this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
34 points (100.0% liked)

Books

8091 readers
7 users here now

A community for all things related to Books.

Rules

  1. Be Nice. No personal attacks or hate speech.
  2. No spam. All posts should be related to discussion or reviews related to books. (Please avoid posts that are just a link to the book and a generic summary)
  3. No self promotion.

Official Bingo Posts:

Related Communities

Community icon by IconsBox (from freepik.com)

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

What have you been reading or listening to lately?


Check Official Bingo Challenge Post and the accompanying Recommendations Post for our Bingo for 2026!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] TheFerventLion@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I just finished Automatic Noodle, Annalee Newitz, which was pretty okay. The themes about trans and marginalized groups rights were well done with the robot analog. Unfortunately I thought the dialogue was cringey at times and I never resonated with any of the characters. I enjoyed the setting and world building, but the length and rushed pace of the piece compounded my negative feelings.

Currently reading A Parade of Horribles, Matt Dinniman, which I'm enjoying but feel like the zaniness is maybe getting out of hand? Well see, only a quarter in.

[–] oats@piefed.zip 4 points 1 week ago

Oh yeah, automatic noodle left me wishing there'd be more done with that world!

[–] dkppunk@piefed.social 4 points 1 week ago

I felt that way about her book Autonomous. I thought her message about autonomy was great, but the book got a little cringy at times. I’m still happy I read it and I will recommend it to folks I think will enjoy it, but it was a bit underwhelming.

The part that was really cringy for me was

SpoilerWhen one of the characters was helping the bot aim correctly at a shooting range, then he got a hard on from shooting the bot’s gun. Just kinda weird.