What do you think?
Rate this book
Ironbound #2
Cold Wind
Lost and forgotten, Castor is a prisoner of the very Iron Empire he once served.
Thought of as a common criminal, Castor guards his dangerous secret—that he has bound a second Symbol—with his life. If the Censors knew, they’d execute him on the spot.
There is only one path to freedom and avenging his family.
He must earn it no longer as a member of the Iron Legions, but by spilling blood for one of the great Houses.
The dead gods stir in their rotting slumber. Dangerous enemies stalk his new master. Surrounded on all sides, Castor must learn the secrets of his Cor Heart and reach new heights of power before it is too late.
And in the wake of his Ascent comes the first sign of change – A COLD WIND.
Book 2 in this adrenaline-fueled Progression Fantasy Epic from Andrew Givler, bestselling author of Soul Fraud, and the creator of Sigils, a Youtube channel with 1.4+ Million Subscribers.
It's Perfect for fans of Arcane Ascension, Red Rising, and Will of the Many!
Thought of as a common criminal, Castor guards his dangerous secret—that he has bound a second Symbol—with his life. If the Censors knew, they’d execute him on the spot.
There is only one path to freedom and avenging his family.
He must earn it no longer as a member of the Iron Legions, but by spilling blood for one of the great Houses.
The dead gods stir in their rotting slumber. Dangerous enemies stalk his new master. Surrounded on all sides, Castor must learn the secrets of his Cor Heart and reach new heights of power before it is too late.
And in the wake of his Ascent comes the first sign of change – A COLD WIND.
Book 2 in this adrenaline-fueled Progression Fantasy Epic from Andrew Givler, bestselling author of Soul Fraud, and the creator of Sigils, a Youtube channel with 1.4+ Million Subscribers.
It's Perfect for fans of Arcane Ascension, Red Rising, and Will of the Many!
675 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 19, 2026
About the author
Andrew Givler
9 books1,134 followersAndrew is the author of the Debt Collection and Ironbound series and also a gaming YouTuber known as Sigils. He loves making people laugh, video games, and food. (Not always in that order.) He lives in LA.
To learn more about him you can go to his website: http://andrewgivler.com
Social Media
BookTube: http://youtube.com/@GivReads
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sigils
Instagram: http://instagram.com/sigils
TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@GivReads
To learn more about him you can go to his website: http://andrewgivler.com
Social Media
BookTube: http://youtube.com/@GivReads
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sigils
Instagram: http://instagram.com/sigils
TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@GivReads
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 19, 2026
this book has one of the most unique magic systems i’ve ever read. i loved how we learned more about the different strata to it and its different applications as castor got more attuned to his hearts, as well as seeing how all of the other characters engaged with their elements differently. i also greatly appreciated how there are real consequences embedded in the magic system, some specific to castor’s situation and some that every electi needs to learn to deal with. no one is overpowered, and magic isn’t a cure all— despite how absurdly powerful he is, that power can be and often is crippling. castor having to keep his secret added another interesting layer to this, as the more experienced people were operating under a lack of information, leaving both with opposite pieces of the puzzle.
castor’s character development was also incredible. i admittedly was wondering how much more he could grow after ironbound, but thrown into a new environment, both his strengths and flaws were thrown out into the open. it’s clear how much he’s learned from his time in the legions, but he needs to adapt to the ludus, and its inhabitants, fast. i’m usually not a fan of prolonged training arcs, but we got to learn to much about him as a person through the different styles of training he did, and his successes/failures. every combat scene also allowed for his strategy to develop as new info and technique were added to his catalogue, which made sure the fights never felt stale. i was equally fascinated by the emotional influence his cor hearts had on him, and how that changed him as a person. there’s a scene shortly after he arrived that genuinely gave me chills showing just how deeply that influence runs.
aside from castor, i was impressed by how strong the supporting characters and relationship work were, when basically starting over with a whole new cast. varus, pliny, and illy were all so layered and vibrant, and i enjoyed seeing how castor’s previous experiences shaped his interactions with them. one character i wish we’d seen more of was rin (i actually found her more compelling than alessandra), so i’m excited for her role to develop in book 3 (hopefully).
if you’re a fan of red rising, solo levelling, hierarchy, spartacus, or the first law, you NEED to pick up ironbound. cold wind wws one of my favorite reads of 2026 and i can’t wait for bloody sands!!
