160 pages
English language
Published Aug. 5, 2025 by Tor Publishing Group.
From sci-fi visionary and acclaimed author Annalee Newitz comes Automatic Noodle, a cozy near-future novella about a crew of abandoned food service bots opening their very own restaurant. While San Francisco rebuilds from the chaos of war, a group of food service bots in an abandoned ghost kitchen take over their own delivery app account. They rebrand as a neighborhood lunch spot and start producing some of the tastiest hand-pulled noodles in the city. But there’s just one problem. Someone—or something—is review bombing the restaurant’s feedback page with fake “bad service” reports. Can the bots find the culprit before their ratings plummet and destroy everything they created?
From sci-fi visionary and acclaimed author Annalee Newitz comes Automatic Noodle, a cozy near-future novella about a crew of abandoned food service bots opening their very own restaurant. While San Francisco rebuilds from the chaos of war, a group of food service bots in an abandoned ghost kitchen take over their own delivery app account. They rebrand as a neighborhood lunch spot and start producing some of the tastiest hand-pulled noodles in the city. But there’s just one problem. Someone—or something—is review bombing the restaurant’s feedback page with fake “bad service” reports. Can the bots find the culprit before their ratings plummet and destroy everything they created?
If you have time to read this book, please do it. The characters are well developed, the world building is amazing, and the coziness is top notch. This book is fun, quick, and also quite impactful (or at least it was for me).
I'm not normally much of a cozy fiction reader, but this was lovely: smart, funny, and pointed in highly relevant ways. The story is a simple, warm hug in so many ways, but there's a lot going on underneath to inform the world that Newitz builds; a very dark, involved tale sits just out of frame. Beautifully done as always.
I'm not normally much of a cozy fiction reader, but this was lovely: smart, funny, and pointed in highly relevant ways. The story is a simple, warm hug in so many ways, but there's a lot going on underneath to inform the world that Newitz builds; a very dark, involved tale sits just out of frame. Beautifully done as always.
On the surface, this is a story about a diverse group of adorable people (most of whom happen to be robots) taking care of each other while starting a hand-pulled #noodle shop. Slightly below the surface, and done with a lot of #kindness, Annalee Newitz does a wonderful job of putting the reader in a perspective to see how various kinds of #discrimination and #unskillful action make things unpleasant for everyone while at the same time showing that #handicraft, #compassion, and community-building have lovely results across the board.
I thoroughly enjoyed being immersed in the world of robots trying desperately to succeed with a noodle restartant. The characters were wonderfully weird, and the story moved at a perfect pace. I was delighted that part of the conclusion of the story included moving to a proper old website from an enshittified food delivery site.
It took me a bit to get into the characters. But then I did. Then it ended. They overcame one trial then it ended. I was ready to see what happened next.
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz ( @annaleen@wandering.shop - wandering.shop/@annaleen )
Wonderful book. Sentient robots start and run a noodle shop in post-civil war (near-future) San Francisco. Detailed imagery of war torn ruins being rebuilt. Life returning to previously abandoned locations. Detailed descriptions of various food dishes including biang biang noodle dishes. Detailed descriptions of making noodles by hand. What conflict that does exist includes: flashbacks of war and struggle; current animosity towards sentient robots and their endeavors. Very low conflict and minimal tension. A lovely story to relax into and just exist and vibe.
The shtick: intelligent robots traumatized by war, capitalism, and oppression struggle together to establish a noodle shop in war-torn, separatist San Francisco.
Other than thinking robots and tube delivery technology, the worldbuilding is a fever dream of the current moment despite being set in 2064: it's got crypto, LLMs, delivery apps, ghost kitchens, slang like "rizz". But it's unfair to take this aspect too seriously; it's not a hard sf novel trying to speculate about the future. At its heart, it's a comfy emotional novel about forming community around food in a ruined future.
It's fluffy, it's fun, it was something I needed right now.
The shtick: intelligent robots traumatized by war, capitalism, and oppression struggle together to establish a noodle shop in war-torn, separatist San Francisco.
Other than thinking robots and tube delivery technology, the worldbuilding is a fever dream of the current moment despite being set in 2064: it's got crypto, LLMs, delivery apps, ghost kitchens, slang like "rizz". But it's unfair to take this aspect too seriously; it's not a hard sf novel trying to speculate about the future. At its heart, it's a comfy emotional novel about forming community around food in a ruined future.
It's fluffy, it's fun, it was something I needed right now.
Automatic Noodle is a short, joyful tale of creating the future you want out of the present you've been stuck with.
The main robots are all well-drawn, individual characters: The octopus-like search-and-rescue bot whose chemical sensors were perfect for analyzing taste and smell, who has fond memories of the falafel truck they worked at after the war (and is seriously into speculating cryptocurrency on the side). The bot with articulated arms and hands, who wants to make something worthwhile with them. The former bank teller, partly humaniform, who becomes more comfortable expressing her inner robot-ness as she explores logistics and supply chains. And the former combat robot, who finds himself tired of working in management and wants to get back into protecting people (both human and robot) and the restaurant, and discovers there are more ways to do that than just muscle (or rather servos) and ammo. The sentient …
Automatic Noodle is a short, joyful tale of creating the future you want out of the present you've been stuck with.
The main robots are all well-drawn, individual characters: The octopus-like search-and-rescue bot whose chemical sensors were perfect for analyzing taste and smell, who has fond memories of the falafel truck they worked at after the war (and is seriously into speculating cryptocurrency on the side). The bot with articulated arms and hands, who wants to make something worthwhile with them. The former bank teller, partly humaniform, who becomes more comfortable expressing her inner robot-ness as she explores logistics and supply chains. And the former combat robot, who finds himself tired of working in management and wants to get back into protecting people (both human and robot) and the restaurant, and discovers there are more ways to do that than just muscle (or rather servos) and ammo. The sentient car doing delivery gigs who has a thing for old media and will tell you exactly what's wrong with the offensive robot stereotypes in, say, Transformers.
Robots want to set up a noodle restaurant.
It takes a top notch writer to turn that premise into a story that's both sweet and exciting.
Annalee Newitz is that author.
Robots want to set up a noodle restaurant.
It takes a top notch writer to turn that premise into a story that's both sweet and exciting.
Annalee Newitz is that author.
Lovely hopepunk novella, highly recommended for fans of Becky Chambers.
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https://bookshop.org/p/books/automatic-noodle-annalee-newitz/625018d0518991aa.https://bookshop.org/a/102303/9781250357465.https://bookshop.org/p/books/automatic-noodle-annalee-newitz/625018d0518991aa.https://bookshop.org/p/books/automatic-noodle-annalee-newitz/625018d0518991aa.https://bookshop.org/a/102303/9781250357465.https://bookshop.org/p/books/automatic-noodle-annalee-newitz/625018d0518991aa.