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EarthCent Ambassador #21
Substitutes on Union Station
Ambassador McAllister is drafted to stand in as EarthCent's acting president on Earth as the New World's Fair gets underway. Daniel and Ofer fill in on Union Station, where the alien ambassadors have been saving up work to spare the aging Kelly. Magic is in the air, in Baa's Bags, and on the Grenouthian network.
- GenresScience Fiction
262 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 1, 2023
55 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
E.M. Foner
60 books247 followersI wrote Date Night on Union Station while taking a break from work on a science fiction epic I've been struggling with for years. The goal was to cheer myself up and to find out if there is still an audience for a science fiction comedy that gets its laughs from dialogue and funny situations rather than from gross-outs and shocks. As many readers have pointed out, the EarthCent series could be rated PG under the old fashioned system, no bloodshed, no graphic sex, no four letter words. And after years of imagining a galaxy for my epic in which multiple human civilizations are at war with each other, it did me a world of good to write about a galaxy where most people are just trying to make a living and find some joy in life. I received so many requests to extend the Date Night universe into a series that I put aside my epic for an extended period to write a sequel, Alien Night on Union Station. The events take place five years after the conclusion of Date Night, and the plot involves a mix of business, diplomacy, gaming and family relations. As a bonus, we finally get to meet Kelly's mother. After the positive response to Alien Night, I wrote a third book for the series, High Priest of Union Station, which is currently in the editing stage and due out in mid-October. I just started a book that extends the EarthCent galaxy with a different mission and cast of characters, though they may intersect at some point.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 14, 2023
Thanks for the series - an entertaining antidote to life's challenges
Life is hard for everyone eventually, much of the time for the last 20 years I have had a lot to deal with. So in some respects my tough part of life has been extended and extensive. Physical pain or loss of ability is tough to deal with and my ways have been to rely on grinding toughness i learned in the military.. . And reading. For years i read fantasy, or horror, and to a lesser extent some poplular thriller series like Clancy's Jack Ryan books.
Reading initially was a way to get past pain and fill the lost hours of the day where work, and even socializing, once were a part of life. Habit and my past had me reading grim books like The Chronicles of the Black Company etc. As i always did as a kid, as a soldier, and when i had free time in college or early in my career, but this was habit and slow desperation.... A way to both pass time being entertained AND slowly at first but more as years passed - a way to be connected to society and not be lonely.
I knew that I came to look forward to Mark Lawrence's series and some of the other better writers, but I began reading more sci fi and had all but stopped reading horror. I KNEW my habits had changed, but didnt pin down why i had come to prefer some almost pulp series over great books. I looked forward to Starship Mage series over works of art level books = like Joe Abercrombie - who if Im honest is 100% the best grimdark writer ever.
It was not until i downloaded the first Union Station book BY ACCIDENT that i actually found a series that made me HAPPY. It is sometimes possible tobe wntertaines,or even become immersed in a book or movie ro the point that i can ignore the pain which colors most of me, my thoughts, physical activity, and even my emotional state. But it is rare, fleeting, and while i had hours of entertainment and some pain relief from the Gentleman Bastards, or laughed at Jasper when he cracks a joke and shoots a bad guy.... Even character driven things like the fuel for Shadow and Bone..... Or other great stories.... Didn't KEEP me happy for hours after i stopped reading.
I am rambling now, but on my best days i honestly could not tell WHY these shorter sci fi comedy near future books impacted me. I was curious, noticed an inexplicable LOVE for the books, but i had a blind spot as to the caause. The WHY.
THEN.... I realized that I wasnt really looking internally, and i wasnt looking into the content of the books.... Beyond appreciating and noticing a lower level of repeating previous work at the beginning of.... And/or during the unfolding of each chapter or upon the reappearance of each recurring character - as even one of my favorite writers Will Wight does during the GREAT series he writes even the Cradle books.
So it was not tehnical brilliance, and despite how much i like the laack of reppitortion - that was not the cause for me searching out all the books and relates series.
While reading the back of the book, and signing up for the Author-SPAM (so as not to miss a book).... I SAW IN PLAIN WORDS "Why".
No killing. No war. No needless violence. And HOPE.
So, if you were bored enough with YOUR life to get this far into my insensate tangential rambling of a post.... Realize this for yourself - eventually we all end up like me if only for a bit.
You may say i am not a morose old ex soldier, Ivy League grad, or even male. You maay not be straight, white, American, right handed, an athiest, agnostic, or any of the maany relions out there which differ from my beliefs.