castor’s character development was also incredible. i admittedly was wondering how much more he could grow after ironbound, but thrown into a new environment, both his strengths and flaws were thrown out into the open. it’s clear how much he’s learned from his time in the legions, but he needs to adapt to the ludus, and its inhabitants, fast. i’m usually not a fan of prolonged training arcs, but we got to learn to much about him as a person through the different styles of training he did, and his successes/failures. every combat scene also allowed for his strategy to develop as new info and technique were added to his catalogue, which made sure the fights never felt stale. i was equally fascinated by the emotional influence his cor hearts had on him, and how that changed him as a person. there’s a scene shortly after he arrived that genuinely gave me chills showing just how deeply that influence runs.
aside from castor, i was impressed by how strong the supporting characters and relationship work were, when basically starting over with a whole new cast. varus, pliny, and illy were all so layered and vibrant, and i enjoyed seeing how castor’s previous experiences shaped his interactions with them. one character i wish we’d seen more of was rin (i actually found her more compelling than alessandra), so i’m excited for her role to develop in book 3 (hopefully).
if you’re a fan of red rising, solo levelling, hierarchy, spartacus, or the first law, you NEED to pick up ironbound. cold wind wws one of my favorite reads of 2026 and i can’t wait for bloody sands!!
May 19, 2026
The book is absolute peak. Somehow managed to hook me even further into his grasps and drag me down to Matt’s level of hell with how deeply I am engaged in these books my the most amazing author I’ve ever read
May 20, 2026
Cold Wind's attempts to slow the narrative and focus on training and introspection mostly fall flat for me due to abysmal pacing. Character growth is brought up and resolved far too quickly to be sustainable for a book of this length - in an effort to correct this the narrative inexplicably repeats itself time and time again, with the main character, Castor, relearning the same lessons with no changes in decision making or behavior despite what the narration repeatedly tells us. This repetition carries over to the descriptions of fight scenes. Most every fight towards the back half of the book follows the same formula, sometimes down to repeating the same exact line ("This is it, I'm going to die," followed by some miraculous save), and again, Castor's supposed growth in regards to his training - which the book devotes most of its length to showcasing - doesn't translate to the actual combat scenes, which makes most of the material here feel pointless. What progression he does have comes mostly from random bursts of inspiration, usually right before he or someone he would like to protect could suffer mortal harm. Because so many fights are resolved this way, ideas that could be interesting more come off as a cheap cop-out, which is a shame, as on their own none of these resolutions are outright bad.
The core of these issues, really, comes down to a dissonance between narration and what actually happens in the story. Castor's inner monologue is complex, turmoiled (when not constantly regressing, that is), but his dialogue might be coming out of the mouth of any generic progression fantasy protagonist. He spends most of the book learning how to properly fight without relying on his Cors and then has to win almost every fight by using magic. The narrative wants to hype up his legend and be this imposing, influential figure, but he actually doesn't really do that much over the course of the book, and so what actions he does take receive massively inflated reactions from the other characters in order to bridge that gap, leading to some rather silly scenes where . Castor wants vengeance, swears it, so on so forth, he wants to make sure his legion brothers are safe, or elsewise avenge them, but then he's willing to bind himself to complete loyalty to some random stranger with no plans to escape without any hesitation beyond the occasional lip-service paid by the narrator in the earliest chapters. It ends up tying back into his goals eventually, but that's due to narrative convenience and not a rational character decision. He trusts certain characters far too much than he should because the plot demands it, he's able to access locations which he absolutely should not be able to get to if this world had any thought put into it because that's where the author wants him to go, he's constantly advancing his skills and learning new tricks but none of them seem to matter because the author wants the fights to be tense. All of this was present in the first book but they're all so vastly more prominent here, and they can't be ignored nearly as easily.
However, for ALL of that, this book does do one thing really, really well, and that's the writing of the side characters. Very rarely will a neutral character be one note - I was very pleasantly surprised with how some seemingly simple characters were handled, and ended up quite liking a good few that I hadn't expected to care about. It's those interactions that the author, Andrew Givler, seems to excel at - it was a strength in the first book, and it's a strength, here. Yes, the overall pacing problem can cause characters to open up way before they should, but what they reveal is usually compelling enough to warrant the suspension of disbelief required to accept the scene.
At the end of the day, if the average LITrpg is McDonalds, this is something like Chick-fil-a. It's more than the slop that proliferates the progression fantasy genre, but compared to the greats, it doesn't quite hold up. Still, it's a fun, quick read if you just want to turn your brain off and be entertained. While I don't think it's quite as good as book one, if you enjoyed the first entry, you'll probably like this one, too.
Two and a half stars.
