Earth Cent Ambassador Books

"Good SciFi comedy is as rare as hen's teeth. This was a fun read." Kelly Frank is EarthCent's top diplomat on Union Station, but her job description has always been a bit vague. The pay is horrible and she's in hock up to her ears for her furniture, which is likely to end up in a corridor because she's behind on rent for her room. Sometimes she has to wonder if the career she has put ahead of her personal life for fifteen years is worth it. When Kelly receives a gift subscription to the dating service that's rumored to be powered by the same benevolent artificial intelligence that runs the huge station, she decides to swallow her pride and give it a shot. But as her dates go from bad to worse, she can only hope that the supposedly omniscient AI is planning a happy ending.

Sequel to Date Night on Union Station - read that book first! Five years after the events of Date Night on Union Station, Kelly has settled into married life and her job as the EarthCent ambassador. The only fly in the ointment is that most of the aliens on Union Station refuse to talk to her. But a mysterious new game is sweeping the galaxy, changing the balance of power between species and bringing game-savvy humans front-and-center. As the invitations to diplomatic functions pour in, Kelly finds herself struggling to understand exactly what's going on, not to mention finding babysitters on short notice. Fortunately, diplomats and alcohol go together like, well, diplomats and alcohol, and Joe has started micro-brewery business in Mac's Bones. The only thing left that could go wrong is a visit from her mother.

Start series with the first book, Date Night on Union Station Two years after the events of Alien Night on Union Station, Kelly faces new challenges as the EarthCent Ambassador. The growing acceptance of humans by their alien neighbors plus a measure of her own personal fame (or infamy) is resulting in too much work for an embassy with only two full-time staffers. Friends and family must wonder if the stress is finally getting to Kelly when she starts acting even more peculiar than usual. Just leave it to the Stryx to throw a monkey wrench in the works by offering her a vital new assignment that can't be refused.

Humanity needs a galactic intelligence agency, but where to start? The story picks up less than a year after the events of High Priest on Union Station, with Kelly coming to the conclusion that EarthCent needs an intelligence service. Of course, EarthCent has no institutional knowledge of what spies do, or how they work, so the new agency gets off to a slow start. Then Kelly and the Union Station crew come up with a brilliant idea.

Start series with the first book, Date Night on Union Station The first carnival to take place on Union Station since humanity joined the galactic community is coming, and the ambassadors of the different species are all entered in the election to become Carnival King or Queen. It's not a job that Kelly wants, and fortunately for her, the humans get a late start at electioneering.

A fleet arrives carrying a post-employment society with members from many species. Three years have passed, and the children are growing like weeds as Aisha grows into a new career. A mob of alien party animals has settled near Union Station like a plague, but nobody seems willing to see them off. They bring word of a new wave of helpful artificial intelligence, but perhaps there's such a thing as too helpful?

What lurks on the hidden decks of a space station that's millions of years old? The Wanderers have just moved on from Union Station and the ambassador is ready to take her first vacation in fifteen years. Unfortunately, the rules on paid vacation for EarthCent employees have changed for the worse, retroactively. Libby suggests spending some time exploring the station as an alternative, and Kelly cautiously goes along with it.

Running a galactic empire isn't easy, and one of the best emperors is calling it quits. On the other side of the galaxy, the Cayl Empire has decided to wind down operations and the Stryx are planning to pick up the pieces. Kelly is tapped to host an open house event on Union Station to tempt the aliens into joining up, but does anybody other than the Stryx actually want the merger to take place?

Over half of Earth's population has left the planet, mainly as contract workers for aliens, and the homeworld is losing relevance to the emigrants. The EarthCent president takes on the task of making sure that humanity isn't permanently stuck in a rut as low-skilled labor. Can the ambassador put aside her new-found obsession with the Galactic Free Press crossword puzzle and help save the day?

Can humanity remain an independent species or are we ripe for a takeover? Kelly heads to Earth for the first ever Conference of EarthCent Ambassadors in Manhattan, but while the cat's away, the mice will play. The cat has its own problems, as some of the people remaining on Earth don't believe in aliens, unless they're the blue type that appear in romance novels.

