The world changed on a Tuesday.When a spaceship landed in an open field in the quiet mill town of Sorrow Falls, Massachusetts, everyone realized humankind was not alone in the universe. With that realization, everyone freaked out for a little while. Or, almost everyone. The residents of Sorrow Falls took the news pretty well. This could have been due to a certain local quality of unflappability, … of unflappability, or it could have been that in three years, the ship did exactly nothing other than sit quietly in that field, and nobody understood the full extent of this nothing the ship was doing better than the people who lived right next door.
Sixteen-year old Annie Collins is one of the ship’s closest neighbors. Once upon a time she took every last theory about the ship seriously, whether it was advanced by an adult ,or by a peer. Surely one of the theories would be proven true eventually—if not several of them—the very minute the ship decided to do something. Annie is starting to think this will never happen.
One late August morning, a little over three years since the ship landed, Edgar Somerville arrived in town. Ed’s a government operative posing as a journalist, which is obvious to Annie—and pretty much everyone else he meets—almost immediately. He has a lot of questions that need answers, because he thinks everyone is wrong: the ship is doing something, and he needs Annie’s help to figure out what that is.
Annie is a good choice for tour guide. She already knows everyone in town and when Ed’s theory is proven correct—something is apocalyptically wrong in Sorrow Falls—she’s a pretty good person to have around.
As a matter of fact, Annie Collins might be the most important person on the planet. She just doesn’t know it.
The Spaceship Next Door is the latest novel from Gene Doucette, best-selling author of The Immortal Trilogy, Fixer, The Immortal Chronicles, and Immortal Stories: Eve.
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I rather liked the book, but not crazy over it. If I had known it was about zombies, I would never have bought it – not my genre. But, to give the author credit, I thought the way these zombies came into existence was original, as was the way they were defeated.
A new twist on first contact
Found the book boring and the characters not very realistic
Just a great sci-fi. Funny characters with a fair number of twists and turns.
Unique, well written good story with a good ending. I’d love to see this made into a movie.
Interesting what-if science fiction that supposes telepathic beings in a scout ship – checking us out.
Really enjoyed this book right up until close to the end where the story went a bit off the rails. Even with that said I liked it a lot.
From my Amazon review –
Pretty good read, other than being about 150 pages too long. I suspect that the author had a good short story or novella idea and some agent or publisher asked him to pad it up into novel length. So there are long descriptions of people, places and things, and many wordy conversations.
Slow, boring, repetitive
Do really enjoyed this book. An easy fast read the whole way through.
Kind of fun but waaaay too long.
Couldn’t put it down. Great characters, very well written.
Fun to read. Clever dialogue. Good character formation. Surprises in last quarter of book & ending.
Well written tale. The characters are very real.
Was a fun read – Central character was well developed, while the 2nd string were fleshed out suficiently.
Very original first contact story. Well written with a surprise toward the end of the story line. Hope the author decides to continue the story…
This is a fun read. Some of the characters are lovable from the beginning but some seem bizarre yet we are able to see them as deserving of respect and good friends to have at your back when you need them. The plot twists around pleasantly — but the ideas introduced are so enjoyable to play with in your mind long after you have finished. I would say the thing I liked most about the book is that you begin to see how malleable reality is and concurrently what just might be.
Well written page turner. The protagonist, a 16-year-old girl, was beautifully drawn and believable. I read the story as a metaphor for the power of ideas, something we have forgotten on today’s Earth. End was a little bit of a let down, but I suppose there will be a sequel.
I would read more of this author. A little on the YA side, but a nice twist.
Fun read, a little thought-provoking, but just enjoyable.