A cosy near-future story of finding purpose and found family — through noodles — in a bleak future.

You don’t have to eat food to know the way to a city’s heart is through its stomach. So when a group of deactivated robots come back online in an abandoned ghost kitchen, they decide to make their own way doing what they know: making food—the tastiest hand-pulled noodles around—for the humans of San Francisco, who are recovering from a devastating war.

But when their robot-run business starts causing a stir, a targeted wave of one-star reviews threatens to boil over into a crisis. To keep their doors open, they’ll have to call on their customers, their community, and each other—and find a way to survive and thrive in a world that wasn’t built for them.

I’ve not read as many of Newitz’s works as I would like, but everything I have read I’ve very much enjoyed. I happened to get the DRC of this one just after finishing a longer read, and I dove right in, drawn to the premise. Hooked from early on, I enjoyed this. Continue reading →