What do you think?
Rate this book
EarthCent Ambassador #0
Destiny: Union Station
The universe has plans for Kelly and Joe, if only it can get them to the same space station.
Kelly Frank is a junior employee in Earth's diplomatic service who's sick and tired of cleaning up after human tourists behaving badly. Joe McAllister is a reluctant mercenary who's looking for a way out and family-friendly place to start a business and raise an orphaned boy. Will the choices they make in the next few months shape the rest of their lives, or is free will just an illusion in a galaxy managed by ancient artificial intelligence? Destiny: Union Station takes place two years before the start of the nineteen book EarthCent Ambassador series.
Kelly Frank is a junior employee in Earth's diplomatic service who's sick and tired of cleaning up after human tourists behaving badly. Joe McAllister is a reluctant mercenary who's looking for a way out and family-friendly place to start a business and raise an orphaned boy. Will the choices they make in the next few months shape the rest of their lives, or is free will just an illusion in a galaxy managed by ancient artificial intelligence? Destiny: Union Station takes place two years before the start of the nineteen book EarthCent Ambassador series.
- GenresScience Fiction
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 2, 2021
150 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
About the author
E.M. Foner
59 books246 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
February 10, 2022
What can I say? I love this guy's writing. Destiny Union Station is described as a sort of "book zero" in the Union Station series. In it, Foner takes us back to the very beginning and shows us the origins of the protagonists in his series, Joe and Kelly and tells us how they ended up on Union Station. I read the other 19 books in this series, and I love how this book gives us even more of the story. This book is well written and really interesting. One of the things that amazes me as I read these books is how much knowledge the author has of the science behind his science fiction. He fleshes out the background of Joe and Kelly's individual interactions with the alien species that they encounter. There is some really great background information mixed into a very engaging story. As stated earlier I have read all the books in this series, and I used to recommend that people who have not read any of the Union Station books to start with the Union Station 1-3 "box set" Foner offers, but now you can start at the very beginning with Destiny Union Station. This is great stuff and I highly recommend it.
October 10, 2021
Nicely placed
A very good prequel, which leaves room for at least one more. I'd recommend, though, that new readers get at least one of the first of the main series before reading this:it's more fun to see what's coming. Foner is absolutely excellent at exposition. Without detracting from the current plot or pace the whole background and history of the space civilizations is established.
A very good prequel, which leaves room for at least one more. I'd recommend, though, that new readers get at least one of the first of the main series before reading this:it's more fun to see what's coming. Foner is absolutely excellent at exposition. Without detracting from the current plot or pace the whole background and history of the space civilizations is established.
October 10, 2021
Kelly Frank's diplomatic career has had an agonizingly slow and depressing 12-year start. (I said it was slow!) She joined EarthCent to represent Humans in a universe filled with much more advanced aliens. But she hasn't met any yet. Aliens, that is.
Things start to turn around when she befriends a spaceship AI who is surprised by how different she is from most humans. Somehow, she is noticed by and impresses (for a human) a Stryx; a "race" of incredibly powerful AI who are older than any species knows for sure. [See Union Station books 1, 2, and 3.]
Joe McAllister is a decent, hardworking mercenary, with an adopted son. He is getting older and is looking for a good situation (excuse) to settle down and have a real home with his son and very large dog (incidentally an amazingly handy and smart dog).
This book is a prequel to the Union Station series and gives us a fleshed-out version of how the Stryx became matchmakers for the most influential Ambassador humankind has ever had!
It's too short. But I always want these books to go on much longer. I have never read a series that so completely immerses me in a "universe," and I have read a great deal of very good science fiction (and fiction in general).
The Stryx universe is like ours, but so different at the same time. Perhaps a touch idealized, but so appealing, I slip into the stories with no effort at all and come away with a smile. I'm currently waiting for the next adventure.
5/5 Stars, yet again!
Things start to turn around when she befriends a spaceship AI who is surprised by how different she is from most humans. Somehow, she is noticed by and impresses (for a human) a Stryx; a "race" of incredibly powerful AI who are older than any species knows for sure. [See Union Station books 1, 2, and 3.]
Joe McAllister is a decent, hardworking mercenary, with an adopted son. He is getting older and is looking for a good situation (excuse) to settle down and have a real home with his son and very large dog (incidentally an amazingly handy and smart dog).
