Automatic Noodle
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4.3 • 43 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A cozy near-future novella about a crew of leftover robots opening their very own noodle shop, from acclaimed sci-fi author Annalee Newitz.
An instant USA Today and indie bestseller!
Indie Next pick | Library Reads pick | Best of the Year at Elle, Gizmodo, Reactor, Library Journal, and more!
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.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Newitz (The Terraformers) serves up comfort food for the soul in this bite-size novel about a squad of enterprising robots. Staybehind, Sweetie, Cayenne, and Hands are military, fem, cephalopod, and kitchen bots, respectively, all contracted to San Francisco fast-food restaurant Burgers N More, a grimy front operation for crypto launderer Fritz Co. When Fritz Co slips town, the bots are left to fend for themselves. To pay off their contracts and prevent being sold as chattel, the group decides to revive the joint as a ramen restaurant, inspired by old military rations they find left over from the 2050s war between America and California. With help from homeless human Robles, whom they take in, the bots must first restore power to the shop (requiring a deep dive into city sewers), then teach themselves to cook. Soon customers are lining up for more. Then a deluge of bad reviews linked to accounts run by robophobes lead the bots to suspect American intelligence of attempting to destabilize the young California nation by seeding propaganda criticizing its recent extension of civil rights to robots. To defend themselves and their fledgling venture, the bots whip up a social media counterattack. Newitz packs this tale with simmering action, endearing characters, and political savvy, topping it all off with generous dollops of humor and imagination. It's delicious.
Customer Reviews
Hungry for Noodles
Aside from an appetite, this gem of a story left me hoping for another tale. The author reminds us that if we think of ourselves as the only people worth knowing, we miss a world of possibilities.
A pleasure to read and remember.
Great Novel of Found Family and Pursuing Your Dreams
“Automatic Noodle” is the latest novela by Annalee Newitz, and might be their first foray into what might be called “cozy” science fiction. Yes, this is a low stakes exploration of a fascinating near future setting in post war San Francisco. Which war you might ask? Well, the war of California’s Independence!
In this setting, California has just joined the United Nations and is rebuilding from its civil war with the United States (US). The new nation differs from the US in that it recognizes limited civil rights for robots who have Human Equivalent Embodied Intelligence (HEEI). This story centers around four such robots: Staybehind (a former military bot); Sweetie (a partially humanoid service bot); Cayenne (a octopus-like search and rescue bot); and Hands (a former manufactring bot). These robots find themselves in possession of an abandoned restaurant, and decide to pursue Hands dream of opening a biang biang noodle shop.
This story is a tale of found family, prejudice, and rebuilding lives. It is also a story of the City of San Francisco and its unique character. In the Epilogue the reader learns that almost all the places listed in the story are in fact real. It’s generally a warm and uplifting story, but it reminds us of some of the darker sides of humanity. It ends well though, and you begin to really feel for its characters along the way.