The core of these issues, really, comes down to a dissonance between narration and what actually happens in the story. Castor's inner monologue is complex, turmoiled (when not constantly regressing, that is), but his dialogue might be coming out of the mouth of any generic progression fantasy protagonist. He spends most of the book learning how to properly fight without relying on his Cors and then has to win almost every fight by using magic. The narrative wants to hype up his legend and be this imposing, influential figure, but he actually doesn't really do that much over the course of the book, and so what actions he does take receive massively inflated reactions from the other characters in order to bridge that gap, leading to some rather silly scenes where . Castor wants vengeance, swears it, so on so forth, he wants to make sure his legion brothers are safe, or elsewise avenge them, but then he's willing to bind himself to complete loyalty to some random stranger with no plans to escape without any hesitation beyond the occasional lip-service paid by the narrator in the earliest chapters. It ends up tying back into his goals eventually, but that's due to narrative convenience and not a rational character decision. He trusts certain characters far too much than he should because the plot demands it, he's able to access locations which he absolutely should not be able to get to if this world had any thought put into it because that's where the author wants him to go, he's constantly advancing his skills and learning new tricks but none of them seem to matter because the author wants the fights to be tense. All of this was present in the first book but they're all so vastly more prominent here, and they can't be ignored nearly as easily.
However, for ALL of that, this book does do one thing really, really well, and that's the writing of the side characters. Very rarely will a neutral character be one note - I was very pleasantly surprised with how some seemingly simple characters were handled, and ended up quite liking a good few that I hadn't expected to care about. It's those interactions that the author, Andrew Givler, seems to excel at - it was a strength in the first book, and it's a strength, here. Yes, the overall pacing problem can cause characters to open up way before they should, but what they reveal is usually compelling enough to warrant the suspension of disbelief required to accept the scene.
At the end of the day, if the average LITrpg is McDonalds, this is something like Chick-fil-a. It's more than the slop that proliferates the progression fantasy genre, but compared to the greats, it doesn't quite hold up. Still, it's a fun, quick read if you just want to turn your brain off and be entertained. While I don't think it's quite as good as book one, if you enjoyed the first entry, you'll probably like this one, too.
Two and a half stars.
May 19, 2026
Ironbound was one of my surprise favorite reads of the year so far, and Cold Wind is a fantastic second installment in the series!
Unlike every character in the book who is decidedly NOT having a good time, I had so much fun reading this and would recommend to anyone who enjoyed Ironbound.
Cold Wind builds on the strong foundation set up in Ironbound, as Castor’s journey has him navigating his captivity, his power, and his quest for revenge as he continues to evolve both physically & emotionally. The story goes in directions I couldn’t predict, and I really enjoyed the way revenge was explored in this book, both on a personal scale and a larger scale. There’s a lot of great setup for future books and I’m so excited to see what happens next.
I’ll definitely be reading the rest of the series, and can’t wait for the release of Bloody Sands later this year!
Unlike every character in the book who is decidedly NOT having a good time, I had so much fun reading this and would recommend to anyone who enjoyed Ironbound.
Cold Wind builds on the strong foundation set up in Ironbound, as Castor’s journey has him navigating his captivity, his power, and his quest for revenge as he continues to evolve both physically & emotionally. The story goes in directions I couldn’t predict, and I really enjoyed the way revenge was explored in this book, both on a personal scale and a larger scale. There’s a lot of great setup for future books and I’m so excited to see what happens next.
I’ll definitely be reading the rest of the series, and can’t wait for the release of Bloody Sands later this year!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Book one of this series, Ironbound, was the surprise of 2025 for me. It wasn't perfect, but it just had that *sauce*. I was hooked by the characters, the plot, and the pace of the novel, especially after our main conflict presents itself. So I was beyond excited to hear that book two was coming Q2 2026!
I received an ARC from Aethon and had to dive right in, and let me tell you: *Cold Wind improves on Ironbound in every facet*. The stakes, character work, plot threads, magic system, and world building continue to pull me in in a way that I haven't felt since the first three books of the Stormlight Archive.
I loved the plot decisions made to drive the story forward here. I especially loved how Givler continued to drive forward the "progression fantasy" elements of the story while keeping the tone and feel of the novel more akin to modern fantasy instead of progression/litrpg.
I have been looking for an epic fantasy series to hit the highs of the genre for me, and make me want to *never stop reading it* while still thoroughly engaging a setting and magic system that sets it apart, and this is what Cold Wind accomplished in so many ways. If you enjoyed Ironbound, I think you will find that Cold Wind takes what you loved, polishes it even more, ramps up the stakes, setting, and pace, and gives you a epic ride.
