Reset
by Sarina Dahlan
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Pub Date May 25 2021 | Archive Date Jul 15 2021
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Description
Can you love someone you don’t remember?
After the Last War destroyed most of the world, survivors form a new society in four self-sustaining cities in the Mojave Desert. In the utopia of the Four Cities, inspired by the lyrics of “Imagine” and Buddhist philosophy, everything is carefully planned and controlled: the seasons, the weather—and the residents. To prevent mankind from destroying each other again, its citizens undergo a memory wipe every four years in a process called tabula rasa, a blank slate, to remove learned prejudices. With each new cycle, they begin again with new names, jobs, homes, and lives. No memories. No attachments. No wars.
Aris, a scientist who shuns love, embraces tabula rasa and the excitement of unknown futures. Walling herself off from emotional attachments, she only sees relationships as pointless and avoids deep connections. But she is haunted by a recurring dream that becomes more frequent and vivid as time passes. After meeting Benja, a handsome free-spirited writer who believes his dreams of a past lover are memories, her world is turned upside down. Obsessed with finding the Dreamers, a secret organization thought to have a way to recover memories, Benja draws her down a dangerous path toward the past. When Metis, the leader of the Dreamers, appears in Aris’s life, everything she believes falls to pieces. With little time left before the next tabula rasa, they begin a bittersweet romance, navigating love in a world where names, lives, and moments are systematically destroyed.
Thought-provoking and emotionally resonant, Reset will make you consider the haunting reality of love and loss, and the indelible marks they leave behind.
A Note From the Publisher
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.
Advance Praise
“Crisp, stylish prose and a story about love trying to withstand the rigors of time. This is a book subtle in its intensity, lush and beautiful, while carefully exploring what it means to be human and what we are to each other. Evocative and literary, I highly recommend it.” —David R. Slayton, author of White Trash Warlock
“A hauntingly beautiful love story that explores the nexus of memory, identity, and love. Though technically science fiction it has an atmospheric fairy-tale feel that left me spellbound…Reset is a memorable, lyrical debut by Dahlan.”—Ruth Mitchell, award-winning author of Deleted
“Dahlan’s elegant writing style is as light as a whisper on the wind while still strong enough to probe the unanticipated darkness of a peaceful, yet problematic, postapocalyptic utopia. 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
“Reset captured me on so many levels…Once in a blue moon you read a book that leaves its mark on you—this is one of those. It was an absolute pleasure to read.”—Naomi Gibson, author of Every Line of You
“A vivid, evocative journey through a postapocalyptic world…Told with an assured, graceful touch, this compelling debut is a story for our current world, where our beliefs and memories are the new battlegrounds.”—Kimiko Guthrie, author of Block Seventeen
“Reset is a thought-provoking journey into the human psyche that will instantly have you pondering deep questions about the nature of memory, dreams, and reality itself. This bittersweet love story is as cerebral as it is emotional.”—Bobby Azarian, cognitive neuroscientist, Psychology Today blogger, and author of the forthcoming book The Romance of Reality
Marketing Plan
National and regional interviews, features, and reviews
Speculative and science fiction media buzz mailing
Print and digital advertising
Social media campaign
Featured author at major consumer, library, and regional bookseller shows
Author Twitter: @SarinaDahlan
Author website: SarinaDahlan.com
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781094086309 |
| PRICE | $27.99 (USD) |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Andee V, Reviewer
You go into this book expecting it to be the love story of Aris and Metis- but it is truly this overarching love story that has spanned the entirety of tabula rasa. For a standalone book, Dahlan does an incredible job of giving us the answers to most of our questions, even down to explaining what brought about Tabula Rasa in the first place and who the creator really was, and his motivations. Their story was really mind-blowing and I think that if Dahlan wanted to write anything else in this universe, writing about them would be a fantastic choice.
I think this book would be a good read for people who enjoyed Eternal Sunshine of A Spotless Mind. It has the same concept of true love bringing people back to their memories, without the toxicity of manic pixie dream girls and their male counterparts. I gave this book a solid 4 out of 5 stars. The only reason that it lost a star is that some of the logic was lost with regards to the memories and how they are pulled from people- as well as the dreams. I felt a little confused over reality and how it fit into this story at times, and that is the only thing keeping it from being 5 stars for me.
Paul V, Reviewer
This has an interesting premise and is executed pretty well. I liked the idea of a story based on Buddhist philosophy. It's imaginatively told and includes some engaging characters. A lot of scifi fans will probably connect with this.
I really appreciate the ARC for review!!
Kara D, Media/Journalist
Reset feels, in many ways, like one of the Cycles it describes: hitting the ground running with no explanation, blossoming into understanding, and ending (appropriately) somewhat abruptly. It’s a beautiful tragic romance built on the back of other tragic romances, leaving a handful of tantalizing threads hanging in the air and hinting at an even greater story. The ending is, in its own way, a hopeful one, even if it may take a breather after finishing to come to that conclusion.
(Received an A rating in Sci-Fi Magazine Summer 2021 issue)
Ayelen P, Reviewer
Reset is a really enjoyable book. The premise really interested me, a future where people get their memory wiped every 4 years in the name of peace, but somehow some people remember through dreams parts of their past that they shouldn't. Seeing Aris go from an extreme live for the day mentality, not even bothering building any relationships because they won't last, to embracing the dreams she has as memories is a great experience. I loved her connection to Benja, it felt really genuine and valuable. Metis is also a very intriguing character that I wish would have taken more of a spotlight, he seems to know things he doesn't get to reveal completely.
My only complaint is about the characters that play the role of "puppet masters". I would love to know more about them, we do get the basic information on their background and motivations, but we don't really get to know who they are and it makes it hard to connect to them.
Overall, this is a really good read, the characters are compelling, the story is captivating and it leaves you thinking what approach you would take if you lived in a system like this and just how much of an influence your past can have in your present and your future.
Kristin N, Bookseller
This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Paul W, Reviewer
A theme in dystopian/utopian fiction is: How do we manage a society after things have gone so very wrong, so that the mistakes of the past are not repeated? What would you do to make a society that will not come to extinguish humanity for good, this time? And what is the dystopian price to pay? Do you engineer society so that everyone takes drugs daily to subdue their passions, as in Equilibrium? Have everyone die at the age of 21, as in Logan’s Run? Stratify society in a distorted and restrictive way, as in Brave New World? Place a sin-eater of a tortured soul at the dark heart of the city, taking the sins of the city and the people, as in Those Who Walk Away From Omelas? There is a common assumption in all of these works that for humanity to have a utopia of any sort, bounds must be put on humanity, severe ones at that.
And so we come to Sarina Dahlan’s novel, Reset.
Review at TOR
Readers who liked this book also liked:
Jodi Picoult; Jennifer Finney Boylan
General Fiction (Adult), Literary Fiction, Women's Fiction
