Book Which I Have Done Read Them

Like a lot of books, the story begins with an interesting principle, that aliens are using Earth as a kind of interstellar "airport" and one man, a civil war survivor has been chosen to oversee their facility. He only ages when outside the facility the aliens have built inside his old farmhouse.
There are a lot of problems with the internal logic of the story - e.g.. aliens of varying species can breathe our air with no problem, characters meeting aliens with no real surprise or shock or awe etc.
Apart from the interesting premise, the book meekly meanders along until the feel good optimistic ending of no real substance.
The story has a certain old fashioned charm but lacks subtlety (for example - what is going to happen to Lucy, one of the main characters is obvious half way through the tale). Children interested in sci-fi might like this story as long as they are not expecting a lot of action and excitement. I can't imagine an adult enjoying this story unless they have very very mellow taste and an uncritical mind. The book never is guilty of being terrible, just a bit lame.