This book is a prequel to the Union Station series and gives us a fleshed-out version of how the Stryx became matchmakers for the most influential Ambassador humankind has ever had!
It's too short. But I always want these books to go on much longer. I have never read a series that so completely immerses me in a "universe," and I have read a great deal of very good science fiction (and fiction in general).
The Stryx universe is like ours, but so different at the same time. Perhaps a touch idealized, but so appealing, I slip into the stories with no effort at all and come away with a smile. I'm currently waiting for the next adventure.
5/5 Stars, yet again!
November 26, 2021
Simply a pleasure from beginning to end.
A great prequel that was new and nostalgic at the same time. Great for a first time reader and a treat for fans of E.M. Foner. Looking forward to more.
A great prequel that was new and nostalgic at the same time. Great for a first time reader and a treat for fans of E.M. Foner. Looking forward to more.
December 2, 2021
i did enjoy this book, though i would have liked to have seen a comeuppance for the Ambassador not just a case of retirement it seemed to miss a trick, the same with the flat share , Kelly knew that it was not a romantic event and more or less been told so, then to leave immediately without checking on the situation seemed out of character, as she’s a Adult not a teenager ! , other than talking to the Lift A.I. how did the strix know she was the person that they needed. these bits took it from 5* to 4*
still a quick fun read,
still a quick fun read,
February 8, 2022
I would hope that new readers of the series don't start with this book, although it is okay as an "extra" for established readers. The problem is that it doesn't have much in the way of a plot, and no actual conclusion. Logically it should end with the 2 MC's meeting and falling in love but because that already happened in the main series it can't in this novel. And there is no real plot to take the place of that. I love the main series and spinoffs but my observation is that Mr. Foner does not do relationships well. Even when his characters fall in love there is little emotion to it. The books are smart and amazingly inventive and great fun, but I don't think I was ever in danger of becoming misty eyed while reading one -- and I never missed those feelings either. However, in this book the characters seem so completely self contained and self sufficient, even little Paul, that it's hard to see them really needing someone else. For example when Paul thinks of Joe perhaps marrying, to him it means having siblings to play with. Like what 11 year old wants to play with babies? Completely missing is any yearning for a mother. Maybe such feelings are too obvious or cliched. The point is that this book doesn't give the "feels" as the young people say, but some emotional content would have helped make up for lack of plot and conclusion, imo.
April 28, 2025
Perspective. The prequel that explains the Union Station series
If you've read the Union Station series then this brings you back to before Kelly meets her future husband and his son. She as an absolutely disgruntled minor diplomat at a nowhere station who's just quit and has no idea what will happen next. Simultaneously Joe is worrying about the future of his adopted son while he is second in command of a mercenary company in alien employ. These two threads weave through some of the same locations without actually touching as Kelly and Joe try to sort out new lives. Without giving away too much, there may be guiding forces at work which will place them in conjunction in the later (but earlier written) "Date Night on Union Station" (the first book written in the Earthcent ambassador series). A very worthwhile read for those who are tired of the stress and high drama of many space epics.
If you've read the Union Station series then this brings you back to before Kelly meets her future husband and his son. She as an absolutely disgruntled minor diplomat at a nowhere station who's just quit and has no idea what will happen next. Simultaneously Joe is worrying about the future of his adopted son while he is second in command of a mercenary company in alien employ. These two threads weave through some of the same locations without actually touching as Kelly and Joe try to sort out new lives. Without giving away too much, there may be guiding forces at work which will place them in conjunction in the later (but earlier written) "Date Night on Union Station" (the first book written in the Earthcent ambassador series). A very worthwhile read for those who are tired of the stress and high drama of many space epics.
October 9, 2021
a lovely starting bookend to the EarthCent Ambassador series
The author has avoided the 2 major problems sometimes found in this kind of origin story. (A pile of retconned fragments shoehorned into a fragile framework and another pile portentous foreshadowing the high points of the saga to come) if are starting the stories here don’t be put off by the slightly bumpy start you find in the first chapter or two of the main series. It soon smooths out into a delightful series of short novels that introduces you to the authors wonderful world building that is the the tunnel network with its most interesting species of peoples and AI personages.
The author has avoided the 2 major problems sometimes found in this kind of origin story. (A pile of retconned fragments shoehorned into a fragile framework and another pile portentous foreshadowing the high points of the saga to come) if are starting the stories here don’t be put off by the slightly bumpy start you find in the first chapter or two of the main series. It soon smooths out into a delightful series of short novels that introduces you to the authors wonderful world building that is the the tunnel network with its most interesting species of peoples and AI personages.
