Automatic Noodle

by Annalee Newitz

Genres: Science Fiction
Pages: 160
Rating:

Synopsis:

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.

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Annalee Newitz’s Automatic Noodle is a cosy found-family-for-bots story set in the aftermath of California seceding from the US. That cosiness sits oddly against what inevitably reads as an allegory of racism in the anti-robot sentiment that the characters face, and against the capitalist nightmare Uber Eats etc etc.

I feel like there was a lot of stuff that was touched on, like Staybehind’s trauma, that could’ve been expanded on in a way that would’ve made it less of a feel-good cosy story, but for me would’ve made it a bit more satisfying. For me, the themes sat oddly with the wrap-up, which gives us a quick triumph against the anti-bot review-bombers and a warm snuggly feeling of community.

I couldn’t help but still be left wondering, could it really be that easy? The bots haven’t exactly escaped t the capitalist hellscape… community and good food don’t really answer the problems it raises. And it’s okay that Newitz didn’t want to write that kind of story, but I couldn’t believe in uncomplicated cosiness and a triumphant happy ending here — it was only a “happy for now”, all too clearly, and all the other stuff just hovers unaddressed.

So I think this one fizzled for me, ultimately, which is a bit of a shame as there was much to like, especially Cayenne and Hands.

Rating: 2/5