DNF at 25%

I wanted to like this one. I really did. The premise was so interesting and it sounded exactly like a book I would devour. Unfortunately, it was not.

Normally I enjoy multiple POVs, but for some reason with this one I just couldn't get into it. In the 25% I read there were 5 of them. Seemed to be a new character each chapter when I don't think there was really a need for it. It didn't give me time to connect and it took me out of the story since you had to start a brand new one ever chapter. Just felt like I got no where in the story.

The world itself is very unique and interesting. Maybe the way it is written is for some (maybe most) people, but for me I just couldn't get into it.

Spoiler free review

If you are looking for a fantasy novel not set in a medieval europe setting, this is for you! I loved the south american flavour to the story. Went in completely blind and was definitely a bit confused for the first couple chapters but that is totally normal for world build fantasy and I expected it. Really completing story telling and start to a really interesting start to a new fantasy series. Really intrigued to see where this goes.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for providing me with an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review

Before I begin, I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this chance to read and review an ARC of this book. My apologies it took me so long to review after reading, this book had so many great aspects that it took me a while to arrange my thoughts coherently.

Grieving Gold is set in a (twice?) post-apocalyptic, Mesoamerican-inspired world. The majority of the book takes place long after one post-apocalyptic event, with all that remains of the past being impossible skyscrapers and scraps of lost technology. However, under the light of the three suns (yes, I said three!), the citizens of Luminosity are far from Luddites living in yesteryear. Oh no, they have managed to harness the power of their suns to do all sorts of technological marvels from lighting to rail systems and even weapons. Not to mention that certain gifted members of society can draw power from their sun gods with a little gift of blood. This is the art of “finding”.

This “finding” is one of the more unique magic systems I’ve come across and I love how it plays into the Mesoamerican themes. The use of sacrificing blood immediately calls forth the human sacrifices of Mayan and Aztec cultures, though I will admit I am not knowledgeable enough to know which or if it was an agglomeration of cultures that inspired this book. Either way, it created an atmospheric magic system that customizes nicely to the individual. Most individuals seem capable of “finding” basic skills like strength or speed, but each person seems to have a particular “finding” they excel at, which gives us a peak of their personalities. Though I must admit “losing”, similar to “finding” but occurs only in the dark, seems to be a little more overpowered. Maybe it’s just Aiana, but she seemed to be able to use a larger variety of skills than Lax or Val could with their “finding”.

This leads to one of the most fun aspects of the book, at least for me, the variety of characters that cover so many aspects of life in this world. You have Val and Lax representing the nobility, Dawb the forgotten dredges of society, Ilumi a member of some secret, far away village, and Aiana a would-be hunter from a society that seems to have been lost since the post-apocalyptic event. Now normally when you have so many characters there will always be favourite POVs and ones you can do without. However, with this book I enjoyed every perspective because they all wound around each other, slowly adding pieces to the puzzle.

Speaking of puzzles, this book will not hold your hand. If you’re expecting information dumps this isn’t the book for you, and I did see that lower-rated reviews mention it being complicated or hard to follow. Which is valid depending on the reader. There were times I didn’t understand what was going on, but I went in with the mindset that things would be slowly revealed to me, so I kept things in the back of my mind till I could connect them. This is why I enjoyed the alternating POVs, because it felt like a bit of jigsaw since very few of the characters overlap. Instead, the characters exist, in large, in the background of each other’s stories. Which will then add context when the POV switches.

Though I can certainly see where some reviewers are coming from. One criticism I did have was that I wish there was more of a payoff at the end of the book. Usually, when you have multiple POVs they get closer and closer together, and at the end of the book, there is some collision of characters that incite the next book. There was a bit of that, like Lax and Aiana or the Duke and Ilumi/Dawb, but nothing so big as to give me direction as to how the second book will start. Not to say there weren’t plenty of cliffhangers, several in fact, several that left me wondering which will take precedence in the sequel. Regarding pay-off, I also wish there were more revelations about certain plot points. I don’t need everything revealed, but I still felt like I knew as much as I did in the middle of the book as the end. With the exceptions being Dawb’s and the Duke’s plot lines.

Other than that, I really enjoyed this book. It was a bit of a surprise find because I wasn’t expecting such a full world-building. It was nice to immerse myself in something only vaguely tied to our world. I look forward to reading the sequel and I wish the author all the best of luck with wrangling all his characters' POVs. He has certainly set a monumental task for himself.

I really did persevere with this, but after nearly two weeks, I was forced to give up at 71%. The plot was actually ok, it seemed to have a well thought out magic system, and there was a lot going on. It was just not very well written. The dialogue was so stilted and unnatural, that it was just kind of painful to read. There was also an over-abundance of narrators. This can be used really effectively, but in this case, it just didn’t work. And although some of the characters were engaging, and their stories were interesting, a lot of them were just a bit boring, and seemed only there for backstory. I almost wanted to know what happened at the end, but not enough to finish the book. And definitely not enough to read the rest of the series.

