In 2025 Grace Curtis released her first fantasy novel Idolfire. Idolfire was set in a fantasy world and followed two very different characters travelling to a legendary city. The ‘Idolfire’ of the title was a power that drew on religious belief to channel magic. Curtis’ latest book Heaven’s Graveyard is a sequel of sorts. It is set in the same world as Idolfire but two thousand years after the events of that book – a time when those events, and characters that are associated with them, have faded into legend. Because of this the two books could actually be read in any order.
Coda became an archaeologist because of her obsession with legendary figure Aleya Ana-Ulai (one of the protagonists of Idolfire) who most now believe is just a children’s tale. That obsession took Coda to the capital city of Ash where she works in the museum as an archaeologist and researcher. When Heaven’s Graveyard opens Cod has finally found an object in the city catacombs that she believes might point to the existence of the real Aleya. But before she can do anything about that she receives an intriguing summons from her old mentor who claims he has made a world-changing discovery. Only she returns home to find that he has died in mysterious circumstances.
Curtis then follows Coda as she tries to discover what her mentor had discovered (and was possibly killed for). While there Coda reconnects with her old flame Sparrow, a relationship that ended messily. Sparrow wants to rekindle their relationship and Coda is sort of interested but is more interested, as she always was, with solving archaeological mysteries (and possibly also the mystery of her mentor’s death). Coda is also still dealing with her past, and the reason why she ran to Ash in the first place. Meanwhile, around them, the world is on the brink of another war.
Heaven’s Graveyard takes the religion-based fantasy world of Idolfire and projects it into a scientific, steampunk-inspired future with sail-powered boats and walking vehicles. Curtis is interested in exploring what happens when these two realities converge and does it through the modern-day character of Coda and her obsession with the past. At the centre is Coda’s relationships – both her fraught, broken one and a more fragile one with someone who may be friend or enemy. As with Idolfire (and Curtis’s earlier works) these relationships have a key role in driving the action.
Heaven’s Graveyard is another great work of fantasy from Curtis who is getting better with every book. By drawing on Idolfire she is able to create a rich and complex world but one in which readers do not require detailed knowledge of the earlier work. And she ensures her big reveals and action pieces are humanised by centring the plot around a small group of flawed but relatable characters and their relationships.
Heaven's Graveyard by Grace Curtis
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