Books book reviews Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz Finds Joy, Community, and Good Food in the Future A cozy near-future story about found family, robophobia… and good food. By Martin Cahill | Published on October 27, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share There are very few writers beyond Annalee Newitz that I trust to write about the future. Not flying cars future, not a transporters-and-laser guns kind of future, no; just the future. Lowercase f. The one that maybe comes tomorrow, maybe in a decade, maybe in eighty years. I know however far into that future Newitz takes us, we, the reader, will be given a vision of the impossible and the predictable, the uncanny and the all-too-human, even when, as in Automatic Noodle, the majority of our characters are all bots. But what makes them so engaging and fascinating is that they want the same things a human protagonist may want: the freedom to make their own choices, the ability to follow their passions, the opportunity to build community, and their tomorrows unshackled from those who would keep them in their awful yesterdays. In Automatic Noodle, Newitz once again builds a vision of a future that feels real in its stakes, but hopeful in what it says about how sentient beings can come together when they recall that what unites them far outweighs that which would tear them apart. It has been some time since the civil war that separated California from the rest of the United States, and while there is tenuous peace between the two countries, many still reel from the aftermath. Among them are a group of robots who work in a ghost kitchen in San Francisco; while bots are granted some tentative rights in California, something outlawed in the United States, our crew of bots are struggling mightily in their day-to-day. One of them is drowning in debt, while another finds herself trapped in an overly gendered body bolted to the floor as the greeter, and still another is trapped in the trauma from his time in the war as a military bot. Coming back online in the wake of the war’s end, the four of them—Staybehind, Hands, Cayenne, and Sweetie—decide to work together to both really give this business a shot and to use that success to launch them into better futures. But since their rights are so limited, Cayenne, a search and rescue octobot who loves to get their tentacles all up in the web, hacks the system to make it seem like they’re human-owned and run. With the help of a local human in the community, the bots will dedicate themselves to the making of the food, the running of the business, the front of house, and decoration, while all pretending to be working for a human. It is here, as the crew goes all in on their plan toward true freedom, that Newitz hits their stride and the novella shines from there. Each of the bots gets their own storyline and arc, and if that were just the book, I would have been delighted. Hands, the arm robot, is trying to perfect biang biang noodles exclusively; Cayenne, sassy, smart, and squishy, is in love with Hands and trying to keep up their cover; Sweetie not only finds a way to gain mobility after years bolted to the floor, but has the chance to optimize her body in the way she wants, shedding the literal top that she was forced to call her body since she came online; Staybehind, a military bot with trauma, cannot seem to let go of the memory of losing his comrades in the California tunnels years ago. But Newitz never forgets the bigger picture and they won’t let you forget it either: If something good exists in the world, if a community is created of others who never had it before, there will always cruel hearts who wish to call that good bad instead, who see a community and wish to pull it apart rather than let it grow. Buy the Book Automatic Noodle Annalee Newitz Buy Book Automatic Noodle Annalee Newitz Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget This robophobia emerges as the story continues, with rumors of the bot-run restaurant making their way into the United States and inviting multiple bot hate groups who begin to digitally bombard the noodle restaurant and attempt to get it shut down. While this novella contains cozy moments of joy and care and friendship, Newitz balances all that lightness against a background of true darkness and horror. The United States, historically, has been horrible to anyone who could be considered “the other,” and despite being outside of the purview of the US, our bots are still subject to that hate and horror, especially as California’s own flimsy rights for bots attempt to come into play. Anything more would be spoilers, but Newitz shows through this small crew of bots and the humans who come to know and love their restaurant and food, that community and care are not perfect antidotes, but they are powerful, especially when hands come together at the right time. Newitz writes futures that are plausible and real, while also being idealistic and hopeful, but not overly rose-colored. In Automatic Noodle, capitalism still irradiates society, while the governments of both California and the United States don’t seem all that separate, save for some marginally better rights for bots in the former. The web is still host to hatred, social media is still a breeding ground for mayhem and horror, and there will always be people who become enraged to see others happy. But… people still need to eat. Need to work. Need to laugh, or smile, or build together. Life continues, for humans and bots alike, and Newitz, as always, delivers a story that showcases what that life can look like when all sentient peoples are given care, respect, and the opportunity to live, truly live, free of shackles.[end-mark] The post <i>Automatic Noodle</i> by Annalee Newitz Finds Joy, Community, and Good Food in the Future appeared first on Reactor.