In the Iron Empire only the strongest are given the chance to Ascend.
Castor has wanted to fuse with a Cor Heart since he was a boy. Made from an otherworldly metal, it will give him the ability to manipulate an element. Now that the trial has finally arrived, it is his chance to prove his worth.
Once he has won the Empress’ blessing, he can attune to a Symbol and begin a life of adventure.
But during the trial, his dreams are interrupted by a vicious attack. His home is left in ruins and his family in peril, all while Castor and his friends are carried away to be conscripted into the Legions.
Bound to a Symbol he never wanted, Castor must survive the Iron City, the enemies in the frozen North, and hidden traitors inside the Rusting Empire before he can get revenge on the ones who took everything from him.
This is the first step of the rise of the Ironbound.
I’m writing this review having furiously read the first (and only) available ebook.
If you’re reading this on my website instead of Reddit, you probably know that I try and tag all my reviews so I can recommend them in the future. LitRPG, isekai, cultivation, sci-fi, you get the idea. After reading pretty much anything by Phil Tucker (of Immortal Great Souls, Throne Hunters, Dawn of the Void, Skadi’s Saga, and more fame) I sit down and think “Okay, maybe I should add a tag “MC-gets-fucked-over-a-lot”, or “MCs-back-is-a-sheathe”, because for so many authors the plot goes from A to B and the MC relentlessly solves all problems that crop up that might derail the nice story progression. Hell, I do this too, and I’ve gotta be better.
Authors like Phil, and now Mr Andrew Givler, take the other approach. Their characters get so screwed over, so absolutely brutalised, that there can be no nice progression. Goals the character have at the start of the book vanish in an instant as their lives turn upside down, and get replaced with darker ideas, a growing callous of cynicism that hardens them against the cruelties of the world.
It’s hard to do, especially in our genre. We don’t want our MCs to lose. They have to win, but sometimes that can take the form of them kicking the chessboard up and changing the game completely instead of recovering with a perfect checkmate. I dare say that scattering the pieces into the wind sounds more fun. And that’s the major strength of this series. You can’t predict what is going to happen, but you can take great enjoyment in the ride.
Plotting, characters, dialogue, the lifeblood of any book, are exceptional.
The worldbuild too is just delightful, with heavy Roman influence and many latin phrases and words, while still being distinct and authentically unique.
So, magic system time! It’s sort of explained in the blurb, but very rare bits of metal that occasionally fall from the sky can be bound to someone, giving them a Cor Heart. This heart will aspect to a particular Symbol, such as Iron (where it goes, obviously), Sword, Air, Fire, etc. One of the boys in Castor’s class, the Primus in fact, wants his to aspect into Wheat, for then he could become an amazing baker. I’ve tagged the series as cultivation as the closest-but-not-really fit, for once the heart has aspected to a particular idea then much of the power progression comes understanding that element, much like cultivation stories have understanding a particular Dao as central to their progression.
Many of the wider use cases for power then need to rely on, to use cultivation terminology, overlapping domains. In the book, these are call congruences. In fact, in Chapter One this all gets explained by an instructor asking the MC to find three congruencies of Sword and Wind. The first example is “They both are sharp. They can cut a man or a crop.” For the others, you’ll have to read the book. It’s an interesting way to tie Symbols together, and while it’s not central to Castors powerset too much in the first book, its hinted that it becomes pivotal as you climb the power ranks (Copper, Silver, Gold, maybe even Platinum).
Now, onto criticisms.
It’s why I’ve got to throw this one into my A-tier already, even when I really prefer to wait for several books before upgrading stories into the upper echelons. Andrew, if you see this, you’ve made something special.
