Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for providing an advance reader copy of this book. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

"Automatic Noodle" serves up exactly what you'd expect from a title that quirky: a warm, oddball tale of robots finding their way in a futuristic post-war San Francisco where robots are "free" yet still discriminated against. Rather than delivering a sterile exploration of artificial intelligence, this story surprises with genuinely human moments as these mechanical beings stumble through friendship and the messy business of building community. The emotions these robots experience feel startlingly real, making you wonder if we're all just sophisticated machines learning to connect.

This cozy little gem won't revolutionize your reading life, but it doesn't need to. Watching these robots navigate their new world with all the awkwardness of teenagers at their first dance is genuinely endearing, even if the plot occasionally feels as predictable as a well-programmed algorithm. A solid 3.5 out of 5 stars for a book that proves sometimes the best stories are about finding your people, even if your people happen to run on batteries.