However, we ALL GO THROUGH Misery, pain, and most of us have times where we are lonely. You will have tough times, and some of you have lives soooo much harder than mine.
There are few things that you can count on to be both entertaining and positive without being pointlessly saccarine and usially religous if some flavor. These books keepp you entertained while staying away from the darkest of human vices.
They are entertaining, serial in nature, where. People GROW and get old having kids and jobs along the way. All the answers are not there , and still he managees to create enough tension to be engrossing.
But there is an inate hopefulness for the future, for people eventually, and we managee to care about the people (aliens included) all while avoiding the darkness ... Which is at the core of what I read for most of my life.
I would like to thank Foner for the books and the time i spent in Union Station or on Flower or the Earth of the not so distant future.
I am not going to look deeper at the books, or even into E.M Foner. I am just appreciative of the world i can escape to when misery tries to beat me down. Visiting with Jeeves and his mom, or thier human friends, is a treat I look forward to more than Harry's Fruitcake.
Thanks, and please continue.
Duane
Life is hard for everyone eventually, much of the time for the last 20 years I have had a lot to deal with. So in some respects my tough part of life has been extended and extensive. Physical pain or loss of ability is tough to deal with and my ways have been to rely on grinding toughness i learned in the military.. . And reading. For years i read fantasy, or horror, and to a lesser extent some poplular thriller series like Clancy's Jack Ryan books.
Reading initially was a way to get past pain and fill the lost hours of the day where work, and even socializing, once were a part of life. Habit and my past had me reading grim books like The Chronicles of the Black Company etc. As i always did as a kid, as a soldier, and when i had free time in college or early in my career, but this was habit and slow desperation.... A way to both pass time being entertained AND slowly at first but more as years passed - a way to be connected to society and not be lonely.
I knew that I came to look forward to Mark Lawrence's series and some of the other better writers, but I began reading more sci fi and had all but stopped reading horror. I KNEW my habits had changed, but didnt pin down why i had come to prefer some almost pulp series over great books. I looked forward to Starship Mage series over works of art level books = like Joe Abercrombie - who if Im honest is 100% the best grimdark writer ever.
It was not until i downloaded the first Union Station book BY ACCIDENT that i actually found a series that made me HAPPY. It is sometimes possible tobe wntertaines,or even become immersed in a book or movie ro the point that i can ignore the pain which colors most of me, my thoughts, physical activity, and even my emotional state. But it is rare, fleeting, and while i had hours of entertainment and some pain relief from the Gentleman Bastards, or laughed at Jasper when he cracks a joke and shoots a bad guy.... Even character driven things like the fuel for Shadow and Bone..... Or other great stories.... Didn't KEEP me happy for hours after i stopped reading.
I am rambling now, but on my best days i honestly could not tell WHY these shorter sci fi comedy near future books impacted me. I was curious, noticed an inexplicable LOVE for the books, but i had a blind spot as to the caause. The WHY.
THEN.... I realized that I wasnt really looking internally, and i wasnt looking into the content of the books.... Beyond appreciating and noticing a lower level of repeating previous work at the beginning of.... And/or during the unfolding of each chapter or upon the reappearance of each recurring character - as even one of my favorite writers Will Wight does during the GREAT series he writes even the Cradle books.
So it was not tehnical brilliance, and despite how much i like the laack of reppitortion - that was not the cause for me searching out all the books and relates series.
While reading the back of the book, and signing up for the Author-SPAM (so as not to miss a book).... I SAW IN PLAIN WORDS "Why".
No killing. No war. No needless violence. And HOPE.
So, if you were bored enough with YOUR life to get this far into my insensate tangential rambling of a post.... Realize this for yourself - eventually we all end up like me if only for a bit.
You may say i am not a morose old ex soldier, Ivy League grad, or even male. You maay not be straight, white, American, right handed, an athiest, agnostic, or any of the maany relions out there which differ from my beliefs.
However, we ALL GO THROUGH Misery, pain, and most of us have times where we are lonely. You will have tough times, and some of you have lives soooo much harder than mine.
There are few things that you can count on to be both entertaining and positive without being pointlessly saccarine and usially religous if some flavor. These books keepp you entertained while staying away from the darkest of human vices.
They are entertaining, serial in nature, where. People GROW and get old having kids and jobs along the way. All the answers are not there , and still he managees to create enough tension to be engrossing.
But there is an inate hopefulness for the future, for people eventually, and we managee to care about the people (aliens included) all while avoiding the darkness ... Which is at the core of what I read for most of my life.
