Book Review: The Curious Case of Traveling Craft Beers

The Curious Case of Traveling Craft Beers
Kelly Fernandez

Published by Tales of Evergreen Hills
Street: 3.10

In the book The Curious Case of Traveling Craft Beers long-time friends, Ubbe and Yaya find themselves on an intergalactic, spiritual journey to help Yaya cope after recent heartbreak. In the not-too-distant future, these friends plan to journey to Earta, a planet like their home planet Orderolo, to receive divine messages and clarity on their purpose in the universe.

Written in a similar tone to Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, this story explores relationships, self-exploration and faith through humorous science-fiction that centers largely around the interactions of the two protagonists as they support one another and meet several interesting characters throughout their journey. While the overlying tone of the book is humorous, it grapples with many important themes around coping with emotional turmoil and the essential interventions of our close friends and community at large when we need them the most. 

Writer Kelly Fernandez builds a complex world with small hints of the past cultures and people who seemingly moved to Orderolo after its discovery as a planet with expensive zines, a love of drinking too much and a newly-evolved humanoid population. 

At 107 pages, this is a quick and fun read. However, due to the short length, there are several ideas and creations that the reader receives a brief introduction to that I would have loved to see explored further. Some of their relevance to the overall story is hard to grasp as they arrive and quickly move on, with just enough back story or explanation to make you feel like they should have a greater presence or impact on the story and characters. 

The Curious Case of Traveling Craft Beers is a fun exploration and reflection on how we perceive our place in our world, how outward entities like the sun and moon can influence our existence in unexpected ways and the richness that unexpected interactions can bring into our lives. –Ben Trentelman

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