Issue 10 - Spring 2025

Kindness and Courage

Photo by Kent Banes on Unsplash

Welcome to the Spring 2025 issue of Androids and Dragons!

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, where I live, the days are getting longer, bringing us more light in a literal sense. And yet, in another sense, it feels like we are entering a very dark time. One of the most powerful people on the planet claims that empathy is a weakness and a threat to western civilization. Androids and Dragons has never been an overtly political publication. However, we will not be silent in the face of calls for less empathy and compassion.

As those in power urge us to be less empathetic, less compassionate, less inclusive, showing kindness can take courage. The stories in this issue each feature acts of kindness that require courage. In some cases, characters put their trust in someone or something they have reason to fear—a dragon, a fellow inmate in an interplanetary prison with a different language and culture, a wild animal on a newly discovered planet. In others, characters defy prevailing norms and rules. In one story, a young woman places herself in harm’s way so her sister will not die alone. In another, a painfully shy bird overcomes his self-doubt to offer solace to an ailing friend. In our final tale, a dragon helps a human being escape danger even though humans have hunted dragons to the brink of extinction.

Although courageous acts of kindness or trust and friendship are not central to all of these stories, each story does at least contain that element. What’s more, every one of these stories is entertaining and engaging, with the power to transport readers to a different place or time. In dark days like these, fiction can act as a balm for the soul. I hope this issue’s stories will provide you with just such a balm.

The following stories will be presented on the dates noted:

• “Claer’s Hoard” by Maureen Bowden (March 31)

• “Someone Call Shadow Control!” by Emmie Christie (April 7)

• “A Reckoning at the Far Edge of Nowhere” by Thomas Koperwas (April 14)

• “The Life and Death of a Crimson Dragon” by Caleb Call (April 21)

• “Babel of Silence” by E.J. LeRoy (April 28)

• “The Magic of Love” by Lana Nizhehorodova (May 5)

• “FIDO” by Jenna Hanan Moore (May 12)

• “When It Breaks” by Hannah Greer (May 19)

• “The Fox and the Unicorns” by Chase Anderson (May 26)

• “Where the Filed Things Are” by Miriah Hetherington (June 2)

• “Nine Lives” by Petina Strohmer (June 9)

• “Myths and Legends” by Sarena Flanigan (June 16)