Heaven's Graveyard by Grace Curtis (Idolfire; Floating Hotel) is an intriguing science fantasy exploration of history, myth, and the fine line between fascination and obsession.
Cod's reverence for mythic hero Aleya Ana-Ulai has led her to move far from her home to build a career as an archeologist and search for every grain of truth to prove that the age-old heroine might have been real. But Cod's focus on the ancient and mythic past has left her with a spartan life in the present. She's lonely, isolated, and unaware of the political struggles in her own time and how those struggles are connected to the secrets she is desperate to uncover.
It seems like nothing might call Cod away from her research--until her old mentor sends a wire claiming he has uncovered something she absolutely must return to see. But when Cod arrives home, it is just in time for the professor's funeral. She and her ex-lover Sparrow try to puzzle out his last discovery and who was responsible for his death. Cod unearths the secrets of the myths, a hidden city, the magic of the ancient gods, and pieces of her own past.
Curtis has written an engaging science fantasy crossed with a murder mystery that probes human truths about the dangers of fixation, unrequited love, and meeting one's heroes (or even deities). She does so while maintaining a sense of humor and without becoming heavy-handed. Through Cod, Curtis shows readers the high cost of getting everything you ever wanted, and what it means then to choose to "do the work of being good, the work of being brave." --Michelle Anya Anjirbag, freelance reviewer