Automatic Noodle

De: Annalee Newitz

Narrado por: Em Grosland

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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor.com

©2025 Annalee Newitz (P)2025 Macmillan Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"This is a story—about building community despite adversity, fighting for your rights and individuality, and creating art that you want to see in the world—that I didn't know I needed right now. And it was so much fun to read!”—Martha Wells, author of The Murderbot Diaries and Witch King

"This book will make you hungry. It will also keep you warm."—Becky Chambers, author of the Monk and Robot series

this is a real 15 star review from a human....

and whoever you are, whatever persuasion, kind soul reading this review, I want so much for you to experience this book. I am absolutely and thoroughly charmed. please let there be a sequel as soon as possible. much love to the automatic noodle crew from a human fan 🤖💙🩷🌺

Parallels US divisions but fun

Creative storytelling regarding robots yearning to run a restaurant in tumultuous time in the future. Yes you should read. It’s refreshing

If u loved legends & lattes…. This is for you!

Incredibly fun and enjoyable cozy sci-fi about a group of discarded robots who decide to open a noodle shop despite discrimination against robots.

Relevant themes wrapped in hope and robots

This slender well written novel touches upon relevant themes with gentle character development and a sense of realistic hope

I love these bots

I loved everything about this.

If you're a fan of Becky Chambers' Monk & Robot, and other cozy reads, I can't recommend this enough. I loved all the robots, the story was sweet, the plot was good, and just like a great restaurant, it left me satisfied (but still kinda wanting more). Great narrator too! (also did Monk & Robot!)

Also peep the cover blurb from Martha 🥰

Cute short book

This cozy story about robots running a noodle shop is really cute. Each robot has a distinct personality and motivations.

The world building is great and I'd love to explore more of the world. I could easily imagine the characters and the lovely shop they made together.

I'll be picking up a physical copy too to support the author

Love ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Such a feel good book. Go Robots! Haters can’t win. I especially loved how positive they are.

Cozy, BUT…

I’m a huge fan of cozy fantasy and sci fi, because I want to escape the horrors of our current society into a place where everything is better. So while I appreciated the overall theme of found family in this book, I REALLY could have done without the post-war PTSD, the memories of what the bots did during the war, and especially the cyber attacks by a hostile enemy government trying to use social media to influence society. That is WAY TOO “real life” for a cozy book!

So, yeah, this was a cozy story about some bots banding together to run a restaurant, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have without the things I mentioned above. Kudos to the author for creating a really interesting society that includes sentient robots. That was well done. And I liked all the different types of bots and how they interacted. I just didn’t like the book as much as I could have, and I probably won’t reread it because of the negative real-world themes. Too bad.

Kudos to Em Grosland for another stellar job as narrator! They are becoming one of my favorite narrators! Love all their voices!

Just what was Needed

This story about how human robots really are is so good, it doesn't entirely ignore the current state of US politics, but it's more about community and doing what is right for you. its very cosy and I loved it. Em does an amazing job narrating, as always, and I think they were the perfect choice for narrator.

Thoroughly enjoyable

I like Annalee Newitz's work, and have read their writing for years. So I was primed to enjoy this, and I did. Not sure what is meant by "cozy" in this sense, but it was a good, upbeat story. It gave enough of the world's background to place the story, but not so much that it overwhelmed it. The characters were well written. The voice was good, but a bit flat in some places. I'm very glad I pre-ordered it. I hope they write more in this world.