Automatic Noodle

von Annalee Newitz

Hardcover, 176 Seiten

Sprache: English

Am 5. August 2025 von Tordotcom Publishing veröffentlicht.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-35746-5
OCLC-Nummer:: 1452443961
ASIN:: 1250357462
Goodreads:: 217388015

A cozy near-future novella about a crew of leftover robots opening their very own noodle shop, from acclaimed sci-fi author Annalee Newitz.

You don’t have to eat food to know the way to a city’s heart is through its stomach. So when a group of deactivated robots come back online in an abandoned ghost kitchen, they decide to make their own way doing what they know: making food—the tastiest hand-pulled noodles around—for the humans of San Francisco, who are recovering from a devastating war.

But when their robot-run business starts causing a stir, a targeted wave of one-star reviews threatens to boil over into a crisis. To keep their doors open, they’ll have to call on their customers, their community, and each other—and find a way to survive and thrive in a world that wasn’t built for them.

5 Auflagen

reading tofu hat Automatic Noodle von Annalee Newitz besprochen

Enjoyable and cozy despite precarious existence

4 Sterne

Mostly enjoyed this, the book is getting quite cozy over time.

The bots are interesting, I especially liked Staybehind's ambitions in interior design and how Robles got into the gang.

Below stuff sounds rather negative but isn't as bothersome:

Technical stuff was very 2020, not sure if people will still be identified via their IP address on 2063, but that didn't affect the story. The group chat element was cool.

Am a bit annoyed how this book greatly contemplates the rights of sentient robots and even their perception of "dumb" robots, but repeatedly mentions animals (lambs) exclusively as a source for food without any consideration regarding their life circumstances. This or similar blind spots has been bothering me in several progressive books now.

Also there was a Graeber reference (chapter called "Debt: The first 5000 seconds"). Not that I read that book but still nice …

Mostly enjoyed this, the book is getting quite cozy over time.

The bots are interesting, I especially liked Staybehind's ambitions in interior design and how Robles got into the gang.

Below stuff sounds rather negative but isn't as bothersome:

Technical stuff was very 2020, not sure if people will still be identified via their IP address on 2063, but that didn't affect the story. The group chat element was cool.

Also there was a Graeber reference (chapter called "Debt: The first 5000 seconds"). Not that I read that book but still nice to spot. Maybe there's more that I missed.