Soup Night on Union Station

EarthCent Ambassador #17

by E.M. Foner

Book #17 of the EarthCent Ambassador series. Start series with the three book bundle, Union Station 1, 2, 3.

EarthCent bids to take over editorship of the All Species Cookbook, an exercise in galactic togetherness that has somehow gone off mission over the last couple million years. Samuel and Vivian struggle to find a balance between their co-op jobs for aliens and their personal lives. Dorothy seeks to revive the fortunes of her ballroom dancing fashions.

Genres: Science Fiction

204 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 30, 2019

About the author

I 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.

Reviews

[Jessica Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite series!

If you've never read the series start with the first four and you're good to go. I like to call this series lighthearted but not lightheaded. Give it a try! Seriously!

[james · Rating 5 out of 5]

As many will suspect, the tale of Stone Soup will indeed make an appearance in this installment of the Earthcent Ambassador series. The haphazard bumbling of the humans, carefully orchestrated by the Stryx sentient AI species, abounds in this volume as it did with the previous 16 books. And despite only being provisional members of the tunnel network for less than a century, the humans win the monopoly bid for crafting the next All Species Cookbook, inheriting a millennia of interspecies strife created by the previous volumes of the cryptic cookbook.

Well written, comedic, and engaging storylines await readers to the ever evolving characters and their place in the vast universe.

How many others thought of "To Serve Man (Twilight Zone)" at this book's first mention of All Species Cookbook?

[shannon Stubbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

All species cook book and espionage

There's more than just coming out with the humans version of the All Species Cookbook, there's espionage a foot on Union Station. There's also match making and dancing. Even a bombshell dropped towards the end. Its always fun visiting the McAlister family and friends.

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Soup Night on Union Station is the seventeenth adventure of Kelly and the EarthCent crew. Although it's not strictly required that you read all or any of the previous books in the series, I'd recommend it if only because the cast of characters is evergrowing and ever-more intertwined. Having read a few of the previous volumes can help the reader keep better track of who's who. That said, this is another fun, quick volume about the difficulties of being the new kid on an old, old block.

This time around, EarthCent has taken on the challenge of compiling and editing the All Species Cookbook, a notoriously ill-fated endeavor that has grown so cumbersome that other species refuse to even bid for the privilege of editing it anymore. But, as usual, EarthCent's crew are beyond good at thinking on their feet and even better at enlisting one another to band together to overcome any obstacle that gets thrown at them.

EarthCent Ambassador books occupy an unusual place in the ranks of science-fiction - utopic, violence-free, and sweetly innocent yet compelling and warm almost despite themselves. Well worth your time and money.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

EarthCent ambassador Kelly McAllister decides to bid on compiling the next edition of the All Species Cookbook. The previous history of the cookbook is problematic. It has traditionally been published in a language specially fabricated that is incomprehensible to all but the most determined AI (thus avoiding lawsuits). This series continues in the tradition of presenting lively, entertaining stories without resort to violence. It’s unfortunate that the audiobook series has not continued since it had such an engaging reader.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

These would fill a bookshelf in the old days.

Strong entry in the series. Buy the introductory three pack, it's a bargain. The humans are trying to assemble a multi species cookbook and figure out what the neandertals want. College kids are brilliant and capable.... Must be a work of fiction🤔

[Groucho42 · Rating 3 out of 5]

They're all too much the same and blurring together. It's not that they're bad, and the characters' lives continue to advance, but the scenarios are all the same, there are too many stories that just aren't interesting, and I'm just becoming bored. This one has something to do with a recipe book that makes no sense. I'm not sure I'll read another.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been reading the Earth Cent ambassador stories for a while and still really enjoy them. They’re not always laugh out loud funny, but they are amusing and a fun read. I really enjoy the characters and their friends and associates and enjoy keeping in touch with their lives. I’ve already downloaded the next in the series.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intrigue and a cookbook

Kelly and EarthCent win the contract to produce the new edition of the All Species Cookbook and does it not in the traditional way. Meanwhile, plans and plots abound. A fun read.

[Norman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our ambassador needs to up her game

Our alien overlords set up the ambassador, foisting an alien onto her office as a co-op intern. The Neanderthals come out and a good time is had.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Science fiction with a little gentle social commentary. Got connected to the characters and I enjoyed watching them all move forward in their lives.

[Elaine Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love in the air

An appealing story and I love the stone soup story reference. Darn you Mr Foner I'm addicted to another story line.

[Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

another great page turner

Really enjoyed the continued development of Kelly and her family in relation to all the other ambassadors and species.
I recommend this entire series.

[Edward Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much improved will read next one

[Dave Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

17 books read and I am still a fan. I know Foner is spinning off into an Assisted Living series, but I really hope I haven't seen the last of Kelly and the gang. This space opera is really good stuff. strong engaging characters and stories that are more real like than one might imagine from SciFi. I love these books and I think you will too.

[john Calkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

E. M. Foner continues to extend his EarthCent saga with another set of plot lines that could hardly seem more trivial that weave into important shifts in the life of the universe he has created. In particular this time is the revising of the ancient interspecies cookbook taken on by the staff of the Human Embassy. They re determined to make it into a useful bunch of recipes using Earth ingredients. In the past, it was a coffee table book that no species could read. While this hardly seems station-shaking, by the time some of the major species twist in various intrigues---with the humans acting as innocent pawns---surprise changes happen to Earth, the Alts, the Vergallians, and the Farlings. If those names aren't familiar readers should start with an earlier volume, preferably Volume One for the maximum amount of fun. And as always, while the humans struggle to catch up to the more advanced species, the advanced species become more humanized by association. Foner has an intricate, fun-loving brain that churns out fiction with matching qualities. I'll probably have read this book a couple more times before his next installment shows up, whatever of his series it may belong to. I can't help it, I like living there.

[Gregory T Norman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cherish these books!

I usually escape with military fiction and hard sci-fi, but this Union Station series is my all time favorite. These books are the perfect antidote to cynicism and trite tropes. Wildly original and the characters are dear friends.

[William Howe · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the good ones

I enjoy how the humans are being lied to and tricked, yet somehow they manage to be key to everyone else’s schemes. While there are far too many named characters, the individual plot lines all tie back into the whole easily.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sneaky Plots

This was an interesting experience in reading,there were four or five different plots in this story that all merged into a great reveal of the Strix interference with in their own systems! very good story

[Kurt M. Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great addition to the series

I enjoyed the twists in this new edition to the series. Good distraction for a few hours. It is worth the read, if you have been reading the previous books in the series.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this light, humorous science fiction series!

Union Station is exactly the of place we humans need to join. Space is calling us to be fumbling but well intentioned diplomats.

[Jackson Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book and this author are consistently entertaining and readable. I have read all Union Station books and wait impatiently for each new book.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another funny Ambassador book.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another amusing almost conflict free entry.