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I downloaded the audiobook of Aubrey Hansen’s novella, Red Rain last October. After reading numerous blog posts and listening to my friends talk about it, I was excited to listen to the story. However, after I let my sisters watch the book trailer, they begged me to wait for them. Several circumstances prevented us from finding time to listen to it, but in early June, we found the time.

The Author:
Aubrey Hansen is a young independent author and screenwriter from Wisconsin. A few of her writing are included in the collaboration The Sword and Pen: The Poetry of Holy Worlds and she plans to publish her first full length novel, Peter’s Angel in the next few months. To learn more about Aubrey and her projects, visit her website: Aubrey Hansen

Technical Details:
Red Rain is seventeen chapters in length. The audio is   hours and    minutes long. Grace Pennington, another young author, recorded the story with animation and clarity. Her voice depth and character to the people of the story. The additional sound effects, as well as the music by Gabriel Hudelson, were the perfect finishing touches to the audio.
 
The Story:
Philadelphia Smyrna lives among her fellow Christians in one of the camps where the United has delegated them. Her mother and brother both dead, Philli only has her father. Life can be difficult, but when every copy of the Bible is destroyed from the Earth and Dr. Smyrna (Philli’s father) is given an assignment on Mars, the girl sees her world coming apart at the seams. A last minute decision and Philli finds herself on Mars, the planet where her brother last worked before his death. Inspiration and desperation sends her on a search: she wants to find her brother’s Bible. Is her search simply going to get her into trouble? Or will she actually be successful? What secrets will she unwittingly uncover?

The Writing Style:
The writing style of Red Rain is cheerful, yet retaining an undertone of sorrow. Easy enough for a child to comprehend, yet engaging enough to capture the attention of a young adult.

The plot was simple, yet not overly so. A little predictable, yet holding a few twists. Science fiction, yet imaginatively believable.

The world that Aubrey created is vividly portrayed, especially on Mars. As for the characters, only two of them had descriptions that stood out for me. If the others were described, my brain either absorbed and used it, or rejected it, imagining them as I pleased.

Overall, it was fairly well written, especially for a first book. I look forward to seeing how Aubrey’s style, plot twists, and command of words develop with time.

The Characters:
The story is told through the eyes of young Philadelphia. Her personality is well developed, her emotions vividly portrayed, and her faith, though shaky at times, remains generally steady. She is almost always respectful to her elders and she truly loves her family.

Among other characters, Dr. Nic is strongly written, and most of the others are fairly written. Only one character really confused me, but as a minor character bad guy, I didn’t let it bother me too much.

As for my favorite character, I’m afraid I couldn’t tell you. Oh, I do have a favorite character, but if I told you who, and why, it would spoil too much of the book.

Conclusion:
My sisters and I thoroughly enjoyed Red Rain. We listened to most of it in one afternoon. Sometime, I hope to get a hard copy (I know my sisters would too!). Until then, I’m sure we’ll be listening to the audio again.

 

To the KING be all the glory!