The narrator was phenomenal, giving each character a sound of identity with their work.

A quick cozy sci-fi read about robots who are woken up after 5 months to a flooded closed down ghost kitchen they were working at. The restaurant owners have skipped town and the robots have no instructions on what they are supposed to be doing to keep the kitchen running. They end up deciding to make their own dreams come true and run the shop themselves even though that is against their newly appointed HEEI (Human Equivalent Embodied Intelligence) rights they received after the war, as well as the "anti-robot" feelings throughout the human people in their city.
All in all I really enjoyed the four main characters, their background and stories. The found family trope was absolutely heartwarming. The novella parallels real world issues and broadens your perspective on topics such as segregation, gender, sexuality, and race.

An excellent cozy-yet-meaningful sci-fi offering for fans of Monk and Robot and Murderbot! Really excited to get this one in store for folks. Narration was expert, and it’s a lovely contained story I think will really resonate with people in the here and now

For fans of Becky Chambers' Wayfarers and Martha Wells' Murderbot, this look at a not-so-distant future and the relationship between AI and humans is a fun and thoughtful ride. I really enjoyed the characters and that the plot didn't stay so cozy that it lacked interest!

Automatic Noodle is a delightful, cozy sci-fi novella that packs a punch. I appreciated how well written the robots were with distinct personalities, emotions, and dreams. I also felt that this story had plenty of depth with the robots facing discrimination for being other, making an apt metaphor for the current political climate. On a lighter note, be prepared to have snacks ready because the descriptions of food will have you hungry by the end. I really enjoyed the narration by Em Grosland. The narration kept me engaged and rooted in the story. I felt Grosland did well using different voices to represent different characters. Overall, this was a really enjoyable read and audiobook experience

Set in a future where California and the US are separate entities and some AI have gained some rights, robot(ish) AI coworkers work together to form a cozy noodle shop in the midst of postwar San Francisco. This is a quick and heartwarming take on cozy sci-fi, found family trope in the vein of Becky Chambers and TJ Klune. While the characters weren’t very memorable to me, more archetypes, I still enjoyed the time spent getting to know them and watch their business grow.

(Thank you to the publisher for an advanced audio copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. )

A group of robots awaken in an abandoned restaurant. Their employer has fled the country to escape the law. They decide to reopen the restaurant, but under their control.

Cozy, but with bite. The friendship between the robots was lovely, and the food description sounded so yummy! I wish there had been a bit more about the food. The futuristic setting was well done. The book dealt with the aftereffects of war, as well as the oppression of intelligent robots.

The audio was excellent. The reader had a good narrative voice, and made all the robot voices unique without sounding forced.

AUTOMATIC NOODLE has a noose around my heart. Something about this cast really caught my attention and my heart, and I enjoyed the cozy aspect of this book being balanced with very real and difficult problems. I loved the length of this book and feel like I can recommend it to all of my novella loving friends!

This book was absolutely adorable. I genuinely loved everything about it. The story was fun and refreshing and I loved every single character.

I thoroughly enjoyed this even as it was painfully poignant at this particular moment in time. Annalee Newitz is quickly becoming a favorite author.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC!

This was such a fun and quirky novella. I loved all the robot characters and how they worked together to create a business for themselves. Sadly, the "robophobia" they faces felt really reminiscent of current times in America. On the bright side, California breaks off from the rest of the U.S. in this story and that brought me joy - even if it is sci-fi... This was a fun 4 hours of audio. Check it out!

In a futuristic America, California is its own sovereign after an American civil war. Robots now perform many of the functions of humans, and there is deep mistrust and prejudice against them in society. When a group of robots decide to take their destiny in their own hands and open a noodle shop, political repercussions follow. I think the author intended to create a story similar to "Legends & Lattes" or duplicate the cozy "found family" vibes from "The House in the Cerulean Sea". There were references to gender and discrimination - even among the robots. I liked the story, but did not love it. I listened to the audiobook, which was solid. I think since this was a novella, it just did not have enough time to make me care about the characters they way I did in "House in the Cerulean Sea". Thank you to Netgalley for an advance reader copy.

This was a unique and hopeful science fiction audiobook story. I went in with no expectations other than the premise sounded interesting. I was pleasantly surprise and enjoyed the listen.

This was a solid but not spectacular experience. Writing was solid, characters cute but I would have needed a little more depth or a little more plot for me to fully love this.

I think If you enjoyed Legends and Lattes you would probably love this as it is another entry in the "traumatised people open up a food Business"-niche.

I'd check out more books from this author in the future though!

A cozy story set in a near-future dystopia, Automatic Noodle by Annalee Nowitz was a delightful novella that I'm so glad to have experienced. Special shout out to Eric Nyquist for the incredible cover that so perfectly embodies the story!

The synopsis gives you everything you need going in, so in the immortal words of Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood: "read this. DO NOT look up anything about it. just read it."

There’s a moment about a third of the way into Automatic Noodle — Annalee Newitz’ upcoming novella — in which android protagonists complain about how the law prohibits robots from joining labour unions. It’s just a passing reference to the struggle for workers’ rights, but it’s an interesting implied criticism of contractualist approaches to labour relations in which the ability of labour to organize is constrained by adherence to government regulation. (By contrast, a solidarity-based union like the Industrial Workers of the World cannot be compelled to exclude anyone.)

The book — which hits store shelves on August 5 — is a small-scale story about four robots who open up a biangbiang noodle shop in San Francisco, handling the details of setting up a quasi-legal business, and facing backlash from internet trolls. It’s a quick, breezy read that along the way manages to touch on some interesting questions about labour and community.

Set in the aftermath of a Californian war of independence, Automatic Noodle portrays a new nation that has declared the emancipation for artificial inteligences — including robots. Because this has been a controversial move among many human citizens of California, what few rights robots have been granted by the country’s new constitution are always at risk.

The four protagonist robots — octopus-like Cayenne, human-mimicing android Sweetie, former robot soldier Staybehind, and industrial kitchen robot Hands — find themselves abandoned by a low-rent employer and set about building a life for themselves.

Within this future California, robots have the right to earn a living, and the right to bodily autonomy … but are restricted in what kinds of property they can own, where they can live, and what political activities they can engage in. They are not full citizens, and there are political forces (particularly the alt-right ideologues in charge of what’s left of the United States) who seek to undermine what rights the robots do have.

This is all — fairly obviously — a metaphor for the struggles of a wide variety of real-world equity-deserving groups. There’s a subplot about Cayenne and Hands having an ace-romance, and another about Sweetie having body dysmorphia, and yet another about Staybehind’s trauma from conflict. In the hands of another writer, this might have come across as heavyhanded, but here it feels natural because the four protagonists are well-fleshed out and likeable. If anything, these plot lines might have deserved more time to play out in a larger work.

It’s important to make the distinction between the type of business Newitz portrays in this book and the standard individualist perspective on entrepreneurship. The titular noodle shop in the novella is a worker-owned collective both owned and managed by its employees in which there is democratic decision-making and shared rewards, rather than a hierarchical approach in which moneyed interests claim dominion over the enterprise. This may seem like a subtle difference, but it’s an important one when it comes to how workers assert their rights.

One highlight of the book is the depiction of internet trolls who enage in conspiracy-fuelled campaigns against the restaurant. Even though it is made clear in the text that those behind the review-bombing are bigoted and misinformed, there’s a hint of empathy offered to the loneliness and lack of community that drives people to become part of toxic online forums. Authentic Noodle has been described by its publisher as “cozy” science fiction, but although it will appeal to fans of that subgenre, we’d suggest that it’s a misnomer since dealing with regressive bigots on the internet is a wildly uncomfortable experience. There’s something timely about a novel in which the major plot line is a campaign of coordinated inauthentic activity against members of marginalized communities who have the temerity to earn a modicum of success.

In a genre that often presents conflicts of a planetary -- or galactic -- scale, it’s sometimes a pleasure to read a work whose plot is very human-scale and relatable. Automatic Noodle is a gem of a novella that we highly endorse.

(Advance Listening Copy (ALC) courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio.)

DEFINITELY 5⭐

I was super charmed by this cozy-vibes science fiction novella and found myself wanting to see more stories set in this universe. (Not necessarily a strict sequel, but I’d love to check in with these characters again.)

Automatic Noodle does an excellent job of telling deeply human stories through a robot’s perspective. It’s easy for a narrative like this to become ham-fisted, but Newitz’s execution is thoughtful, subtle, and incredibly effective.

I thought the blink-and-you-miss-it romance was perfect. While not the central focus of the story, it still felt crucial to the characters, and the author nailed it.

AUDIO-SPECIFIC:
As an audiobook, it was a pleasure to listen to. The narrator felt like a perfect match for the tone of the story. They handled the starkly different POVs with clarity and skill. I was never confused about who was speaking, and the listening experience was seamless.

TL;DR – Automatic Noodle is a realistic-feeling view of the future with a sprinkle of hope, wrapped in a cozy package.

3.5 - 4 Stars

This was cozy and sweet, while still having strong political undertones (& overtones if I’m being honest). I loved how relevant and topical this was, while being set in a dystopian, futuristic world. Our bots were so lovely, and I enjoyed their backstories, their relationships with each other, and with themselves. Short, but really powerful, I was delighted by this story!

This sweet novella follows a group of robots in their journey to run their own restaurant after they were abandoned by its previous owners. The group is lovable and funny, and full of hope in a dark world. This is a warm hug of a book. The narration was amazing and very well done!

This was such a cute and cozy short read about discarded robots making noodles for humans—yes, it’s as delightful as it sounds!

I started this just as the ICE protests began in California, my home state, which gave the story a unique and timely backdrop. Automatic Noodle is set in a future where California has seceded from the U.S., and reading about a post-war California—especially with familiar locations—was a bit surreal though.

As someone born and raised in the Bay Area, I loved all the local references. They gave the story a real homey feel for me, even in the middle of a sci-fi setting.

Despite the backdrop of political upheaval, the story itself isn't heavy. It carries a cozy tone, balanced by thoughtful world-building that helps you understand this version of California.

What stood out most? The food. The robots falling in love with preparing food—particularly noodles—was such a sweet, unique twist. The descriptions made me crave a big bowl of something hot and handmade.

This is a charming little story that blends heart, humor, and a surprisingly warm take on the post-human world.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for ALC! All thoughts are my own.

THIS IS SO GOOD! I just loved it, we need more cozy sci-fi. Newitz gave us a taste of this world and I want more!