Review: Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz [2025]

Spoilers: None
Genre: Cosy Sci-Fi
Format Read: Print
Disclosure: None (purchased by me)

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz is virtually perfect. Newitz exquisitely pulls off a chewy tale of survival, camaraderie, and noodle-making. I loved it. Can we have more of these heartfelt, low-but-high-stakes stories, please?

Rating: 4.75★ / 5

In a near‑future San Francisco, a crew of robots awaken to find they’ve been abandoned along with their employer/owner’s food‑making business, but because of late‑stage capitalism, they also have bills to pay. So they decide to pool their collective skills and set up their own ghost kitchen, selling noodles for collection or delivery. It all seems to go well until the 1‑star reviews.

Over 160‑odd pages, Newitz tells a low‑stakes but high personal‑impact tale set in the present but kneads into it the origins of each member of the staff, and if you don’t cry when you hear about the memories one of them holds on to in order to relive them, your heart is harder than mine.

The skill here is that Newitz makes each robot feel alive. They are not just humans in robotic shells; the challenges they face are unique to each of them. And collectively, they have to stay under the radar of the Californian Vigilance Committee.

It’s the hope for collective success, as well as getting to know them, that is the heart of Automatic Noodle. Seeing the unfairness of the 1‑star reviews, and how manipulation by aggrieved people impacts those who are innocent and harmless, is truly upsetting, but seeing how they go about facing it is heartwarming.

Highly Recommended

Note: I rate on a four-tier scale: Loved (4.5–5★), Liked (3.75–4.25★), Mixed (2.75–3.5★), and Not for me (1–2.5★).