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The Arrow. The Coin. The Spark: Volume 1
Polari is a world of fantastic medieval times. Its harsh and brutal morals are matched by the wondrous sprouts of the future, swords and crossbows by the first power plants and railroads. Emperor Hadrian leads the state on an arduous path of reform and progress. Powerful feudal lords weave elaborate intrigues and revolt in the struggle for power. The Church also wields immense influence, for in the world of Polari no one doubts the existence of the gods. The gods do not stand idly they send gifts to people - incomprehensible Sacred Objects. The scripture says that the Objects contain great power capable of healing illnesses, controlling the elements, and breaking down barriers. The secret to this power was lost centuries ago...
Fantlab book of the year 2019
Note from the
I wrote “The Arrow. The Coin. The Spark” initially for myself, almost without thinking about publication. I just created an interesting and beautiful world with living characters by setting a single goal for to make me like it. In this way, there are some advantages and disadvantages of the book. It is somewhat more voluminous and slower than it could be, some descriptions are too extensive and sometimes I was fond about details - just for the pleasure of carefully drawing a scene of interest to me. Thus, the world of Polari and its characters turned out to be just as lively and voluminous as I wanted.
Fantlab book of the year 2019
Note from the
I wrote “The Arrow. The Coin. The Spark” initially for myself, almost without thinking about publication. I just created an interesting and beautiful world with living characters by setting a single goal for to make me like it. In this way, there are some advantages and disadvantages of the book. It is somewhat more voluminous and slower than it could be, some descriptions are too extensive and sometimes I was fond about details - just for the pleasure of carefully drawing a scene of interest to me. Thus, the world of Polari and its characters turned out to be just as lively and voluminous as I wanted.
659 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 8, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 26, 2025
This novel opens the door to one of the most interesting fantasy worlds in existence.
Polaris is a diversity of cultures, traditions, and characters. It is an incredible combination of medieval traditions and modern technologies. It is both the depth of the characters' psychology, among whom you will remember even the minor characters and never confuse them, and incredible adventures. It is a world of fierce warriors, but at the same time, a world where honour is not an empty word.
It is a world where a sharp mind is often more dangerous than a sharp blade. A world where strategists play chess (or strategists), in whose images living people can be guessed, and all this is accompanied by an orchestra of swords, which weave a new tapestry of history with their song.
At the centre of the story is a merchant with his group, through whose eyes we see this incredibly wide and deep world - where will this path lead him? He knows that not everything in the world can be obtained, and he knows how to protect his own head from trouble. But what if fate throws him too great a temptation, which few people can resist?
At the centre of the story is a young nobleman whose mind is sharper than his sword. This is precisely why he is rejected by his strict father and his own subjects. Will he be able to prove that sharpness of mind is no less a formidable weapon than a sword in the hands of the most skilled master?
At the centre of the story is a girl who has lost her father and found herself caught up in the whirlwind of royal intrigue. What should she do at a carnival of hypocrites and murderers hiding behind the masks of noblemen who surround her on all sides and offer her friendship or even love? How can she figure out who is who? Will she be able to realise that she is not an ordinary figure, not a bargaining chip, and not a trophy? Will she be able to prove that she is a spark by unravelling the whole tangle of intrigues?
And who are they on the chessboard? An arrow? A coin? Or maybe a spark?
And who is he — the emperor of a great empire, a man who owns everything, whose mind is as sharp as his sword, whose coins are countless, and whose arrows always hit their target?
This is a story that should undoubtedly be ranked among such outstanding fantasy series as Brandon Sanderson's ‘The Stormlight Archive,’ Robert Jordan's ‘The Wheel of Time,’ Robin Hobb's ‘The World of Elderling,’ And even among such greats, one cannot help but wonder whether the ‘Polaris’ series should be placed at the top of this list.
This series is unlike any other, and if it can be compared to any other, it is only in terms of scale, level of craftsmanship, and depth of psychological insight, but not in terms of plot twists or world-building.
This is the first book in the completed series by an incredibly talented Ukrainian writer, and as someone who has read the entire series, I can assure you that with each subsequent book, the author's skill only grows, and the plot has no unnecessary details, despite its considerable length.
I highly recommend it!
P.S. This is the first book in the series. And, as the author himself said, he wrote it for himself. Therefore, it takes some time to get into it. But it pays off in the long run.
Polaris is a diversity of cultures, traditions, and characters. It is an incredible combination of medieval traditions and modern technologies. It is both the depth of the characters' psychology, among whom you will remember even the minor characters and never confuse them, and incredible adventures. It is a world of fierce warriors, but at the same time, a world where honour is not an empty word.
It is a world where a sharp mind is often more dangerous than a sharp blade. A world where strategists play chess (or strategists), in whose images living people can be guessed, and all this is accompanied by an orchestra of swords, which weave a new tapestry of history with their song.
At the centre of the story is a merchant with his group, through whose eyes we see this incredibly wide and deep world - where will this path lead him? He knows that not everything in the world can be obtained, and he knows how to protect his own head from trouble. But what if fate throws him too great a temptation, which few people can resist?
At the centre of the story is a young nobleman whose mind is sharper than his sword. This is precisely why he is rejected by his strict father and his own subjects. Will he be able to prove that sharpness of mind is no less a formidable weapon than a sword in the hands of the most skilled master?
At the centre of the story is a girl who has lost her father and found herself caught up in the whirlwind of royal intrigue. What should she do at a carnival of hypocrites and murderers hiding behind the masks of noblemen who surround her on all sides and offer her friendship or even love? How can she figure out who is who? Will she be able to realise that she is not an ordinary figure, not a bargaining chip, and not a trophy? Will she be able to prove that she is a spark by unravelling the whole tangle of intrigues?