Is humanity ready to take off the training wheels, and will the ancient alien A. I. approve? Kelly has served as the ambassador on Union Station for over two decades, but humanity remains on probationary status. When the Stryx inform EarthCent that their membership status is under review, Kelly goes all out to prepare for the test of her lifetime.

Family is a serious matter to the tunnel network species, and they aren't fooling around. A new species has jumped into the Sol system for a quick look, leading the Stryx to assign humans to the greeting mission. Dorothy and Kevin leave on a trading mission in his new ship, bringing the dog, and Samuel and Vivian start at the Open University.

You can't hold a book fair without physical books. Every species has its own version. The Stryx offer EarthCent help in reaching out to the wide-spread human communities, but as usual, it comes with a catch or two. Kelly sees an opportunity to increase her book hoard, just as publishing on Union Station begins to take off and Donna's daughters enter a friendly competition. But who will publish the most expensive book of all?

The biggest interspecies business is entertainment, and role playing is making a comeback. While Kelly struggles to come up with a research project to apply for sabbatical, the role-playing craze reaches Union Station, and the Open University offers a for-credit LARP. Dorothy finally finishes her wedding dress with a technical flourish, and Jeeves plots to recoup his costs.

Forget about the post-employment future. Everybody works, nobody quits. Kelly returns from sabbatical and finally has the opportunity to expand her embassy with a conference room, providing she can find a contractor willing to take the job. Dorothy finds that her impending motherhood is an advice-magnet to her alien friends, while the SBJ Fashions workplace gets strange as Baa enchants fashion accessories for LARPing to repay her debt to Jeeves. Samuel and Vivian discover that their educational choices don't necessarily match with their aptitudes and abilities.

When is a deadline not a deadline? Rumors are rife on Union Station and the EarthCent Ambassador finds herself defending the Stryx against the suspicions of the advanced species. Dorothy returns to SBJ Fashions from maternity leave and immediately starts spending money while giving Baa an excuse to engage in magic. Samuel and Vivian, along with some old friends, decide to participate in the Open University's cooperative education program with confusing results.

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.

The population of the Conference of Sovereign Human Communities hits a billion, triggering a previously unnoticed clause in the Tunnel Network Treaty. Has the time finally arrived for the Stryx to remove Earth's training wheels and let humanity stand on its own? The EarthCent ambassador gets a crash course in investing from the alien ambassadors but she's having trouble remembering little things. Dorothy has a new idea to revolutionize the fashion industry while Samuel's career hits a wall.

Kelly is chosen for an honorary exchange with the other tunnel network ambassadors on Union Station in which all participants pledge to represent the interests of the host species for a week. But the aliens have been playing this game for hundreds of thousands of years and have their own ideas about how to best serve humanity. Swap Night on Union Station is the nineteenth book of the EarthCent Ambassador series. New readers should start with the three-book bundle, Union Station 1, 2, 3.

The universe has plans for Kelly and Joe, if only it can put them on the same space station at the same time. 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 twenty-one book EarthCent Ambassador series.

Emigration from Earth has tapered off, leading to a shortage of cheap human labor on the tunnel network, Daniel attempts to organize a job fair for members of the Conference of Sovereign Human Communities, but the aliens and everybody else on Union Station want in on the action. Kelly decides that it's time EarthCent begins documenting the history of the diplomatic service and begins her own search for a historian, while the employees of SBJ Fashions try to deal with rapid expansion by outsourcing and hiring new employees, but can Baa find a human with enough magical talent be her apprentice?

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.

Kelly’s attempt to cut back on her working hours at the EarthCent embassy is headed the wrong direction despite handing off responsibility for the All Species Cookbook. The Thark ambassador teaches Consul Ofer how to detect gambling fraud, and Dorothy looks forward to the first season of Mage Search wrapping up so she can spend less time on management. Mike and Fenna discover that not all aliens at the Open University are there with family support, and the McAllisters take on a new project for Tunnel Trips that will require cooperation from the ambassadors of all the advanced species.