Automatic Noodle
by Annalee Newitz
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted September 1, 2025
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This is either a long novella or a short novel, which only matters for which category to nominate it for awards next year. I am confident it will be nominated for awards next year. Automatic Noodle has been described as cozy science fiction, which it is in a way, but it is also a serious disection of current, as well as historic situations. Set in 2064, about four years after the end of a war between the United States and California, in which California won its independence. There were a lot of robotic constructs utilized by both armies for various tasks, but a lot of resentment and discrimination against them in the States. California countered with a semblance of freedom for robots, at least those deemed to exhibit HEEI, human-equivalent embodied intelligence, which humans pronounced "Hee-Eye."
The story begins with a robot rebooting after several months of inactivity. Completely metallic, but humanoid in shape, "Staybehind" had been a military bot during the war, his name derived from his tasks; looking for survivors after a battle, clearing debris, and searching for any remaining live ordinance. He realizes he has been "asleep" for about five months, and is in his place of employment, a restaurant, but the kitchen is flooded. Winter rains had flooded several San Francisco streets, and water had entered under the door. Apparently the owner of the store abandoned it, leaving Staybehind and several other bots unprotected. Staybehind had mostly been the cleaning and maintenance bot for the restaurant, with the others doing the preparation, cooking, and serving. "Sweetie" was also humanoid, and more human in appearance, at least above the waist, but her legs were metallic. "Cayenne" is described as octopus-shaped, multiple arms, but no legs. "Hands" also had no legs, and no discernible head either. He was usually suspended on a track attached to the ceiling.
How this is a cozy, feel good story, is in the way the bots decide for themselves to reopen the restaurant. They have reason to resent humans, but still realize how much humans need food. The bots do not eat, but they do need money, reasons for which I'll get to in the next paragraph. Hands had been created to be of some service in the military, but the war ended before he was assigned. He learned about food by searching the warehouse he was in, coming across cases of packaged noodles. When he gained access to the digital world he watched cooking videos. The restaurant had offered typical fast food like hamburgers and fries, but Hands wanted to make it a noodle shop. In an afterword, Annalee says that part of the story derived from the first time they ate biang biang noodles in New York's East Village, and has sampled them in many other cities, but not yet in their place of origin, China's Shaanxi Province. Hands also observed a Chinese chef making the hand-pulled noodles, and asked her for advice. The key was for the flour and all other ingredients to be as fresh as possible. Cayenne and Hands had previously worked together at a food truck, and Cayenne had been in charge of ordering supplies. There was a major problem though, but Sweetie thinks she dealt with that in the best way possible.
This also relates to a lot of past and current situations, over and above the oppressive US government and their antagonism toward the more liberal California. HEEIs do have some freedoms, but unfortunately it is not the only time freedoms have been provisional, with restrictions and limits. If a robot had been employed by a corporation that provided maintenance, upkeep, and updates, they may have a debt obligation toward that company. Robots could seek their own employment, but they could not own property, could not vote. Reminds me of the exception in the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery, except as punishment for a crime, which led to more policing and harsher punishments against blacks. That was because of racism, which never went away, and has come back as strong as ever in the past decade. In the future there will also be harsh opinions about 'free' robots. When the bots reopen the restaurant they have named Authentic Noodle, it starts off well, with strong sales and positive feedback, but it doesn't take long for the robophobes to launch their digital attack, causing ratings to plummet. The bad reviews started with the notion that Authentic Noodle was manned only by bots, and they were poisoning the food with their machine oil and other chemicals. The food was good and fresh, no poisons, but if anyone ever discovered there were no humans involved in ownership of the restaurant, they would be in big trouble.
Utilizing his military experience, along with Cayenne's contacts in the digital economic, crypto-credit world, they discover the majority of the negative reviews are from one account, which may have originally been a legitimate one, but now highjacked by someone else, and most likely from outside California. One of the reviews said the restaurant was hardly Authentic, that robots could only be Automatic instead. The bots decided to co-opt that name and created an old-style website to handle their orders, as Automatic Noodle, rather than continue to use the app where all the bad reviews had been placed. Besides, Staybehind had previously thought the Authentic name was inappropriate, since robots could not do anything human related in an authentic way. Hands could feel the texture of the noodles as he made them, and Cayenne had taste and smell sensors, but none of them could actually eat the noodles, or know how they tasted to humans. After the robophobes were discovered and banned, sales and ratings went back up. The robots also learned about community, deciding to open up to foot traffic and stop relying only on digital orders. Their human customers welcomed that. Authentic or Automatic, their noodles were popular. Cozy SF or incisive social commentary, this book should be as popular. Highly recommended.
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