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 enjoyed the entire series; Good and different SciFi. I liked it so much I set it aside for a second reading.
I’m not sure how I ran across this book. (Maybe from Bookbub?) I enjoyed the audiobook! This was well-written and adventurous, so no complaints there! I WAS thrown off when the cool science fiction of a spaceship in town became a zombie story. So I thought I would mention it in case zombie stories are not your thing. If you love sci-fi AND zombies, this is definitely the book for you!
The Spaceship Next Door is a wholly derivative mash-up of other popular horror and sci-fi, with nothing particularly unique to merit a full novel. There were plenty of twists attempted to resurrect the story when it started dying, which was often, and mostly they were ineffective. I lost interest maybe half-way through, once the town-wide zombie chase began. While I kind of, sort of enjoyed it, I spent most of my listening time thinking “how much more is there?” and being disappointed when I realized the answer was “lots”. Never a good sign.
Adding to my frustration was the fact that the audiobook production was bizarre. While listening, I often wondered if anyone actually produced this audiobook, or if some grandpa was dragged in off the street to read it cold and then leave before any edits could take place.
First off, why would you choose someone who sounds like an 80-year-old, life-long smoker to narrate a book that follows a precocious 16-year-old girl and occasionally a 30-something man? And if this particular man with a gravelly voice was the best choice, why was he allowed to mispronounce so many common words over and over again?
My favorite mispronunciations:
appo-calliptic for apocalyptic
Loo-boo-tahn for Louboutin (which should be pronounced Loo-boo-tan)
non-cor-prell for non-corporeal
Funniest, of course, was appo-calliptic, the novel’s genre. You’d think, of all things, that would be a no-brainer.
Three stars, lowered to two because the audiobook was such a disappointment.
Amazing Story! Interesting and thrilling story, with well developed characters and a fascinating story line. I can’t wait to read the next one!
Great characters it was a fun ride.
It would make a great movie
Not too bad. But not enough to make be buy any future ones.
Great story.
This book took me by surprise. I didn’t know where it was going at first. It was a bit slow but built the layers that make a story intriguing while adding some humor. The characters were good and carried their parts well. Nearing the end, I was surprised to guess who was whom, but the climax was a romp in sci-fi humor. There is a second book with the main character(s) featured, but one could read the first book as a standalone and still find it enjoyable.
Interesting story thatis unpredictable. A surprise ending that calls for more.
different twist with the zombies
I will be reading more from Gene Doucette.
very much enjoyed t his book, great read
A totally original take on a UFO landing on earth. Clever, dramatic and complete (no cliff hanging) but SO open to more in a series.
Great characters. Totally unexpected ending. I had to get volume 2!
loved his people, they seemed way too real.
Nice combination of sci-fi and satire. Well written and involing characters.
Great twist on a classic story
Fun good twist great end
I actually emailed Gene to tell him I loved his book. I have never done that before. If they don’t make a movie out of this book Hollywood is stupid.