As the world goes on and history continues to be one damn thing after another, I often hear people comparing present events and circumstances to various dystopian novels—1984, Fahrenheit 451, and Brave New World being constant favorites. However, on the rare occasions that I make the mistake of turning on the news, I am reminded most of an obscure series of children’s chapter books called the Spirit Flyer series, by John Bibee.
I had not read these books since I was a small child, and they were intended for a niche readership, so when I recently went looking for them, I expected to have to dredge up informational tidbits from dark corners of the internet. However, it turns out that the books have their fans, and three of them (there are eight in total) are currently available on Kindle.*
The first of these books, The Magic Bicycle, was published in . Written from an explicitly Evangelical Christian perspective, The Magic Bicycle is an early example of what came to be known as “CBA fiction” (CBA stands for Christian Booksellers’ Association). It also comes from the era of the so-called “Satanic Panic,” which informs much of its imagery. It is a precursor to the most successful, or at least best-known, CBA novel, Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness (), which it somewhat resembles, albeit without Peretti’s stylistic finesse.
Peretti’s work is largely responsible for popularizing a movement within Pentecostal Christianity called “Spiritual Warfare,” which involves finding out the names of “Territorial Spirits” who control various places and things, and presuming to command them. (Older Christian sects would consider such activities superstitious, dangerous, or both.) In any case, at least one site sees a link between the Spirit Flyer books and the Spiritual Warfare movement, which may or may not be accurate.
Although an adult reader will immediately notice their shortcomings, the Spirit Flyer books stuck in my mind after I read a handful of them as a child. They contain exceptionally weird imagery and a set of villains capable of terrifying the youngest readers; indeed, I recall that I attempted to read one of these books (I think it was book 3, The Only Game in Town), and quit because I found some of the content too disturbing.
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