Published May 2023, Blackstone Publishing
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.
Praises for Preset:
“A collision of our era’s catastrophes fuses a new world, becoming something rich and strange.”
Kim Stanley Robinson, Hugo Award–winning novelist
“Intricate, imaginative, and often surprising, Preset propels you through a future of warning, danger, and possibilities.”
David Brin, New York Times bestselling author
“Sarina Dahlan richly weaves philosophy, science, and dystopia through the complexities of the human psyche, relationships, and the desire to protect what we hold dearest… Preset offers a trenchant meditation on what we both lose and gain when we choose to remember.”
Jennifer Givhan, author of River Woman, River Demon
“Sarina Dahlan wraps moments of clarity and meaning in beautiful prose while exploring themes of love, heartbreak, and the aftermath of war. She’s never afraid to ask the big questions and consider what survival costs us, as individuals, or as humans on the edge of extinction.”
David R. Slayton, author of the Adam Binder Series
“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 postapocalyptic worlds that capture the imagination in the most beautiful and tragic of ways.”
Kristy Gardner, author of The Stars in Their Eyes
“Dahlan once again works magic with her prose…Preset is deeply emotional and deeply thoughtful. Heartwarming and heartbreaking. The characters Eleanor and Eli, and so many of the side characters, will live with you long after you have finished their story.”
S. L. Choi, author of the Blood Fae Druid series