No sophomore slump here, Mr. Givler. Grab this book day one and devour it!
I received an ARC from Aethon and had to dive right in, and let me tell you: *Cold Wind improves on Ironbound in every facet*. The stakes, character work, plot threads, magic system, and world building continue to pull me in in a way that I haven't felt since the first three books of the Stormlight Archive.
I loved the plot decisions made to drive the story forward here. I especially loved how Givler continued to drive forward the "progression fantasy" elements of the story while keeping the tone and feel of the novel more akin to modern fantasy instead of progression/litrpg.
I have been looking for an epic fantasy series to hit the highs of the genre for me, and make me want to *never stop reading it* while still thoroughly engaging a setting and magic system that sets it apart, and this is what Cold Wind accomplished in so many ways. If you enjoyed Ironbound, I think you will find that Cold Wind takes what you loved, polishes it even more, ramps up the stakes, setting, and pace, and gives you a epic ride.
No sophomore slump here, Mr. Givler. Grab this book day one and devour it!
May 22, 2026
5 out of 5 stars. I didn't want this book to end it was fantastic. Book 2 takes it to the next level. I feel like every fantasy reader should grab this series asap, its totally underhyped and needs more attention. Book 2 gets a full 5 stars from me because it has fantastic character development, political position, old gods, interesting magic systems, corruption, the under dog vibes, a great plot that is multi layered. Fast paced and really well written. For the romantasy readers this one has zero spice but DO NOT let that stop you from enjoying the awesome plot.
I know the book slump after this is going to be bad.
I know the book slump after this is going to be bad.
May 21, 2026
GREAT book!
This is a great series. The magic system is interesting, and I appreciate there are hints of other systems in this world.
The character is good but not infallible, and the issues he faces are interesting and not easily overcome.
Very interesting politics mixed in with the story of vengeance and survival- can’t wait to see where it goes next!
This is a great series. The magic system is interesting, and I appreciate there are hints of other systems in this world.
The character is good but not infallible, and the issues he faces are interesting and not easily overcome.
Very interesting politics mixed in with the story of vengeance and survival- can’t wait to see where it goes next!
May 21, 2026
This is quickly becoming one of my favorite series. Watching Castor’s progression is rewarding and exciting — it becomes difficult to put this down and focus on other tasks (which explains why I’ve finished it in two days!)
Can’t get enough. Looking forward to seeing what happens next. I only wish I didn’t start this series so soon because the waiting is killing me.
Can’t get enough. Looking forward to seeing what happens next. I only wish I didn’t start this series so soon because the waiting is killing me.
May 21, 2026
Yea this was great. It had everything from non stop action, progression and much needed introspection in our main character. Castor is still learning to see how rotten the empire is and hasn't gone full open rebellion but we see traces of it in this work, I look forward to seeing how it all plays out in the next book.
May 21, 2026
Interesting and Compelling
This is an excellent read! A great follow-up to an already intriguing storyline! The adaptation of Roman historical figures is compelling, interesting and fresh.
This is an excellent read! A great follow-up to an already intriguing storyline! The adaptation of Roman historical figures is compelling, interesting and fresh.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Does subscribing to the authors Patreon and getting the book there count as an ARC? Whatever, I read it and I loved it.
May 19, 2026
Great
Can't say enough good things of this series. Like the Roman elements and fantasy combination. Definitely a series worth following.
Can't say enough good things of this series. Like the Roman elements and fantasy combination. Definitely a series worth following.
May 20, 2026
Great second entry
Excited to continue the story. I was a little disappointed by how much story progression happened, but overall enjoyed the story quite a bit.
Excited to continue the story. I was a little disappointed by how much story progression happened, but overall enjoyed the story quite a bit.
May 22, 2026
6 star Book
Holy Gods! One of my most anticipated reads this year. If you loved Percy Jackson this is the series for you.
Holy Gods! One of my most anticipated reads this year. If you loved Percy Jackson this is the series for you.
October 15, 2025
Absolute MASTERPIECE.
I came into this wondering how it could get better, after that horrible cliffhanger, but I should have realised by now, that Andrew's writing game is just better every single book.
That's all I got for now, the Patreon has only read up to Ch. 18
I came into this wondering how it could get better, after that horrible cliffhanger, but I should have realised by now, that Andrew's writing game is just better every single book.
That's all I got for now, the Patreon has only read up to Ch. 18
Read
April 6, 2026has not come out yet will write review later first book
was great I hope this one is to
was great I hope this one is to
May 21, 2026
Amazing follow-up book and the suspense, prose and everything were just perfect and I need more
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews