REVIEW: RESET BY SARINA DAHLAN

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Review by Pennell Paugh

August 27, 2022 (San Diego) – Reset, a romantic science fiction story by San Diego author Sarina Dahlan, is thought-provoking. Reset will make you cherish your life’s loves and losses—allowing them to give your life deep meaning and purpose.

The story begins after the Last War destroyed most of the world. The Planner, who watched the planet’s destruction from a space station, formed a new society from the event’s survivors. They create four self-sustaining cities in the Mojave Desert. In the Four Cities, everything is carefully planned and controlled: the seasons, births and child rearing, availability of food and necessities, as well as homes and places of work.

To prevent another war, citizens undergo memory wipes every four years. The Planner, believing in the philosophy tabula rasa, regarded each human as a blank slate at birth. By removing each person’s accumulation of memories every four years, he removed learned prejudices. With each new cycle, residents begin again with new names, jobs, homes, and lives.

Aris, a scientist who shuns love, embraces tabula rasa and the excitement of unknown futures. Walling herself off from emotional attachments, she sees long-lasting relationships as pointless. She meets Benja, a handsome writer who believes his dreams of a past lover are memories. His inner turmoil rips Aris’ heart and rational thinking wide open.

Benja is obsessed with finding the Dreamers, a secret organization thought to have a way to recover memories. He draws Aris onto a dangerous path to recall the past through dreams. When Metis, the leader of the Dreamers, appears in Aris's life, everything she learns from Benja falls into place.

With little time left before the next tabula rasa, Aris and Metis begin a romance on the run from a world where attachments to the past are systematically destroyed. The author deeply involves the reader in the conflict, so we identify with their struggle to hold onto and cherish love because it is the source of hope and purpose, even when love is unrequited.

Sarina Dahlan lives in San Diego and is a member of the San Diego Writers and Editors Guild.

 


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