Preset

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Pub Date 23 May 2023 | Archive Date 30 May 2023

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Description

Inception meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in this captivating prequel to the acclaimed, bestselling science fiction romance Reset by Sarina Dahlan

Can you give up a love you can’t forget?

After the Last War destroyed most of the world, survivors formed a new society in four self-sustaining cities in the Mojave Desert. To halt extinction, everything in the Four Cities is carefully predicted and carefully controlled … even love.

But how can you control love and freedom? In the engrossing prequel to Reset, Preset weaves the tales of Eleanor, the Crone, and Eli, the Planner, before and after the creation of the Four Cities. Much has changed in the world and their relationship, but there are some truths that have yet to come to light.

Fighting for change yet still loving her husband Eli, the scientist Eleanor travels to Elara, the lone city resisting fully bending to Eli’s control. There she must separate reality from lies, memories from desires, as she tries to piece together the truth about what is happening in the Four Cities.

But the gulf between love and freedom, between the past and the now, between what we remember and what we strive to become can be as vast as the break between two hearts bound together. It is here, in the dark fissure left by loss, where Eleanor discovers the true cost that has been paid to save humanity.

Inception meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in this captivating prequel to the acclaimed, bestselling science fiction romance Reset by Sarina Dahlan

Can you give up a love you can’t forget?

...


A Note From the Publisher

Sarina Dahlan was born into an Indonesian family in Thailand, and immigrated to the United States at the age of twelve. While children in the west grow up on fairy tales, she learned parables through ghost stories, mythologies, and Japanese manga. A graduate of the University of California, San Diego, with degrees in psychology and visual arts, she has blended both disciplines in careers as an advertising producer, a corporate marketing strategist, and an award-winning writer. She lives in California with her family and is currently raising her three children on a healthy diet of history, Thai curry, and scientific thinking. Reset is her first novel.

Sarina Dahlan was born into an Indonesian family in Thailand, and immigrated to the United States at the age of twelve. While children in the west grow up on fairy tales, she learned parables through...


Advance Praise

"Reset captured me on so many levels…It was an absolute pleasure to read."

—Naomi Gibson, author of Every Line of You, on Reset

"Reset haunts the reader through an ethereal, existential exploration of memory and meaning that lingers long after the last page."

—D. Eric Maikranz, author of The Reincarnationist Papers, on Reset

"A vivid, evocative journey…This compelling debut is a story for our current world."

—Kimiko Guthrie, author of Block Seventeen, on Reset

"Evocative and literary, I highly recommend it."

—David R. Slayton, author of White Trash Warlock, on Reset

"Reset captured me on so many levels…It was an absolute pleasure to read."

—Naomi Gibson, author of Every Line of You, on Reset

"Reset haunts the reader through an ethereal, existential exploration of...


Marketing Plan

National publicity campaign

National reviews campaign

Targeted outreach to speculative and sci-fi publications

Targeted outreach to romance publications

Outreach to influencers on Instagram, Tik Tok, and YouTube

Print and digital advertising

Social media campaign

Author website: SarinaDahlan.com

Author Twitter: @SarinaDahlan

Author Instagram: @Sarina.Dahlan

Author Facebook: SarinaDahlanWrites

National publicity campaign

National reviews campaign

Targeted outreach to speculative and sci-fi publications

Targeted outreach to romance publications

Outreach to influencers on Instagram, Tik Tok, and...


Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9798200962549
PRICE $27.99 (USD)
PAGES 356

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Shelf App (EPUB)
Send to Kindle (EPUB)
Download (EPUB)

Average rating from 14 members


Featured Reviews

Preset grabs you by the heart and doesn't let go until it's wrung every emotion dry. Sarina Dahlan has a gift for weaving fresh post-apocalyptic worlds that capture the imagination in the most beautiful and tragic of ways. As a prequel to Reset, Preset is a startling exploration into what it means to live, love, and lose. I won't soon be able to forget Eleanor and Eli, and I don't want to.

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I absolutely loved Reset, which Preset is the prequel to, so I was excited to get my hands on this ARC. It did not disappoint!

Dahlan once again works magic with her prose. It has such a dreamy quality. You can fall into the words and almost forget the apocalyptic world where these characters are fighting to forge their new lives. Preset is deeply emotional and deeply thoughtful. Heartwarming and heartbreaking. The characters, Eleanor and Eli and so many of the smaller side characters, will live with you long after you have finished their story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for this arc.

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I absolutely loved Reset, so I was thrilled to be able to read its prequel, Preset. Finding out how the world of Reset began, plus the personal history of its creators, was very satisfying. There was mystery, danger, love and a huge twist in this story! Excellent Sci Fi page turner!

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for access to this arc.

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"Preset" is the prequel to "Reset". It builds the world that "Reset" lives in. But it's not just building a world for stories to exist in; it's building a reality that you will simultaneously occupy and suspect.

I've said it before and it remains truer now than ever: Sarina Dahlan is an author that defies definition. To call her Sci-Fi is an insult to the truth she speaks about the human condition. To call her Fantasy is an insult to the reality that she can absolutely rip your heart out of your chest and the tears from your eyes. To call her Fiction is to ignore the fact that every one of her characters exists within every one of us.

The Four Cities post war identity unfolds page after page as we learn the story of the doomed lovers that created it. From idealistic young newly-weds to adversaries on humanity's preservation. Dahlan's characters teach us deep truths about what people will do to survive and thrive through the harshest of circumstances, even going so far as to wage asymmetric warfare in a battleground that is not as it seems.

"Preset" is a masterclass in misdirection as an intricate web unravels revealing the devastating truth
Dahlan points out: We are more likely to question the laws of physics than our own perceptions of reality.

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What a delightful mindfuck of a book.

Thank you to the publishers at Blackstone publishing for a chance to read the ARC in exchange for a review!

Honestly, I’m still recovering from some of the revelations of this book. I can’t wait to get my hands on Reset to understand the world of the four cities more in depth.

This book hurt so good. Please go read it; if you have no idea what’s happening for a bit of the book, that’s fine. The story didn’t click for me until 80% through the book but once it did, it destroyed me.

Finally, even though there’s a lot of play with memory and perceptions of reality, I’d actually say that the story feels more like Children of Men meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, set in a post apocalyptic world.

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