Godfall

In the clever but crammed sci-fi debut from graphic novelist Jensen (Arca), Nebraskan sheriff David Blunt investigates a series of brutal murders tied to a giant alien carcass nicknamed Gulliver that has recently crashed to Earth on the outskirts of town. When David finds his cousin Jason dead with strange markings carved into his flesh in the same pattern as those on Gulliver, he plunges into a comic-book world of action and weirdness, infiltrating a cult that worships Gulliver and discovering that the U.S. military commander in charge of security around the crash site is selling Gulliver’s crystalline secretions as a hallucinogen to cult members who claim it allows them to see God. Another of Gulliver’s curious side effects: the town’s Alzheimer’s patients, among them David’s grandfather, regain lucidness for two minutes every evening, allowing David a window into his family history, including his parents’ deaths in a tornado and what drove away his long-lost cousin, who he knew as Ben. Meanwhile, transgender TV reporter Charlotte comes to town to investigate. Jensen has a knack for page-turning car chases, shoot-outs, and brawls, and he lovingly captures the Nebraskan prairie, but the narrative is bloated with fizzling subplots. Readers will initially be wowed, but the story can’t sustain its swagger. (Nov.)

This review has been updated for clarity and to remove a spoiler.