April 1, 2022
Foner, E. M. Destiny: Union Station. EarthCent Ambassador No. 0. Kindle, 2021.
Destiny is a prequel to the rest of the EarthCent series. It tells the story of how Kelly, a young diplomat, and Matt, a mechanically handy mercenary, and their kids came to Union Station. The book entertained me, but I am at a loss to say why. Not much happens. But somehow the weird mix of snooty aliens and desperate humans makes for amusing comedy. Even though it is a prequel, I would read one or two of the other EarthCent books first. 3.5 stars.
Destiny is a prequel to the rest of the EarthCent series. It tells the story of how Kelly, a young diplomat, and Matt, a mechanically handy mercenary, and their kids came to Union Station. The book entertained me, but I am at a loss to say why. Not much happens. But somehow the weird mix of snooty aliens and desperate humans makes for amusing comedy. Even though it is a prequel, I would read one or two of the other EarthCent books first. 3.5 stars.
November 24, 2021
Great story to fill in the gaps for Kelly and Joe
If you're already a Union Station fan it's fun to get a glimpse at Kelly, Joe, and Paul pre Date Night on Union Station. If not just keep reading and I think you'll love these folks as much as I do!! Science Fiction with a heart. Characters you can believe in and an interesting look at humanity from someone else's point of view. I think it's time for me to reread the whole series!!
If you're already a Union Station fan it's fun to get a glimpse at Kelly, Joe, and Paul pre Date Night on Union Station. If not just keep reading and I think you'll love these folks as much as I do!! Science Fiction with a heart. Characters you can believe in and an interesting look at humanity from someone else's point of view. I think it's time for me to reread the whole series!!
October 17, 2021
Oh my
Story stops just as Kelly is on her way to Union Station, where the book #1of the series starts kind of! We are still missing the story of how she met her husband, and perhaps is on the way for more of this story,I've always felt the timeline in this series was fast and now there are stories to fill in the gaps!
Story stops just as Kelly is on her way to Union Station, where the book #1of the series starts kind of! We are still missing the story of how she met her husband, and perhaps is on the way for more of this story,I've always felt the timeline in this series was fast and now there are stories to fill in the gaps!
October 18, 2021
Wonderful sci fi adventure
If you haven't read any of Foner's Union Station series....wait, why haven't you?? Destiny is a great prequel, even if you have read the series. I love the lack of death, doom, and destruction. The world building is excellent, the characters are believable, the humor is great, and the story is wonderful.
If you haven't read any of Foner's Union Station series....wait, why haven't you?? Destiny is a great prequel, even if you have read the series. I love the lack of death, doom, and destruction. The world building is excellent, the characters are believable, the humor is great, and the story is wonderful.
February 21, 2023
Lots of fun
This was a character-driven story. From what I gather, this is a prequel to a longer series and I'm looking forward to the rest of it.
It has well-written dialogue.
The science is believable without bogging down in minutiae.
The characters seem to be learning and growing which is a key component for me to enjoy a story.
This was a character-driven story. From what I gather, this is a prequel to a longer series and I'm looking forward to the rest of it.
It has well-written dialogue.
The science is believable without bogging down in minutiae.
The characters seem to be learning and growing which is a key component for me to enjoy a story.
October 7, 2021
As Prequels go
This was enjoyable. I was familiar with the series so this little juant into the past was a lot of fun. It was nice seeing Kelly, Joe, Paul and Beowulf in their younger days.
This was enjoyable. I was familiar with the series so this little juant into the past was a lot of fun. It was nice seeing Kelly, Joe, Paul and Beowulf in their younger days.
October 17, 2021
Prequel to the series
This story provides interesting details about how Joe and Kelly meet and what happens right after that. A well written story that leads smoothly into the series. Very enjoyable.
This story provides interesting details about how Joe and Kelly meet and what happens right after that. A well written story that leads smoothly into the series. Very enjoyable.
October 27, 2021
A great prequel for the Union Station series
As always, I love everything this author writes. The characters are quirky, believable and thoroughly entertaining. So much so I can never put one of these books down until I reach the end.
As always, I love everything this author writes. The characters are quirky, believable and thoroughly entertaining. So much so I can never put one of these books down until I reach the end.