DNF at 50%

I made it 50% of the way through and I was still just as lost as I was when I first started the book. Interesting things were going on but the book switched so often to a different character that you were never able to get any answers. I think the book has potential but the pacing was slow enough that I found myself just becoming more frustrated than anything.

Daniel McDaniel sets his tale of Grieving Gold(hard from ‎ Endless Equinox) on a continent shaped like a lizard that is lit by three suns, each a different color. The light has weight and the citizens of Lumo No Se use that light for their technology. Each of the suns are considered gods and a fourth god fell thousands of years before and may be manipulating events. Some people, by releasing blood, can gain powerful talents. There are three levels to the city. The surface city is run by a corrupt council. Laxerion Tama is a thief who thought his noble father had disowned him who can manipulate lies. Ilumi has come to the city with an invitation to become a research assistant to a prominent scientist, but she is really a spy. Dawb is a street urchin whose friends are being murdered by priests and he wants revenge. Below the city are ruins of an ancient city that used our technology. Below that is a system of caves filled with monsters. Aiana hunts monsters in the darkness. I found the characters fascinating and the background amazing. Hopefully more of the story is on the way.

Grieving Gold is the author's debut novel and the first in the planned epic fantasy series of Luminocity.

There is a lot going on here with the complexity of the world building, unique magic system, introduction of so many interesting characters and five main points of view.

With so many POVs and having to learn about the world as well as be introduced to the plot it inevitably means a slow start but stay with it because you will be rewarded with one of the most intriguing and interesting fantasy novels that you're likely to come across.

The city of Lumo No Se is built on the ruins of an old civilization with forgotten technology.
Three suns give their light over the city and are thought to be gods.

For certain individuals, sacrificing a little blood to the light can trigger powers. Abilities can be found or lost to the darkness.
Cut yourself and find strength or speed, order or lies, chance or doubt, weight or any number of other attributes. It really gives the novel an incredibly different feel to other fantasies.

The main characters are all so different and as the stories progress and we find out more about them the pace picks up. I was very invested in what was happening with them and it was harsh for each storyline to end on cliffhangers waiting for the second book in the series.

The two brothers of House Tama are at the centre of events. Laxerion, the wayward son, pulling heists and being in debt to a very scary individual. Finding his lies in the light while his brother Val, a general tasked with preparing for war with nearby Texocan, needs strength and order.
There's Dawn, a street urchin who encounters great darkness and terror, Ilumi who travels to the city for scientific research which has a tinge of steampunk about it & she also has secrets and then from the tribes in the darkness is the huntress Aiana.

Monsters dwell in the dark, both in the city shadows and underground. The body stealing being is truly scary as are the spiders! And the voided eyes!

Thank you to Netgalley for the chance to read the ebook. This series is off to a great start.

This was a good start to the series, although maybe one of the prologues could either be placed as an interlude elsewhere in the book or removed altogether.

Firstly, there are a LOT of characters, and information about them, to digest! Maybe not too surprising in the first book of a series, but...it was exhausting! That said the characters were all relatable in their own ways and I'm sure they'll all come together in future episodes. Also not quite sure how the 'light' magic actually works in all honestly, but hey....it was a good read, but definitely not a 'sit on a beach' read...this requires attention...and lots of it!

I really really tried to finish this book. I was so excited to read it when I requested and was approved for the request. I just cannot get into it. The world building is complicated and 100 pages in we still have not met all of the main characters. It's a lot to digest. I am the type of reader that, when I am reading, forgets that she's reading and sees the scenes play out like a movie. That was not happening with this book unfortunately which made it so much harder to get into. .

I can see that the author is talented and I have faith that this would be a great book for the right audience. I just don't think I was that audience.

Thank you to the publisher, NetGalley, and especially the author for my copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback. I will likely return to this author one day and have confidence that this author will go far with his career.

The characters in this are amazing. They are so in-depth and detailed and I wasn’t sure how it would all fit together but it really does, and beautifully. And their voices and POVs are all so different it’s wonderful to read. The world is rich and in-depth, and reflects the characters so well, and is just incredibly detailed without being too ‘info-dumpy’. The author has said he was influenced by sanderson, and while thats noticeable in the form of the magic system, theres still enough of a twist it feels unqiue and different.
This has all the markings of the start of an epic series, and I already cannot wait to read the next book and see how it all unfolds. You can feel how much love and work went into this

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance reader copy,

There are so many points of view and characters introduced in this book, and it gets to a point where you don’t know why you’re reading about this person as they don’t seem to have a connection to the story,

But then, I can’t honestly say that if someone asked me what the book was about I could say.

I nearly DNF’d this around 5 times and even found that when I was finished I didn’t know what was happening in the story.

