Spencer Ellsworth

Fantastic novelette, one that leaped right onto my awards shortlist. This is sci-fi at its best as it examines the human condition on an alien world where Muslim and Christian settlers contend with native beings called kites who have converted to Islam. And the kites are dying. There are suspicions that the illness is human-caused. The protagonist is an atheist Muslim doctor--what a wonderful perspective to follow!--who finds himself dropped into an escalating religious conflict--and perhaps show more a genocide. Very thought-provoking and deep stuff. show less

The second volume in Ellsworth's fun new space opera series recreates a heist caper with soul-stealing swords, gigantic bugs, and a reluctant saint. I can't wait for the third book!

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 show more 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. show less

Leider muss ich für Band 2 die gleichen Kritikpunkte anführen, wie in Band 1. Spencer Ellsworth rauscht durch die Geschichte, so dass keine Zeit bleibt für mehr Tiefgang bei den Figuren oder dem Worldbuilding.

Auch wenn Jaqi sich nachvollziehbarer Weise schwer tut mit ihrer Rolle als Auserwählte, so ist es doch einfach nur anstrengend ihr Gemecker darüber zu lesen. Zudem hat sie in diesem Buch noch weniger Selbstbewusstsein als in Band 1, was sich immer derart äußerte, dass sie über show more sich selbst nie etwas Gutes dachte. Es hat nichts mit Realismus zu tun und ich war es irgendwann leid zu lesen, dass sie sich selbst immer wieder als Assi bezeichnete.

Auch Araskar erfuhr keinerlei persönliche Weiterentwicklung und seine ständigen Grübeleien über seine Entscheidung in Band 1 waren auf Dauer ebenso anstrengend wie Jaqis self-deprecation (mir fehlt dazu das passende Wort in Deutsch).

Ich finde das alles ein bisschen schade, denn sowohl die Figuren als auch das geschaffene Universum haben eigentlich richtig viel Potential. Leider wurde das komplett verschenkt. Der Erzählstil ist noch dazu eher locker-flapsig, was nicht zwingend etwas schlechtes sein muss, aber zum eher negativen Gesamteindruck beiträgt.

Fazit:
Für mich findet die Starfire-Reihe mit Starfire – Rebellion ein Ende. Ich bezweifle, dass sich in den kommenden Bänden große Veränderungen ergeben werden. Wie Band 1 ist auch Band 2 schnell gelesen, aber zuviel erwarten sollte man tatsächlich nicht und wie Band 1 werde ich auch diesen schnell wieder vergessen haben. Schade eigentlich. show less