Automatic Noodle

I had only read Autonomous by Newitz before this. I felt meh about it. This book began that way. I had trouble connecting with and understanding the operation of the robot main characters. But that all goes away in about fifty pages. This being a novella, that's about the first quarter of the book. It was worth sticking with. What we end up with is a marvelous fable about nominally free robots trying to start a noodle business in a world where California has seceded from the Union and the civil war it caused has just ended. Once it gets going, it's full of mystery and intrigue as the robots try to uncover the online smear campaign against them and work to build a client base. This is the first nominee of the 2026 Best Novella Hugo category that I haven't read yet.

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