More like 3,5*

This was a wild ride and most of the time I didn't know what was happening. I didn't really need to though. But I do suspect that's more because I'm easygoing and don't get frustrated if things feel random in a story.

I like the idea behind the story but it feels like the way it's told it's too short to do the story justice. There is a sequel but the ending of this book was a bit abrupt.

I'm still bitter about some characters. And for such a short story it's amazing that I even got to like them. ( )

A Red Peace is the first volume in the Starfire trilogy. A Space Opera that is both familiar in its themes but has a major difference in the positioning of the protagonists.
The main 'good guys' in this battle for supremacy are the Human/Jorian crossbreeds. Known colloquially as Crosses.

"Like all his troops, he’d been grown in a vat, yanked out slimy and febrile by mechanized arms, given a data dump to serve as his memories, given a number without a name, and loaded onto a drop ship to be another casualty in an unwinnable war. They had called them cannon fodder. Ugly, but necessary."

The enemy these cross troops are fighting are the human dynastic Royal Empire. The leader of this revolution is John Starfire whom we meet in the Overture/Prologue. It is here we also learn of his determination after the successful revolution.

“I’m thinking,” he said. “I think we can finally do it.”
“Do it?” His Vanguard looked between themselves, clearly wondering what was left to do.
“You know the order,” he said.
“The order?” one of them asked.
“Directive zero.”
They stared back blankly.
“It’s time,” he said, “to kill every human in this galaxy.”

So this is a twist, humans are now the bad guys.

The other two main characters are also crosses, although with a difference.
Jaqi is a natural born cross and has what appears to be a unique feeling for navigating the Nodes (wormholes) the Jurian planted throughout the galaxy to aid in navigation.
Araskar is a vat grown warrior elite known as the Vanguard.

"If you’re like me, your vat batch is your family. And my batch mates, my battalion, all my best friends, died the moment they boarded our first Imperial vessel, turned to blood and meat by shard-fire. Only I, last out of the burrowing pod, survived.
Then I killed half that ship with my own vat-grown hands. Got the Resistance’s highest medal for it. Irony’s a cold bitch, ai?

So begins this fast paced Space Opera populated with a wide variety of alien beings ("'The people here are a mix of races. Zarra. Rorgs. Tall, bony, thin-faced, fanged Grevans. Keekuks, the “crickets,” on their segmented, springing legs.") and Science which you have to take on face values as it isn't explained in any detail.

The pace is swift , the characters are believable and their various scrapes and skin of their teeth escapes are not implausible. ( )