Review: Godfall - Van Jensen

Genre: sci-fi, detective/murder-mystery

Published: Grand Central Publishing & Brilliance Audio, January 2026 originally independently published by the author, November 2023

My Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Small-town police-procedural meets cosmic sci-fi in this fantastic genre-bender that had me hooked from start to finish. If you're in the marked for something in the vein of True Detective, or Sleeping Giants meets a Blake Crouch-style mystery: consider this one to add to your TBR...

A note before we start: this is technically reread/-re-review, as I’ve already covered this novel back in 2023, when it was first released as an independent publication. I already really enjoyed it then, and jumped on the opportunity to experience it a second time, not that it’s been picked up by a larger publication-house ánd slated to be adapted into a tv-show.

Most of my opinions stayed the same, although I can now also highly recommend the audio-version, which was excellent.

The story:

The town of Little Springs, Nebraska, used to be so insignificant that it barely showed up on a state map. Until an event of cosmic proportions transforms it overnight into the center of attention for tourist, cultists and FBI-investigation alike. A mysterious asteroid crash-lands in the outskirts Little Springs, and reveals itself to be a three-mile-tall dead humanoid “Giant”.

Two years after this even, the town of Little Springs is still trying to catch up to its new-found status as a “former-small-town”. We follow David Blunt – still the only sheriff in town, and now obviously swamped with the work -, as he is confronted with a series of gruesome murders, seemingly linked to The Alien Giant’s appearance. He soon finds himself in a cat-and-mouse-game with a killer, except the mice are the family, friends and town-folk he grew up with all his life.

What I liked:

Suspenseful, original and tightly paced: Godfall had my eyes/ears glued to the page from start to finish, even upon second read. I distinctly remember burning midnight oil the first time I read this, as I just hád to satisfy my curiosity with just one more chapter.

"Cinematic" isn’t a word I like to use to describe novels, as I often feel like it’s overused, but in this case it feels apt. This book feels like a quality supernatural-crime-series (think True Detective), and I’m not in the least surprised that the film-rights have already been snatched up by Amazon.

Van Jensen blends elements of a classic police-procedural/serial-killer-hunt with cosmic sci-fi and makes optimal use of the best of both genres. The detective-elements keep the story grounded, whilst the sci-fi elements add some originality, freshness and a new layer of mystery to be solved. It was a compulsively fun read for me, that also had me slow down to ponder the existential strangeness of this alien-construct in the background, in between sittings.

What makes the novel truly shine are its atmosphere and setting. Although that might be a redundant statement, because the town itself felt like a character in its own right, with a distinct role in the story. During Davids investigation, we get a good look at the towns community-dynamics – how they used to be, as David remembers them growing up, as well as how they’ve changed since the Giants’ arrival flooded the town with newcomers. There’s a strong “insiders-vs-outsiders” motif that loops through the story on multiple levels, that wouldn’t have worked against any other background.

When it comes to the characters, they are admittedly archetypical (the seasoned detective, the risk-taking investigative reporter, etc.), but all have a little element to them that adds depth and made them memorable.

A good mystery is only as good as its reveals, though. This is where the book might be divisive. Although the murder-mystery is wrapped up in a very satisfying, well-earned way, don’t expect an explanation of the sci-fi element on a molecular level. To me, that’s just part of the course for a cosmic-mystery, and I thought the balance was great in this novel. However, if you’re the kind of reader who wants every end tied-off, this might leave you with too many questions for your liking.

Overall, this was a fantastic genre-blend of sci-fi and mystery that I’m glad is getting introduced to a wider audience with this traditional re-publications.

Notes on diversity:

My original review on the indie-version had quite a big section on the diversity, and I want to include part of it here too, as it’s still relevant. I will talk about transgender identity and disability, but can’t do so without spoiling some plot points. I will include a spoiler-section at the bottom of this review, below the divider-bar.

As an additional non-spoilery warning regarding disability-representation: there’s a variation on the magical healing-trope in which a character with dementia is suddenly “cured” of their affliction by the alien influence for 2 minutes each night. Just enough to provide essential plot-information and heartwarming closure to our characters. It’s not insensitive or significant enough to ruin anything for me, but it’s just unnecessary…

Many thanks to Grand Central Publishing and Brilliance Audio for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

You can find this book here on Goodreads.

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SPOILERS BELOW

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This book had a lot more diversity and representation than I was expecting. Most notably one of the major characters is a trans-woman, and I initially struggled with my feelings on how this “revelation” was used. Overall, I really loved the way the character was written and how matter-of-fact her trans identity was integrated into the story. The depiction is sensitive and there’s no deadnaming or misgendering (not even by villains) or other blatant transphobia.

My only issue was how her identity is used as a “reveal” at some point in the story. Not the fact that she’s trans, mind you, but the fact that she used to be a boy that David grew up with as a child. It’s the identity (the fact that David knew her) that is the reveal, not her trans-ness, but it still toes a line that I’m not sure I’m comfortable with.

There was a line that compared a characters disability with Charlotte’s transition that was well-intentioned, but clunky, which was thankfully cut in this version, and I command the editors for that.