And who are they on the chessboard? An arrow? A coin? Or maybe a spark?
And who is he — the emperor of a great empire, a man who owns everything, whose mind is as sharp as his sword, whose coins are countless, and whose arrows always hit their target?
This is a story that should undoubtedly be ranked among such outstanding fantasy series as Brandon Sanderson's ‘The Stormlight Archive,’ Robert Jordan's ‘The Wheel of Time,’ Robin Hobb's ‘The World of Elderling,’ And even among such greats, one cannot help but wonder whether the ‘Polaris’ series should be placed at the top of this list.
This series is unlike any other, and if it can be compared to any other, it is only in terms of scale, level of craftsmanship, and depth of psychological insight, but not in terms of plot twists or world-building.
This is the first book in the completed series by an incredibly talented Ukrainian writer, and as someone who has read the entire series, I can assure you that with each subsequent book, the author's skill only grows, and the plot has no unnecessary details, despite its considerable length.
I highly recommend it!
P.S. This is the first book in the series. And, as the author himself said, he wrote it for himself. Therefore, it takes some time to get into it. But it pays off in the long run.
November 16, 2025
Arrow, Coin, Spark — Roman Surzhykov (July 2025)
Arrow, Coin, Spark was first published in 2016 in Ukraine and has since gone through several reprints in the original language. It is the opening book of the six-volume Polaris fantasy series.
📦 A fractured future. Symbols as weapons. A trilogy of survival written in allegory and flame.
💥 A speculative saga where myth and modernity collide, and every emblem carries consequence.
📍 From shadowed metropolises to mythic hinterlands — landscapes where power is coded in signs.
🗝 Identity, resistance, transformation. Surzhykov builds a world where the arrow pierces destiny, the coin dictates allegiance, and the spark ignites rebellion. Each motif becomes architecture: of control, of hope, of the fragile balance between order and collapse.
What if the symbols you trusted to guide you became the very instruments of your undoing?
Surzhykov’s POLARIS is not a single narrative but a constellation. Arrow traces the trajectory of choice — a weapon, a direction, a fate. Coin interrogates value and loyalty — how currency becomes covenant, how allegiance can be bought or betrayed. Spark is ignition — rebellion, renewal, the dangerous promise of fire. Together, they form a triptych of allegory, each novella reflecting the others like shards of a broken mirror.
The trilogy’s rhythm is taut and allegorical. Surzhykov writes with precision, layering mythic resonance over speculative detail. Characters move through liminal spaces — cities half real, half dream — where every decision is weighted with symbolic consequence. The prose is sharp, almost architectural, building tension from fragments until the reader feels the inevitability of collapse and the fragile possibility of renewal.
This is not escapist fantasy; it is allegory sharpened into blade. Surzhykov asks what happens when systems of meaning — arrows, coins, sparks — are corrupted, and whether individuals can reclaim them. The trilogy’s intrigue lies in its duality: intimate human struggle set against vast symbolic canvases.
If you like speculative fiction that treats myth as mirror and allegory as weapon, POLARIS delivers the same moral unease as dramas where symbols themselves decide the fate of nations.
💭 “Symbols are maps — they guide until they betray.”
💭 “Every spark is both promise and threat.”
📚 Why @KlacksReads recommends: Because it reframes allegory as survival, showing how stories of arrows, coins, and sparks are not abstractions but urgent meditations on power, loyalty, and renewal.
@KlacksReads · London · 14 November 2025
Arrow, Coin, Spark was first published in 2016 in Ukraine and has since gone through several reprints in the original language. It is the opening book of the six-volume Polaris fantasy series.
📦 A fractured future. Symbols as weapons. A trilogy of survival written in allegory and flame.
💥 A speculative saga where myth and modernity collide, and every emblem carries consequence.
📍 From shadowed metropolises to mythic hinterlands — landscapes where power is coded in signs.
🗝 Identity, resistance, transformation. Surzhykov builds a world where the arrow pierces destiny, the coin dictates allegiance, and the spark ignites rebellion. Each motif becomes architecture: of control, of hope, of the fragile balance between order and collapse.
What if the symbols you trusted to guide you became the very instruments of your undoing?
Surzhykov’s POLARIS is not a single narrative but a constellation. Arrow traces the trajectory of choice — a weapon, a direction, a fate. Coin interrogates value and loyalty — how currency becomes covenant, how allegiance can be bought or betrayed. Spark is ignition — rebellion, renewal, the dangerous promise of fire. Together, they form a triptych of allegory, each novella reflecting the others like shards of a broken mirror.
The trilogy’s rhythm is taut and allegorical. Surzhykov writes with precision, layering mythic resonance over speculative detail. Characters move through liminal spaces — cities half real, half dream — where every decision is weighted with symbolic consequence. The prose is sharp, almost architectural, building tension from fragments until the reader feels the inevitability of collapse and the fragile possibility of renewal.
This is not escapist fantasy; it is allegory sharpened into blade. Surzhykov asks what happens when systems of meaning — arrows, coins, sparks — are corrupted, and whether individuals can reclaim them. The trilogy’s intrigue lies in its duality: intimate human struggle set against vast symbolic canvases.
If you like speculative fiction that treats myth as mirror and allegory as weapon, POLARIS delivers the same moral unease as dramas where symbols themselves decide the fate of nations.
💭 “Symbols are maps — they guide until they betray.”
💭 “Every spark is both promise and threat.”
📚 Why @KlacksReads recommends: Because it reframes allegory as survival, showing how stories of arrows, coins, and sparks are not abstractions but urgent meditations on power, loyalty, and renewal.
@KlacksReads · London · 14 November 2025
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews