This was a cute short story about robots operating a noodle restaurant. The narrator did a great job with the different voices and inflections. The story itself seemed a little too on the nose for me but all in all it was a fun listen!

3.5 stars!

This was cute. I know this is about the 20th time I've been underwhelmed by a cozy book but looking at the beautiful cover, can you really blame me?

In a near future San Francisco, a team of robots decide to rebuild a restaurant together despite the numerous challenges that robots face in terms of their rights being limited and everyday bigotry.

The setting is one of the most memorable parts of this book. In this world, California fought a war to secede from the rest of the United States, presumably possessing more progressive values than the rest of the increasingly fascistic country. As a Californian, I have a lot of feelings about California being uniform or even significantly more progressive then the rest of the country but I know I'm not supposed to be taking all this that seriously. Interestingly, robots have more rights in California but there's also a significant number of people against them taking jobs from humans. I think this is generally supposed to be an allegorical representation of the experience of immigrants in the US as well as queer people since there is some "corrupting the children" rhetoric being thrown around. That's all well and good but within the context of the novel it puts the reader in kind of a weird spot, because you want to root for the immigrants and queer people that the robots represent but also I think a lot of people (myself included) are deeply against robots taking human jobs, especially following the proliferation of AI tools. I'm overthinking this, I know.

Anyway, the actual story is very nice and the narrator did great. I like the characters and I think the choice to depict a robot with something close to PTSD was interesting because PTSD is at its heart a failure of memory (specifically a failure of forgetting and consistent storage) and it kind of makes sense for a robot. I don't know what else to say about the content. It's the kind of book that is fun and heart-warming as long as you don't think about it too much, but I overthink everything.

Thanks to Annalee Newitz and Macmillan Audio for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!

Happy reading!

3.5. A comfy, low stakes, feel good time. I really enjoyed the hopefulness of this story, mixed with some actual anxieties and trauma. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. More growth and becoming a part of something bigger than yourself. A lot of good faith and community mixed with the fact that a very small number of people can easily ruin a good thing. That hate can take hold so fast and have larger consequences than just the emotion itself. It is a solid but not so subtle allegory for immigrant and queer communities. Which, I enjoyed, but it did make our robo cast feel almost too human in their experiences. I would definitely recommend this book. Especially to Sci-Fi and Cozy readers alike. The only reason I don't give it a 4 or higher is I wish it had gone deeper. It felt nice but more surface level. Some of the characters have deep issues that are too easily "solved" for my taste, and the "big bad" is dispatched of very easily with smaller consequences than I had hoped for. Overall, it's solid and a great palate cleanser if you've been reading darker stories. Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the Audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love a cozy robot book. This was sweet and quirky and suxh a quick read to brighten up someone's day. The narrator was awesome with many different, distinct voices.

What if a bunch of adorable post-war robots that are not needed for combat anymore, open a restaurant with pulled noodles and a lot of heart?
What if they then get attacked by haters and face the threat of being unmade by the algorithm?
Yes, and what if they fight against that in their very own way?

This is the short, cozy story of Automatic Noodles.
And if you love the idea of all of the above, then this is the (audio-)book for you.

The audiobook is perfectly executed with a narrator that gives distinct and very adorable voices to all of them.

4/5 stars

Thank you @netgalley and @Macmillan.Audio for the eARC!

#AutomaticNoodle #Netgalley #Bookstagram

In the not too distant future, where California is an independent country, robots have fought hard for their rights of liberation. They can't marry or have a bank account, but they can work independently and choose their jobs. It's something. And the robot Hands dreams of not just working in a food shop but opening one that serves hand pulled noodles. But first, they need to work with their friends to secure the lease on the building their former owners have defaulted on, learn how to pull noodles, and create a restaurant that will thrive in an algorithmic world.

I normally stay away from anything labeled "cozy," but Annalee Newitz tackles complicated topics which makes the lower stakes of this one feel appropriate. The team of robots, Hands, Staysbehind, Sweetie, and Cayenne, and their human (on hand to hard reboot/power on if needed) Robles, is a found family working to the goal of creating, feeding, and placemaking. They use their cleverness and leverage the parameters of a digital world to function independently of the humans who once owned their contract and carve our true community where bots and humans can coexist meaningfully. It's funny, a little scary, and a lot wholesome.

At novella length, this is essentially perfect. The narrative arc is short, the characters are well-fleshed out, and the speculative fiction worldbuilding drives the plot. Much longer, and it could fall into the trap of many cozy books where the story stalls out. And you may have heard me say this before, but I think that writers should break away from the idea that cozy means opening a shop, but I ate up every moment of this one. It crosses some uncomfortable lines for people worried about the accelerated growth of AI, but for robot lovers, this book is a joy.

The audiobook is excellent, narrated by Em Grosland, but the print book has some lovely formatting as well. I recommend taking your favorite format approach to reading this one.

Annalee Newitz serves up something unexpectedly heartwarming in Automatic Noodle, a novella that proves comfort food and comfort reading can be one and the same. Set in a post-war San Francisco where California has seceded, this story follows reactivated kitchen robots who open their own noodle shop in the ruins of their former workplace.
What could have been a gimmicky premise becomes a tender meditation on community and finding purpose after trauma. The robots aren't just quirky characters; they're displaced beings carving out meaning in a world that no longer has room for them. Their struggle mirrors that of the homeless war veterans they serve, creating an unexpectedly poignant parallel about rebuilding after devastation.
Newitz's San Francisco feels authentically local, grounding the speculative elements in something recognizably real. When online review bombing threatens the robots' livelihood, the story touches on current anxieties about digital harassment and small business survival without heavy-handed messaging.
Automatic Noodle succeeds as both gentle science fiction and a story about the universal need for belonging. It's the kind of book that might surprise readers who don't typically reach for sci-fi, offering accessible themes wrapped in just enough speculation to feel fresh.

Another creative take from the talented Annalee Newitz! A robot is suddenly awakened after more than a month offline. He is in a fast food joint of questionable quality that is flooded and without power. He reactivates the other robots and partial-robots with whom he worked, and they devise a plan to resurrect the restaurant with themselves in charge. They can do this because they live in California, a land outside America that has its own, more progressive laws.
The novel is funny and touching at face value. It is also a sharp critique of 2025 America’s treatment of immigrants and the unwinding of both EPA and green energy initiatives. It satirizes crowd-sourced platforms that occasionally allow for review-bombing (ahem), this time for restaurants and take-out food. Highly entertaining with good narration. Well recommended!
My thanks to the author, publisher, @MacmillanAudio, and #NetGalley for early access to the audiobook for review purposes. Publication date: 5 August 2025.

What a cozy balm of a book with just enough quirk and gumption to leave me feeling hopeful.

Imagine looking at your favorite coworkers and deciding to open your dream of a business together, supporting each other’s skills and strengths and growing together.

This near future novella delivers just that while paying homage to San Francisco (and giving hope to robots)

I had such fun with this and enjoyed everything about the production!

4.5 stars rounded up

A cozy sci-fi novella about found family and sentient robots opening a noodle shop in San Francisco! This was charming on its surface, but it's also using the othering of robots in this futuristic world as a metaphor for the treatment of people based on gender, sexuality, and immigration status. It feels like a hopeful and timely story about noodles that sound absolutely delicious! I really enjoyed it and I think it's smartly done. The audio narration is great as well. I received an audio review copy via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGally and MacMillian audio for an audiobook arc of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Like a lot of people I was super hype for this title based on the premise and the adorable cover. Cozy sci fi is a hugely underrated genre and I’d give anything for there to be more titles. This one didn’t hit all the marks for me but was generally enjoyable.

What worked:
This was an excellent story for a novella. Super unique and not too complicated. This is a thin veiled representation of the real world issues a lot of people are currently facing and I think they’re handled well.

I got an audiobook arc and the audiobook is super short at 4 hours. The narrator does a really great job mimicking a robotic voice (and multiple on top of that) so I was really impressed. One caveat though is the monotone voice does make it a little easy zone out (dont mean to contradict myself still super talented just something to think about if you have a short attention span like me)


What didn’t work for me:
I think often the word cozy gets defined as low plot. It’s still a book that the point is to entertain me. Cozy is basically just like feel good and low stakes which this definitely is but I felt the story could be a little more robust.

Would recommend this book and definitely the audiobook, could likely finish it in one go.

Thank you so much to Macmillan audio for my copy of Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz Narrated by Em Grosland in exchange for an honest review. It published August 5, 2025.
The narration was very well-done in this book.
I found this book to have a very interesting premise, and it reminded me of books like Sourdough by Robin Sloan, and Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. Even if you aren’t a sci-fi or dystopian reader, you might enjoy this one.

Wholesome robots who just want to run a restaurant and have normal lives! But also an analysis and criticism of our current culture.

It talks about the use of buzzwords beyond their actual meaning, reclaiming insults into identity, review-bombing, personhood, the tenuous rights of “less than” individuals. It also talks about the importance of building community and breaking away from the small boxes that society tries to force large, diverse groups into.

Also made me really want noodles

I am reviewing the audio version of this which was excellently narrated by Em Grosland.

In the not-so-distant future, a group of recently re-awakened, and abandoned food service bots decide to re-open the restaurant where they previously worked. They have a vision for their futures and want to bring the joy of food to their community.

This was completely cute. It skims across the surface of some of the issues we're facing today, with "robophobes" who are mad that the robots are "stealing the jobs" of people. It also briefly touches on civil rights and what that means to the communities where it's threatened.

It also embraces the vivid variation available in a mixed community, where people from all over are welcomed and the lives they can build together.

I've been entering the giveaways for this book because it looked SO good, and I'm glad I got the chance to review it. Now I just need a physical copy for a nice, slow, re-read.

Overall this was a great read! Fun, semi fast pace, cozy, some suspense, endearing characters, robots, and more. I love stories about robots and knew I needed to read this one immediately. If you like MurderBot but want less action and more cozy with food, this book is for you. I loved the found family and how it really did feel and draw the found family throughout the novella. I hope we get another novella in this universe to explore more what happens with these characters.

As much as I did enjoy this story, there were a couple things I felt could have been expanded on. Specifically the war & more of the world this story is set in. It's made note that the US had a war and California is now independent from the US and the US is a place you don't want to be. Due to the war not really being explained or expanded on it almost felt more like social / political comentary on the current state of the world rather than part of this story. Not to say you can't have comentary in stories - almost all do - more to say I think if it was expanded on and we were given a little more context, it would have felt more part of the story.

I also wish we saw more of the world outside the immediate group of robots/humans inside the restaurant. Which is why I am really hopeful for a book 2. There is still so much story to tell and I will be waiting to read/listen to it.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for sending me the ALC. I very much enjoyed the narration of this story.

Automatic Noodle is a clever, heartfelt story about four robots who just want to vibe—but the system won’t let them.
Our ragtag group of robots—Staybehind, Sweetie, Hands, and Cayenne—aren’t just serving soup; they’re surviving the harsh realities of late-stage capitalism in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco. That includes dealing with anonymous Robophobes review-bombing their restaurant just for existing.
What begins as a cozy sci-fi romp quickly reveals itself to be a sharp allegory for modern society, tackling themes of prejudice, labor rights, and inequality. It’s thoughtful without being heavy, with a cast of memorable characters who bring plenty of personality to the table.
10/10 would slurp again.
#goodsoup

I listened to this one really quickly, however I think it was too sci-fi for me. I don't know what I expected for a book about robots, however I was maybe thinking it was going to be more about the noodle shop and not overly descriptive about the robots and the dystopian world.

The narrator was great, however when speaking for one robot, the voice sounded very nasally and maybe I missed the fact that he was sick, but it was distracting and made it sound like he was definitely ill.

Still giving this a 4 star rating because it was written well and the issues surrounding why I didn't like it were a me-thing.

This was a short cozy read. We follow a group of robots after a war in near future California, that decided to open a noodle shop. For such a short story the author really got me to care about this group of robots who all have their own backstories and issues they are dealing with during the story. If you're a fan of cozy books, I think this would be great on to pick up! The audiobook was also done very well, the narrator was really able to bring each character to life and give them their own distinct voice.

Automatic Noodle is exactly what the synopsis promises it to be. Never did I expect to find a cozy post war independence San Francisco robot novella to be something on my TBR but when I heard that it was announced I was eagerly awaiting it’s arrival.
When all these Robots want to do is survive make handmade pulled noodles and build their community a wrench is tossed in when they are review bombed. I am also a sucker for when the title of the book is thrown in to the book and not only did that happen but how it came to be and evolved was put into the novella and it had me smiling the entire time. Throw in that I could see in my head the imagery from the cover art while the narrator, Em Grosland, described it to me it just came full circle.
Speaking of Em Grosland…what a performance. I loved the different voices Em did! In the beginning of the audio book you clearly got a robot sounding boot up voice and it just threw me right into the story and I knew from that very beginning of the first chapter that this was going to be not only amazingly narrated, but also amazingly produced.
I really hope that Annalee Newitz does more novellas like these becuase it was a hit with me and very much needed.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the complimentary audio book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.