I would like to thank Foner for the books and the time i spent in Union Station or on Flower or the Earth of the not so distant future.
I am not going to look deeper at the books, or even into E.M Foner. I am just appreciative of the world i can escape to when misery tries to beat me down. Visiting with Jeeves and his mom, or thier human friends, is a treat I look forward to more than Harry's Fruitcake.
Thanks, and please continue.
Duane
July 6, 2023
another great novel about union station
‘EM Foner continues his union station trip. It is filled with his wonderful one liners and what I like is the respect for the reader. No lengthy repeat of the back story as some writers do. Kelly is now 67 and some of the travails she goes thru I can empathize with as I am only a few years older than she is.
There is a small setup for a future story and while I won’t ruin the story describing it I hope the author takes advantage of it. I enjoyed the story and highly recommend it
‘EM Foner continues his union station trip. It is filled with his wonderful one liners and what I like is the respect for the reader. No lengthy repeat of the back story as some writers do. Kelly is now 67 and some of the travails she goes thru I can empathize with as I am only a few years older than she is.
There is a small setup for a future story and while I won’t ruin the story describing it I hope the author takes advantage of it. I enjoyed the story and highly recommend it
July 7, 2023
on other great addition
Most of these fictional books collections the publishers make the authors keep publishing get old after the third installment. Mr Foner’s interpretation of the future always remains interesting.
Most of these fictional books collections the publishers make the authors keep publishing get old after the third installment. Mr Foner’s interpretation of the future always remains interesting.
October 13, 2023
E.M. Foner does it again. These books just keep getting better. In this one Ambassador Kelly McAllister ends up filling in for the Earth Cent president while he goes on sabbatical. This puts in place a host of people substituting for their colleagues, hence the title. Kelly and Joe are on earth, primarily responsible for taking diplomats through the New World's Fair, but is there more to the assignment than meets the eye. Foner left some unanswered questions in this one which makes me look forward to the next book. One of the things I love about these books is you can see the author moving his characters into greater levels of authority. This along with advancing the story line allows Foner to do one of the things he does best, develop strong characters. I know I say this in most if not all of my reviews, but E.M. Foner delivers Science Fiction with a difference. These stories are fun, and deal more with interactions between different people than with laser blasts. I've read all of this author's substantial collection of books and I've thoroughly enjoyed them. They are very much a serials, so I recommend jumping in with Destiny: Union Station and going along for the ride.
September 6, 2025
Kelly McAllister loves her job as EarthCent's ambassador on Union Station. However, as she gets older she would like to slow down a bit. She has written a proposal for ambassadors to have an option to work part-time after they have put in a sufficient number of years. However, the proposal has been languishing in the president’s office. Kelly really does not want to take on the job of substituting for the EarthCent president while he takes a sabbatical. However, it is pointed out to her that in her acting position she could sign the part-time proposal. Another fun entry in the series.
December 15, 2025
I started at the beginning all those years ago
I found this series of normal people dealing with a sudden alien appearance in their lives. It would be interesting to find out that we had neighbors coming to dinner; how would we react? I really like the conversational approach to the stories and characters, no big battles, no over-the-top sex, just people trying to survive and thrive. I can commiserate with Kelly; I’m 70, and the old memory isn’t as good as it once was. I have the next in line ready to be read.
I found this series of normal people dealing with a sudden alien appearance in their lives. It would be interesting to find out that we had neighbors coming to dinner; how would we react? I really like the conversational approach to the stories and characters, no big battles, no over-the-top sex, just people trying to survive and thrive. I can commiserate with Kelly; I’m 70, and the old memory isn’t as good as it once was. I have the next in line ready to be read.
July 8, 2023
this time out the story is set on Earth as well as Union Station,
Kelly is all but tricked into taking over the job of Earth’s president, ( temporarily )
only to find herself as a tour guide for Alien Ambassadors…
the union station storyline is set in the dress factory with changes occurring.
it’s a truly fun ride which i ( disappointingly) finished too quickly,
i now await the next in the series…
Kelly is all but tricked into taking over the job of Earth’s president, ( temporarily )
only to find herself as a tour guide for Alien Ambassadors…
the union station storyline is set in the dress factory with changes occurring.
it’s a truly fun ride which i ( disappointingly) finished too quickly,
i now await the next in the series…
October 29, 2023
Maybe its me
Dreary. A few interesting bits at the World Fair, but the book is mostly a heap of teasers for future books. No diplomacy, just meetings with aliens who only want to negotiate with the Human Empire. And not even a hint of those negotiations. Maybe Foner needs to send all the original human characters over a cliff in a bus, or some such, instead of wasting space on a bunch of geriatrics. Before anyone complains, I'm allowed to say that: I am one.
Dreary. A few interesting bits at the World Fair, but the book is mostly a heap of teasers for future books. No diplomacy, just meetings with aliens who only want to negotiate with the Human Empire. And not even a hint of those negotiations. Maybe Foner needs to send all the original human characters over a cliff in a bus, or some such, instead of wasting space on a bunch of geriatrics. Before anyone complains, I'm allowed to say that: I am one.
July 4, 2023
Book 21 in the series
Well written and interesting. The story is set on Union Station and on Earth at the new world’s fair. Kelly and her team go to Earth for six months so substitutes are needed to continue the work on Union Station. Themes from previous books are used throughout the story. A great read.
Well written and interesting. The story is set on Union Station and on Earth at the new world’s fair. Kelly and her team go to Earth for six months so substitutes are needed to continue the work on Union Station. Themes from previous books are used throughout the story. A great read.
July 31, 2023
And so it goes
More adventures with Kelly as she takes over as President of Earth,temporarily while the worlds fair is going on! She seems to be in charge of meeting grandchildren of present day planetary rulers,for tours of earth social activities from different cultures! Baa gets interested in a majic finding show and I hope it has more told about it in the next stories!
More adventures with Kelly as she takes over as President of Earth,temporarily while the worlds fair is going on! She seems to be in charge of meeting grandchildren of present day planetary rulers,for tours of earth social activities from different cultures! Baa gets interested in a majic finding show and I hope it has more told about it in the next stories!
August 2, 2023
I am glad that there are so many other series for me to read in this “universe”. Otherwise I would be sad to be at the end of such a wonderful tale. After I’ve read them all, I’ll use the correct chronology to re-read them in the correct order. These books are giving me so much joy. I certainly wish the Strix really would gone to save us. :-D
July 2, 2023
Another great chapter of the EartCent universe.
I've been hooked to this series since it began. I look forward to the next installment. E.M. Foner has created a wonderful universe that keeps me riveted.
I've been hooked to this series since it began. I look forward to the next installment. E.M. Foner has created a wonderful universe that keeps me riveted.
July 5, 2023
Really?
How many generations are we in this series? We started with Kelly in her 30s and now she is in her sixties with grandchildren roaming around. And yet, the world keep on going and going
How many generations are we in this series? We started with Kelly in her 30s and now she is in her sixties with grandchildren roaming around. And yet, the world keep on going and going
July 7, 2023
More robo nannies.
Would a dramatis personoe be too blocky? I reccomend getting the three bundle union station to start. Will the ambassador retire to Flower? No married couples seem to die or get divorced? No adultery eithor?
Would a dramatis personoe be too blocky? I reccomend getting the three bundle union station to start. Will the ambassador retire to Flower? No married couples seem to die or get divorced? No adultery eithor?
July 16, 2023
who doesn’t like the world’s fair?
Continuing story of ambassador Kelly McAllister and the union station gang. Slowing down a bit with age but still in the game. As always, i enjoyed the thoughtful and humorous story telling of E.M. Foner.
Continuing story of ambassador Kelly McAllister and the union station gang. Slowing down a bit with age but still in the game. As always, i enjoyed the thoughtful and humorous story telling of E.M. Foner.
July 27, 2023
Enjoyed returning to the original series characters
Another quick paced and engaging story! I enjoyed being back with Kelly McAllister and many others from the original series. As always, looking forward to the next book in the series!
Another quick paced and engaging story! I enjoyed being back with Kelly McAllister and many others from the original series. As always, looking forward to the next book in the series!
July 4, 2023
Engaging and interesting, one of my favorite series
July 12, 2023
Always fun
Another great installment. If you are new to this series, go start at the beginning or you will be totally lost. You won't be sorry!
Another great installment. If you are new to this series, go start at the beginning or you will be totally lost. You won't be sorry!
July 2, 2023
This series and spinoffs are a favorite. Characters grow, have families, the children grow and become major players in a plan that spans years and stars. But we readers experience the up close interactions between people - humans and aliens - and glimpse hints of a big plan in the background. It's the up close friendships that make these books a joy. The interesting ideas and humor make these books fun.
This book was quieter, maybe a bit of a transition piece, tying events together for the future.
I loved it.
This book was quieter, maybe a bit of a transition piece, tying events together for the future.
I loved it.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews