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The coffee shop in Legends & Lattes. The Mos Eisley cantina in Star Wars. The restaurant in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. These are a few establishments from sci-fi and fantasy you’re probably familiar with, where characters go to eat and drink (and sometimes shoot first). Hey, everybody needs sustenance, even out in space.
But it’s not all blue milk! Here are four fabulous SFF books with places to eat that you can check out right here on Earth. (Books: They’re everywhere you want to be.) And be sure to pick up the new release that inspired this post: Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz!
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Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Shizuka Satomi is on a mission to find the souls of seven violin prodigies to deliver to the Devil, in order to save herself. But then she meets Lan Tran, the proprietor of a California donut shop (run by interstellar visitors), and—HEART EYES—she starts to question what is most important in life. (Yes, you see this book on Book Riot often, because it’s so good!)
Gil’s All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez
This is a fantasy and horror, two great tastes that go great together! (Forror? Hantasy? Fantorror!) Duke and Earl are a werewolf and a vampire, respectively, looking for a quick bite to eat. (Ha!) They end up at Gil’s All Night Diner, where the owner offers to pay them to get rid of her zombie problem. Someone wants the diner for themselves, and they’re willing to go to any lengths to get it. Can Duke and Earl stop the undead, or will they be their next meal?
Swords and Spaceships
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A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
Mona is a wizard with a special kind of magic: she can work wonders with bread. Literally. And this skill comes in handy at her job, working in her aunt’s bakery. But when an assassin leaves a dead body on the floor of the bakery’s kitchen, Mona realizes that someone is targeting wizards. And if she wants to save herself, she’s going to have to figure out how to put her powers to use on a grander scale. (This book is such a freaking delight, but I so would not want to eat sentient gingerbread men.)
The Nameless Restaurant: A Cozy Cooking Fantasy by Tao Wong
And finally, this charming fantasy novella about a restaurant where almost everything is awful. If customers can manage to find the unmarked door to the Nameless Restaurant, behind the dumpsters, they’ll be treated to horrible service from grumpy servers, outlandish prices, and terrible beverages. Why even visit, you ask? Because the food is divine, the best in the world, and makes the trip worth it.
Okay, star bits, now take the knowledge you have learned here today and use it for good, not evil. If you want to know more about books, I talk about books pretty much nonstop (when I’m not reading them), and you can hear me say lots of adjectives about them on the BR podcast All the Books! and on Instagram.