Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

A super sweet and tight novella about abandoned robots in a ghost kitchen in San Francisco.  Another book where states act like countries and no one trusts each other.  Am I sensing a trend? Automatic Noodle is a great food book and a little bit of a treatise on what makes an intelligent being.  This future offers citizenship to certain bots in exchange for labor.  They just need to pay off their contracts.  Never ending debt and an uncertain future? Am I a robot? This kooky collective decides to reopen their restaurant on their own terms.  Figuring out who they are as individuals as well as a core group.  Can they play by the rules that are designed to work against them?  Can they make the best noodles in the neighborhood?  Is the neighborhood ready for a local bot restaurant?

Chapter & Scene is your daily stop for cozy, intelligent reviews of books, movies, and TV shows. Each weekday we share a short, spoiler-free recommendation designed to help you discover your next great story. Whether you’re looking for a novel to curl up with, a binge-worthy series, or a film worth watching, our reviews combine thoughtful insight with genuine enthusiasm for storytelling. Subscribe to get fresh reviews delivered straight to your inbox, and explore our growing archive of book and screen recommendations.