Automatic Noodle

Automatic Noodle is a 2025 science fiction novella by Annalee Newitz. It was first published by Tordotcom.

Synopsis

In a future San Francisco, a group of independent robots — Cayenne, Hands, Sweetie, and Staybehind — open a restaurant, but are faced with review bombing.

Reception and awards

Kirkus Reviews noted superficial similarities to Travis Baldree's Legends & Lattes, about an orc who opens a coffee shop, but emphasized that Newitz included "social commentary about climate change, PTSD, and [the gatekeeping roles of platforms such as] Yelp and DoorDash", and called the overall work "both heartwarming and pointed".

Strange Horizons, conversely, found that this social commentary "felt (...) somewhat clumsy" (despite the novella as a whole being a "fun and relevant look at modern online culture"), and noted that although the robots have "interesting backstories", they also "came across as too human".

References

External links

• Newitz interviewed about Automatic Noodle, at the Chicago Review of Books
• Automatic Noodle title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database