The Ambassador: A Fragile Alliance
by Terri Morgan
Ambassador Micha Lawrence has gone to have dinner with her friend, High Council President Aliel Smbarak. After dinner, they watch the sunset over a small lake. The Ambassador wants to know how many fish there are in the lake. President Smbarak realizes they aren’t talking about fish and the problem with the Olmeri is worse than she thought.
The Ambassador invites N’amani to become her student. She’d already invited Beth. He is overjoyed. They all go to brief the Alliance High Council on what they have figured out and what they don’t know. The Council sends them out to do more surveys and shore up their alliances.
It’s a long trip. They spend weeks on board the ship, collecting data near the Outer Boundaries and getting to know each other.
They find some allies true and others false. They go to a leisure world for shore leave. On their last day ashore, Kell is attacked. N’amani and the Ambassador defend him. They finish their surveys and are on their way back to Dagon when the Ambassador gets a call from Galen. Their teacher, Master Tai, has peacefully passed away. They divert to Ras 2 where the Ambassador gives her inheritance, the title to the House of Tu, to Sentar. The five gather to say goodbye to their teacher.
The stories offer a rare glimpse into the inner world of traditional martial arts training.
They focus on the good guys, their training, and their character. They are human stories about how we learn, grow, develop our skills, and then pass on what we have learned to the next generations.
The stories are written for adults at a high-school reading level. Using movie ratings, they would be G/PG-rated. Themes include philosophical questions – is this the right thing to do? how do we gain trust? what is ‘good’ character? There are nuances (no profanity) in the ways the characters talk with each other that younger children would not understand without explanations. Curious teens and young adults will like the stories quite a lot.
Throughout the stories, the key idea is that what may seem too difficult isn’t, not when we have good friends. The focus is on taking care of each other, what honor, integrity, honesty, and kindness mean, how we pass on what we have learned and bring up the next generations, and all sorts of positive character questions that are fundamental to the traditional martial arts.
GENRE: Sci-fi/Adventure/Martial Arts/Hopepunk
NUTSHELL: Stargate SG1 + Mission: Impossible + Kung Fu + The Waltons
TROPES: Friendships Found Family Special Skills and Objects Martial Arts Coming of Age Apprentice/Mentor Secrets Ecology Ancient Wisdom Journey Adventure Task
Good friends, good, food, good times in the Local Neighborhood.
The Ambassador: A Fragile Alliance
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The Ambassador: A Fragile Alliance
Paperback (218 pp)
ISBN-13 978-1-62037-011-7
Retail: US$12.99
The Ambassador: A Fragile Alliance
Digital Online/Kindle (1.75 MB)
ISBN-13 978-1-62037-010-0
Retail: US$8.99
The Ambassador: A Fragile Alliance is the third book in the series and the first book in The Alliance Trilogy. This book reprises the first book, continues the story, and broadens the characters.
LOGLINE: An accomplished older woman and her team look for ways to protect the Local Neighborhood. Together, they must find a way to stop the invading Olmeri.
RATING: G/PG