Podcastle, Episode 9404 for Tuesday the 12th of August 2025.

The Illuminated Dragon by Sarah Prynneus, read by Steve Anderson, and produced by Eric

Valdez, rated G, but with content notes for a couple of scenes with some blood, and for

cruelty, rationalized, insufficiently, of course, by ideology.

Hello and welcome to Podcastle, the Flying Castle of Fantasy Fiction.

I'm your guest host, Wilson Fowley.

While I usually sit in the narrator's chair, today I get to occupy the host seat.

Since I'm recording this at my home, it's actually the same physical chair, but, you know,

metaphorically it's different, somehow.

In any case, today I am privileged to present to you a tale from the vaults for your enjoyment.

The Illuminated Dragon by Sarah Prinius, narrated by Steve Anderson.

This story was first published in the June 3rd, 2002 issue of Strange Horizons, and first published on Podcastle as episode number 18, just over 17 years ago in July 2008.

Sarah Prinius is an American fantasy author who lives in Iowa and once worked for the honors

program at the University of Iowa.

She is married to John Prinius, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Optical Science and Technology Center at the University of Iowa.

They have two children.

Originally from Lyme, Connecticut, Sarah Prinius went to college in Minnesota and has lived in Germany.

Her first novel, The Magic Thief, was published in 2008 by Harper Collins in the U.S.

Two sequels, The Magic Thief Lost and The Magic Thief Found, came out in 2009 and 2010.

Before she turned to novels, Prinius wrote fantasy short stories for adult markets, like this one.

The most recent novel of hers that I could find is Asking for Trouble from 2022.

Part of my motivation for choosing this story was to bring back the voice of Steve Anderson,

...