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!
Andrew 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.
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!!
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.
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
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!
Having tragically lost one found family, he forms another—despite being their slave. The magic system and mythology just gets better and better. Loving it!
I really liked Ironbound - but I loved Cold Wind. This book is on fire. Iykyk. I found it more original than book 1 and I also started forming an emotional attachment to the characters towards the latter half. That is something I’m always looking for and was a little lacking for me personally in Ironbound.
I think I fell in love with Castor when he said “I want to ask her …. If she would like to try my bread.” :)
Everything is really coming together to set up an amazing book 3. Bloody Sands can’t get here quickly enough!
Loved it. Ate up every page. Another book that felt like it was written for me. Amazing magic system. The gladiator style combat makes for engaging fight scenes. Rewarding plot pay-offs and fast pacing, suspense builds with every chapter as the main character Castor protects his secrets, I could not put this down.
I started Ironbound (book 1) 2 weeks ago, and finished this book within a week, in just 2 weeks Ironbound became one of my favorite series. Already pre-ordered book 3 on kindle, I’m very excited to read it when it publishes in November!!
The magic systems and world building are amazing. This series has so much potential.
Im grading this lower then book one nothing is worse it just it did not take a step up and the plot went in a direction I was not a fan of. Felt like a setup book.
The politics of this world have so much potential hope we get to see it.
I do still think this is a good introduction series to progression fantasy
Another banger. The world building and lore is fantastic. Castor’s character growth is great to see compared to book 1. Can’t wait for the next one to release.
Prose definitely improved from the first book, so my only issue with this one is that the most of the side characters feel a bit flat. However, going to give this one a 5 star because it was a really entertaining read. This was just one of those books that compel you to keep reading and make it a struggle to put down, there was no point during which i was bored.
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.
Familiar Roman mythology, gladiator fights utilizing unique magic systems, the political scheming of Westeros.....oh yeah and the satisfying feel of a likeable main character advancing their ever-growing power levels. I now men supposedly thing about the Roman Empire at least once a day, but right now I can only think about the Iron Empire and where the story is launching to next.
Fair warning, I am not some professional book reviewer and honestly I rarely ever think a book is less than three stars. I work full time and truly think that if a book is fun and takes me on an adventure then it is great. If that means my opinion is invalid than so be it, but this book was a ton of fun and took my mind away from the real world for a precious few days.
Every now and then I stumble on a book series that completely takes over my life, and this series continues to do so. I read this book in a few days, staying up later than I should on work nights just to see where the main character ends up next, and I was never disappointed. Without spoiling any major plot points from the first book, I will say that I was very satisfied with where Castor ends up in this one. I was initially worried that the second book in this series was going to re-hash the story from the first book in some way or make the events and sacrifices of that book lose their importance and impact, but I really think that this book managed to move the story along without being dull at any point while also managing to be it's own unique story with nearly the entire setting, cast of characters, and plot being different. Overall I think that this book completely succeeded at building upon what the first book did well and after reading the last few chapters I can't wait for the next book to see where we go next and how much stronger the characters will become!
4.25⭐️ Cold Wind takes the series in a much more intense direction than the first book.
What I liked most was how hard it was to stop reading. Every time Castor learned more about his powers or the Cor Heart system, I just wanted to keep going and see what happened next. The fight scenes were really intense, but I also liked that the book slowed down sometimes to explain the politics, the different Houses, and the mystery with the gods. It definitely feels darker and bigger than Ironbound.
I will say that even though I still really loved this book, I think a small part of me liked Ironbound a little more. That one had more friendship and group dynamics, while Cold Wind focused way more on training, fighting, and survival. I missed some of the character interactions from the first book, but at the same time I understand why this one had to be more intense because of where the story is heading.
There were also a couple parts where the writing felt kinda repetitive or awkward, but honestly I was so into the story that I didn’t really care that much. It’s one of those books where you ignore the small problems because you’re having too much fun reading it.
Overall, Cold Wind was a really strong sequel and now I’m fully invested in this series. If you like fast-paced fantasy with strong character progression, political drama, brutal fights, and a magic system that keeps changing and growing, I’d definitely recommend it.
I really liked Ironbound, but this book improves on it in every possible way. The characters, the plot, the magic system, the worldbuilding, everything feels sharper, richer, and more confident. It’s the kind of sequel that makes you realize just how much potential the first book was setting up.
The magic system has officially become one of my favorites. It’s inventive, satisfying, and woven into the story with a level of clarity and purpose that few fantasy series manage. The expanded worldbuilding only pulled me in further with every new detail made the setting feel bigger and more alive.
But the real joy here is how satisfying the characters and plot are. The pacing is spot on. It's steady, engaging, and always moving with intention. I never felt rushed, never felt stalled and I just enjoyed the ride from start to finish.
This series has fully hooked me now and I think the further set up in this book will make the final installment something special. (4.5 rounded up for enjoyment)
Coloquei 4 pq não tem como colocar número quebrado, mas a minha nota real é 3.5. Esse é BEM mais bem escrito do que o primeiro. Ainda falta originalidade, mas gostei pq, assim como no outro, dá pra sentir que o autor escreveu exatamente o que ele gosta de ler (que coincidentemente tbm é o que EU gosto...) O problema foi mais a falta de plots que avançassem a história. Focamos muito em treino, mas parece que não chegamos a um clímax realmente importante. Se o final fosse um pouco mais importante, eu daria um 4 estrelas fácil (o que é irônico, porque no primeiro livro eu dei 3 quando ele merecia 2 só por causa do avanço do plot e do final épico). Enfim... Não vejo a hora de ler o terceiro. Essa série é muito gostosa e confortável de ler, e me dá exatamente o que eu quero.
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.
4.5 stars! This series is shaping up to potentially be one of my favorite fantasy’s! The magic system alone is incredible, then the characters both major and minor are so damn good! The world is so interesting, the fights scenes are epic and I cannot wait to see where this story progresses! Audiobooks are great! Thankful for Aethon sending me this!
4.8 stars. Excellent follow up to Ironbound - pretty much nonstop action and intrigue keeps you on the edge of your seat and makes it hard to put down. The only thing that I can ding it for is a few typos and editorial oversights, but overall it is well written and enjoyable reading. Now, unfortunately I have to wait 5 months for the release of Bloody Sands, the next book in the series.
Castor gains power, and he's facing off against a whole new set of enemies! Plus old ones who rest their heads. Things are getting deep for him and the sharks would love to eat him up! To make things worse the Empire has a lot of things going on that our intrepid MC is only barely starting to get into. Things are getting crazy and it's only going to get wilder from here!
This is truly a fantastic and well written story, read this book immediately. Full throttle, very introspective characters, no useless filler, and even the training sequences have you locked in. Amazing follow up to Ironbound, and I cannot wait for the next one. In my opinion this series is right up there with Red Rising and Cradle in elite status. Well done Mr. Givler, just flawless writing.
This book series does not slow down! Banger after banger! I love Castor and his story as he navigates the twists and turns of his action packed world. I am SO hyped for book three!
I was hooked by book 1 and began recommending it to anyone that would listen. It was less than 50% through this book that I felt it was so far ahead of Ironbound that I didn’t want it to stop. The development of Castor is terrific and the added elements will be a treat in the next installment.
Maaaan, I love this series. It's incredibly fascinating and such a cool concept. I did want a little more from the ending, and yet--wow, what a corner to turn. I need book 3 STAT. And honestly, just so happy there's also going to be a book 4. Huzzah.
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.