December 1, 2021
A Good read as always.
Another good story from this author. No major issues or wars/ invasion’s. Just people living. Good to get some back storyline on one of the main characters in the series.
Another good story from this author. No major issues or wars/ invasion’s. Just people living. Good to get some back storyline on one of the main characters in the series.
December 25, 2021
very good lead up to the 19 vol union station series
This is a good story and if you liked the union station series you will love this one. No need to read in order but the story leads into the first earth cent vol. A fun easy and relaxing read. I highly recommend.
This is a good story and if you liked the union station series you will love this one. No need to read in order but the story leads into the first earth cent vol. A fun easy and relaxing read. I highly recommend.
March 15, 2022
Cute story. I got this book because the ad for it said it was about a future with no wars and apocalypse. Kind of burnt out on post-apocalyptic scifi, and having enough war in real life. So this was really fun. I will be reading more of the series.
March 18, 2022
Wonderful story to tie up some loose "beginnings" to the series. Great insight into Kelly's and Joe's road to Union Station. Fans of the series will recognize a number of future supporting characters, including at least one "surprise."
June 1, 2022
Great prequel!
The only issue is now I want to start reading the series over again from the beginning. I thoroughly enjoyed the back stories leading up to Joe and Kelly meeting and kicking off the entire grand opera that is the EarthCent series. Thank you very much, Mr. Foner.
The only issue is now I want to start reading the series over again from the beginning. I thoroughly enjoyed the back stories leading up to Joe and Kelly meeting and kicking off the entire grand opera that is the EarthCent series. Thank you very much, Mr. Foner.
June 14, 2022
Riveting Storyline
Kelly at 32 has a career as a diplomat. She has been promoted numerous times, but feels she still has more to give, especially while working with aliens. So far she's been ignored 🙁 but things are changing quickly! Don't miss this Sci-fi series.
Kelly at 32 has a career as a diplomat. She has been promoted numerous times, but feels she still has more to give, especially while working with aliens. So far she's been ignored 🙁 but things are changing quickly! Don't miss this Sci-fi series.
October 17, 2021
A great prequel to the series!
E. M. Foner did a great job of providing a bit of backstory for the characters. I may start reading the series again from the beginning.
E. M. Foner did a great job of providing a bit of backstory for the characters. I may start reading the series again from the beginning.
October 27, 2021
I just love this series and this prequel is a welcome addition. How did Kelly, Earth's ambassador to Union Station, get there in the first place? How did Jack arrive and obtain the junk yard? Just how much manipulation of events went into getting all the chess pieces in place? Find out now. The whole series is warm, gently, humourous scifi and every book in the series gives the reader a genuinely pleasant interlude away from the rather dark and worrying world we have just now. A major feature of the series is the focus on strong female characters who forge their own destinies, manipulation behind the scenes apart, of course. These books never fail to leave me with a smile on my fave.
October 24, 2021
A page turner
Stayed up and read this in two nights. I love this series and this prequel is just the thing to explain a few things. Now I'm waiting for the next one.
Stayed up and read this in two nights. I love this series and this prequel is just the thing to explain a few things. Now I'm waiting for the next one.
October 29, 2021
Good coming of age
Do many threads to count but they are part of the Union Station series and I recommend that you read them immediately.
Do many threads to count but they are part of the Union Station series and I recommend that you read them immediately.
November 16, 2021
Love this series
Great prequel! Now I have to reread the first book in the series. The characters are all personable and realistic. Like reading about space-faring friends.
Great prequel! Now I have to reread the first book in the series. The characters are all personable and realistic. Like reading about space-faring friends.
December 2, 2021
Lol
Entertaining romp through our intrepid heroine s life love her or pity her she will prevail hardheaded dedicated fearless funny
Entertaining romp through our intrepid heroine s life love her or pity her she will prevail hardheaded dedicated fearless funny
January 2, 2022
Kelly and Joe
A prequel. It's fun for us Union Station fans. For those who are interested in the series, I recommend starting with "Date night on Union Station".
A prequel. It's fun for us Union Station fans. For those who are interested in the series, I recommend starting with "Date night on Union Station".
January 9, 2022
about time
I am so very glad to read this wonderful pre quill. It explains so much!!!! Great for a first time reader of the union station series!!!!
I am so very glad to read this wonderful pre quill. It explains so much!!!! Great for a first time reader of the union station series!!!!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews