"Kaiju Agonistes" by Scott Lynch in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 62, January/February 2025 by Scott Lynch Format: ebook
Source: supplied by publisher via Hugo Packet
Formats available: magazine
Genres: alternate history, science fiction, short stories
Series: Uncanny Magazine Issue 62 January/February 2025
Pages: 46
Published by Uncanny Magazine on January 7, 2025
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo
Goodreads
The January/February 2025 issue of Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine.
Featuring new fiction by Scott Lynch, J.R. Dawson, Tia Tashiro, Tade Thompson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Rati Mehrotra, and AnaMaria Curtis. Essays by Nicholas Whyte, Ai Jiang, A.T. Greenblatt, and Suzanne Walker, poetry by Kaliee Pedersen, Mari Ness, Shankar Narayan, and E. N. Díaz, interviews with Scott Lynch and Rati Mehotra by Caroline M. Yoachim, a cover by Maxine Vee, and an editorial by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas.
Uncanny Magazine is a bimonthly science fiction and fantasy magazine first published in November 2014. Edited by 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 Hugo award winners for best semiprozine, and 2018 Hugo award winners for Best Editor, Short Form, Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, Betsy Aoki, and Monte Lin, each issue of Uncanny includes new stories, poetry, articles, and interviews.
My Review:
I finished this one first in my Hugo readings, then realized it hadn’t been discussed yet in the Hugo Readalong on reddit. so I saved this until it gets there so I can see if there’s anything I missed. (Which it has here.)
I have to say that this one was fun. In fact, as this is now the fourth review in my series, this is the first one that HAS been fun. Which is to be expected based on the reputation of the author, Scott Lynch. I’ve never read his Gentlemen Bastard series (The Lies of Locke Lamora) but based on how much I enjoyed this story – mostly for its jaundiced view of humanity and its snarkitude – I clearly need to start.
The idea of this has been done before in SF. The idea that life on Earth and other planets was seeded by some alien race for whatever reason of their own. What’s interesting in this story is that the reason wasn’t just benevolent or observing until the planet was ripe for plucking or needed to be obliterated or anything else.
Instead of life in general being seeded, in this case it’s one life in particular. One little seed whose job is to bunker down somewhere deep and dark and above all (or below all as the case may be) – like the Marianas Trench – and wait and watch and GROW. Humanity is being observed, but only for one specific thing.
Nuclear power.
Because the aliens have discovered that nuclear power is the road to planetary extinction. The (formerly) little seed’s job is to watch and wait until and unless the humans start playing with dangerous and destructive things they REALLY don’t understand.
Which, of course, we did. The problem is that the alien only observed our science. It didn’t take into account our behavior.
And that’s where the story and the fun come in. Along with the snark. Because the alien tries to warn us into putting away our dangerous toys. Which doesn’t work AT ALL. In fact, because this story takes place during the Cold War and does a great job of sending up all the attitudes about that mess, the alien’s threats make things worse.
It’s a literal nuclear arms race set off by an alien who wanted to prevent a nuclear arms race. The irony is delicious. The way that history morphs and twists under the threat is fantastic. (Also reminds me a bit of Three Miles Down by Harry Turtledove – which I’ve suddenly realized is considerably more apropos in more ways than I originally thought!)
The alien is LOSING this race. Not because it’s not capable of decisively eliminating us, but because that’s the exact opposite of what it’s programmed to do.
The solution to the problem is both elegant and hilarious. This might be my winner. It’s certainly a winner and a good reading time.
Escape Rating A-: For an author who doesn’t write a lot of short work, he certainly managed to hit the bull’s eye with this one. The story is exactly right for this length. It builds piece by piece, it takes just enough world time to get to its solution, and it’s both thought provoking and a quick, fun read.
I also found the Cold War setting, particularly the portrayal of Richard Nixon, to be both hilarious and spot on. At this point in my reading, this is either my number one or number two pick. We’ll see how that goes as my reading continues.
I’ve been eagerly waiting to see if the reviewers in the readalong agreed – which turned out to be interesting because most of them didn’t enjoy this one nearly as much as I did. Clearly, as always, reading mileages definitely varied.