I read this book as the March 2026 pick from Sword and Laser. I’ve been following Tom Merrit and Veronica Belmont’s show since it was featured in the lineup on Geek and Sundry’s YouTube page back when I was in college. Also, I had bought the book last fall when I saw it at Barnes and Noble after hearing Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders talk about it on Our Opinions Are Correct. So, an excuse to read a book that was sitting right there was appreciated. Not that I really needed one, but appreciated.Automatic Noodle is the tale of a restaurant full of robots in a post-New-War-for-Independence San Francisco. They worry about the scammy business they worked for going bankrupt and selling their contracts into America where they’d become slaves once more. They’ve worked in kitchens before making substandard food from substandard ingredients, so they decide that in working for themselves they’ll make something they can be proud of. But, will their new freedom and new venture survive California’s still-repressive laws against robot ownership of property and the prejudices of those who see the bots as “stealing our jobs”?This is a wonderful novella and I especially love how well Newitz portrays real life troubles through the tribulations the bots face. Sweety talks about how they were treated as a femme-presenting bot before making their own choice about how to look. Staybehind deals with grief from having lost friends during the war. They all have an extremely precarious financial position from being robots that everyone thinks are stealing their jobs, or poisoning the children, or destroying the culture, or take your pick of what the culture war’s boogeyman of the week might be doing. But I really just love Hands and Cayenne’s friendship and the way they take pleasure in the simple joys of making food.This was such a great book and if you’ll excuse me, I need to find where I can get biang biang noodles now.Something to Take Away as InspirationThe noodle shop. A place where the characters can be themselves and do the thing they’re good at and complement one another. The Dungeons and Dragons adventure Waterdeep: Dragon Heist does this by handing a tavern over to the players. The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide includes rules for Bastions.Set scenes where your characters can bounce off of one another in ways that don’t necessarily have to do with the greater plot. Let them run a business, or manage conflicts between factions, but stick them somewhere where everyone has a role and everyone’s role is needed.
