Well, this is tough. I like Sci-Fi both Star Trek and Wars. I like meta-fiction. I like unreliable narrators and yet Metallic Realms by Lincoln Michel is just a wreck. The narrator in question, Michael Lincoln (get it) is just odious. Though the book pisses on fantasy, the character is straight out of Tolkien. Very Grima Wormtongue. After a few chapters, I was hoping that one of the other characters would narrate for a bit.
If that were the only fault in these stars, a decent book could still be there, but zero of the Orb 4 writing group was much better. I couldn’t stand a one of them. And even worse, the so call Star Rot Chronicles that the narrator continually gushes over were way short and way thin. The world created had to be believable as something that a reader could obsess over and for the life of me, I found it dull and tedious like a spec Star Trek script that is ignored.
For beer, see if you can find a four way collaborative beer or if there is not one out there. Look for a three-way collab and see if you can tease out the house flavors of the three breweries. And then find individual beers from them and see which brewery is best for your tastebuds.