken Liu, is a very short, yet completely satisfying romance. Think of it as a romance haiku. It works because instead of trying to cram an entire relationship’s arc from start to finish into a short story, it uses an imaginative futuristic and poetic concept to hint at romantic longing between two people.

In this story, baristas are able to serve you not only the perfect cup of coffee, but also the perfect book, thanks to computer algorithms. A barista longs to write his own story, something for the young woman who is a regular client. He wants to write something original, not something cobbled together by other writers – and when he writes it, he hopes that she will read it. It’s a lovely meditation on art and creativity and connection.

“The Cup of Truth,” by Matt Mikalatos, also succeeds in telling a satisfying romance story by using a single moment between two people to illustrate the nature of their relationship. This story involves a couple who are about to drink a cup of coffee that will tell them what their future as a couple will be. The entire story takes place in the few minutes between when they sit down to order their coffee and when they drink it. It’s a small but powerful window into how they feel about each other and their relationship.

“Dungeons and Dental Plans,” by Tim McDaniel, imagines a Conan-style Barbarian warlord discovering coffee and corporate culture to hilarious effect, while “From the Shores of Tripoli,” by Jonathan Shipley, is delightfully surreal.

I think my favorite story in the collection is “Sexiest Fun Time Drug,” by Katherine Sparrow, in which an increasingly frustrated sales representative tries to sell coffee to aliens. The collection is well worth the cover price just for this story, which is funny, surprising, and completely satisfying:

To answer your other question, there is no known “crazy-vengeful coffee deity” that you will have to appease in order to purchase coffee, though some people have reported rapturous experiences when drinking our Bodhi-Beanz (complex, challenging) or our Angelic Light Blend (Awe-inspiring, honeyed)…I cannot say one way or the other if coffee would make “beings with bodies way more awesomer than humans” perpetually happy and immortal, though it is my hope that you will experiment widely with many of our different varieties and brewing methods in your search for the holy grail of coffee, as it were.

As a bonus, the book has gorgeous interior art by Maggie McFee and quotes about coffee.

The only thing it lacks is a good cover. The cover isn’t terrible but it looks amateur to my jaundiced eye. The book itself is much more professional in design, content, and quality than the cover suggests.

I can’t stand regular coffee but I love mochas and lattes, and I find coffee shops, chain or otherwise, to be deeply comforting places. This book was a delightful read for a busy season (I read it just as the holidays were hitting). It made me feel inspired, curious, thoughtful, and happy. It made me laugh, and the romantic stories made me sigh my happy romance story sigh. It will make a wonderful Christmas gift for all your friends, especially if a coffee gift card is tucked inside. The only problem is that you’ll want to keep it.

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Coffee: 14 Caffeinated Tales of the Fantastic by Alex Shvartsman

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  1. I like my romance as an element alongside sci-fi and humor, and I totally have a thing for baristas. I’ll be reading this for sure. 😉

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