This needs a lot of editing and a plan as I have so many questions and none of them were even part way answered,

My overall opinion is that this is a good story but badly told. It is about a world where there is no night but various stages of daylight. People can use magic by reaching into the light (e.g. Lax) or into the darkness if they live underground (e.g. Aiana). There are multiple POVs and it seemed like a new character was introduced every other chapter (I stopped counting at 8 characters). The book went back and forth between the various POVs and continued each character's story at the beginning of a new chapter so it was very difficult to keep track of what was going on - so much so that I had to make my own notes to remember who the various characters were! I persevered with the book but towards the end, I found that I was only interested in the POVs of Aiana and Lax and skipped forward to the chapters that continued their stories. It's a shame really as the concept is interesting - I think if the author had concentrated on Aiana and Lax, the book would have worked better. The author is really imaginative but seems to have crammed all of their ideas into a single book. This meant that there were too many threads to follow which made reading the book quite annoying.

In the city of Luminocity, which stands on the ruins of an ancient civilisation, the lives of five people intertwine: Brothers Laxerion and Val-Gustas Tama, one a heist mastermind, the other an honoured general; young scientist Ilumi; a street urchin named Dawb; and Aiana, a huntress of the depths. Each trying to survive and thrive individually, but fate brings them together in unexpected ways.

This book is complicated. It starts off with a prologue outlining the collapse of a city, which then appears to have no real bearing on the rest of the book. Maybe this will crop up again later in the series, but it felt a bit out of place during the reading of book #1.

The second and biggest problem is that there are too many characters. The five mentioned in the blurb are enough to be getting on with, but then there are more. Chapters are told each following a specific character in their individual thread, which meant I often wasn’t sure who I was reading about at any one time and made the story feel a little disjointed. It’s always difficult trying to tell a story with so many different threads, but particularly one such as this which also contains magical lore, politics and fictional technology.

The concept of the ‘light’ was fairly well explained and worked well with the plot, though it did occasionally start to grate when characters were constantly ‘losing’ or finding’ different elements during fights and whatnot.

Overall, Grieving Gold is a solid attempt at a fantasy/adventure novel, but could certainly have used some improvements and simplification.

The concept was a fresh take on the genre but could do with a tidy up. The storyline has potential but it was quite slow.

I would have liked an explanation of the magic system. Either I missed something or it wasn't explained very well because I was left confused how it worked.

I wasn't a fan of the many different POVs. For me the storyline got really bogged down with how many POVs it switched between and made it somewhat hard to follow. As such I didn't connect with the characters

This one is going to be hard to review. I enjoyed reading this book so much, so I would definitely recommend it for fantasy and horror fans, but at the same time there was something missing.

Grieving Gold started very confusing with a lot of different characters and POVs that seemed completely disconnected. However, this was not a problem at all since the individual stories kept me glued to the pages and made me care for the characters, and their inspirations and struggles, individually. Most of the characters and their plot lines are very well developed, and we get introduced to new characters all through the book, all of them somehow relevant for the plot.

The different characters paths eventually intertwine in an amazing way, and somehow it all makes sense. Well, except some lose ends, but I assume that these will be relevant for rest of the series.

There are a lot of information dumps through the book, which makes sense since this is the first book of a series, but somehow, I felt like some important information was just not there. While the author paints a very vivid image of Luminosity, the magic system felt overly complex. There was no origin or explanation why there is such a wide variety of powers. It was hard to keep up and know what to expect as it is never properly explained.

Overall, I really enjoyed this reading experience, even though the magic system felt flat for me.

Thank you very much Endless Equinox and NetGallery for providing me this ARC.

Hold on to your hats- this was terrific! This is and feels like the beginning of an epic new fantasy and I am already so impatient for the rest. There really is an enormous cast and each character is fascinating- I spent most of the book wondering how they would all fit together. The world is complex and detailed- how the author managed to avoid information dumps- and he did- is incredible. The world has a South American flavour to it. There wasn’t a boring character among them. The magic system has elements of Sanderson but is unique and compelling. This was a real treat! Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

Writing was good! Story kept me wanting to read to see what happened next. Definitely recommend! I picked this one up based off the cover design and it did not disappoint.

I feel like there is SO much to unpack here! I absolutely loved how many POV's there are in the book as all of the characters go through the world of Luminocity, where the light of the three sun gods shines down upon the ancient civilization.
We follow these five characters, Laxerion, his brother, Val-Gustus, Illumi, Aiana and Dwab. Together they bring all of their strengths (& weakness') as they navigate the duplicitous world of Luminocity. The book adequately shows all of their POV's well as well as how their stories intertwine with one another. The author did a FLAWLESS job in how he crafted the city of Luminocity for the readers to imagine. I loved the magic in the book, although I definitely feel like the book didn't properly elaborate on some of the stuff magical or otherwise not as magical, as it could have. I am also not a huge horror fan, however I feel like this book had just the right mix thrown in with the fantasy aspect of it. I am however looking forward to the next one in the series already!

Thank you to Netgalley and the author too, of course for the ARC of this book!

I was hoping to enjoy this. Has a promising story and I’m sure there is a better audience than me. I unfortunately did not finish, the dialogue was a little bit too much for me. And I couldn’t finish. But it’s easy to read and I think if it finds the right people this will excel !