The Spaceship Next Door

By: Gene Doucette

Narrated by: Steve Carlson

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, 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 - 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.

©2015 Gene Doucette (P)2016 Gene Doucette

YOUR SOMETHING LIKE THE LOCAL TOM SAWYER

HIS PROOF WAS, THAT HE COULD NOT FIND ANY PROOF
I was seriously thinking this was like a updated Tom Sawyer with a girl as Tom, when one of the main characters said actually that. I had even written down in my notes, Mark Twanish. While I liked Tom Sawyer, I was not crazy about Huckleberry Finn, which was a couple of hours longer. I listened to almost eight hours of this before I gave up. It just moved to slow. When something did happen it was too little too late. I put the narrator on one and a quarter speed, which helped for a little while, but still the story is too slow.

SLEEP WALKERS

Narration killed it for me

Would you try another book from Gene Doucette and/or Steve Carlson?

I'd possibly try another book by Doucette, but only after scrutinizing the reviews. I wouldn't read another one narrated by Carlson. This really seemed to be a YA book. I like YA books, but this one wasn't exciting enough to make me rate it more than 3 stars.

What didn’t you like about Steve Carlson’s performance?

He sounded old. This threw off the main character's mental image so much I couldn't stop thinking and talking to my friends about it. A man that sounds like he's 80 years old really shouldn't try to pass off a 16 year old girl's persona through an audible read. There are 80 year old male narrators that can do this, but their tone is different and they can pull off a believable voice for the female character (Game of Thrones).

I will give kudos to Carlson for reading it with a sense of movement and good inflection.

So glad I bought this and didn't listen to bad reviews.

This book is a great take on the whole UFO, first contact genre! What a surprising delight!! If you like UFOs, aliens and advanced tech then listen to this book. Annie and Ed the main characters are great. Just bc Annie is 16 I would not consider this a true YA book. Enjoy!!

Very entertaining

If you could sum up The Spaceship Next Door in three words, what would they be?

A very enjoyable scifi story that does not take much thinking but the plot works well.

What did you like best about this story?

It moved right alone and I did not loose interest.

What about Steve Carlson’s performance did you like?

He did a good job.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Sometimes it was a little difficult to put down.

Any additional comments?

I would highly recommend this book for entertainment not for intellectual enrichment.

Very enjoyable. Great dialogue.

Looking forward to the sequel. Think the characters were fun without taking themselves too seriously.

Fun read.

I enjoyed the main character, a teenage girl. It was fun to listen to the physics of branch (mplex) theory woven in using language even younger readers can understand.

Just ok

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be YA. It doesn't have a lot of depth, and personally, I always think zombies are a lazy writer's trick. The twist near the end is pretty hard to swallow. The narration was fine but nothing really stands out.

Almost a gem.

Superb narration. Some of the small community's local characters are memorable. The story develops well until it begins to disappoint. I found it hard to suspend disbelief. Overall, an entertaining lite read.

Pleasantly surprised.

Got this one on a daily deal special. The senopsis was slightly intriguing and it was only a few bucks so why not?

...Man, I feel like I lucked out. The story was different and entertaining. The narrator was quite good. I give the total package a solid 4 star rating.

This is a story you'll like. Then you'll forget it. Then in a couple years you'll find it while scrolling through your library and you'll vaguely remember it and decide to give it another listen and enjoy it all over again.

Needed another chapter

The story just stops with minimal wrapup. Only 2 characters get endings, everyone else disappears.