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Dragons. Light. Raiders. Lightraiders! One shepherd boy with four companions, plus a talking silver wolf, begin their quest to restore the Lightraider Order, destroy a portal, and stop an invasion. So begins novelist James R. Hannibal’s Lightraider Academy series book 1, Wolf Soldier. It’s releasing Tuesday, Oct. 26, and we’re hosting James again to explore this new young-adult fantasy.

James R. Hannibal arrives in his magic wheelchair

Former stealth pilot James R. Hannibal is no stranger to secrets and adventure. He has been shot at, locked up by surface to air missiles, has hunted insurgents with drones, and was once chased by an armed terrorist down a winding German road. James is the Carol Award–winning author of the Clandestine Service series and a three-time winner of the Silver Falchion Award for Juvenile Fiction for his Section 13 series. He also stewards the discipleship learning system game DragonRaid, soon to be relaunched as LightRaiders. His newest novel, Wolf Soldier, released Oct. 26, 2021 as book 1 in the Lightraider Academy series.

• LightRaiders.com
• JamesRHannibal.com
• Fantastical Truth episode 70: Why Did a 1980s Televangelist Try to Cancel the RPG DragonRaid? | with James R. Hannibal

Special note

• Zackary Russell is absent this episode.
• He may have delved too deep into alien secrets.
• We’re confident the men in black will soon return him to us.

Exploring the ‘verse of Lightraider Academy

1. How did you find biblical faith, fantastical stories, and military fiction?
2. What led you to create in the world of Lightraiders?
3. What’s next for Lightraiders, including book and game updates?

Com station

Jessica responded quickly to episode 82 with L. G. McCary:

Ten minutes into the discussion of the novel, I purchased That Pale Host. Psychological thrillers are always intriguing, and Christian fiction definitely needs more of them. A good example of this genre is Thr3e by Ted Dekker. It was the first novel I read that showed me that Christian fiction exists outside of the Amish and “Hallmark” world. It was an eye-opener, and it set me on my path to speculative fiction in the world of Christian literature.

@KalebAxon on Twitter liked episode 84 with Daniel Silliman and Reading Evangelicals:

So this is kind of fascinating. Christian fiction after I stopped reading Christian fiction, and how it helped shape a culture that I drifted away from during that same time.

(I don’t consider secular-market Christian work like that of CS Lewis to be “Christian” in the sense discussed here.)

Next on Fantastical Truth

Halloween lies ahead, and scarily enough, we haven’t yet talked about this topic on Fantastical Truth. Yes. We have thoughts. I’m still hoping to get my dragon inflatable on the lawn in time for trick-or-treaters. But there’s one kind of spooky decoration that I don’t find whimsical or fun—instead, it’s flippant, and doesn’t help people confront sobering realities of darkness and death.