10 fantasy and science fiction books to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month

Reset by Sarina Dahlan

“Can you love someone you don’t remember?” This question forms the basis for Reset, the debut novel by author Sarina Dahlan. It finds humanity in a pseudo-utopian future where memories are erased every four years in order to promote a society free of attachments. Dahlan’s style is literary and thought-provoking, reminiscent of classic science fiction greats like Ray Bradbury.

Reset is about big picture questions about love and life and what it means to be human, and since it’s a standalone novel you get the full tale in one sitting.

"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 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."

Dahlan also has a prequel novel, Preset, due out in 2023 that will explore the rise of the Four Cities years before the events of Reset.

Find Reset on Amazon.

Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel

This reimagining of the tale of Kaikeyi, the infamous queen from the Hindu epic The Ramayana, takes this conflicted figure and reimagines the story from her point of view. What events led her to make the decisions she did, like banishing Rama to wander the land for more than a decade?

Debut author Vaishnavi Patel seeks to explore those questions in a vividly realized tale that feels in the same vein of Madeline Miller’s Circe, taking well-known myths and showing them in a new light.

"The only daughter of the kingdom of Kekaya, [Kaikeyi] is raised on tales of the gods: how they churned the vast ocean to obtain the nectar of immortality, how they vanquish evil and ensure the land of Bharat prospers, and how they offer powerful boons to the devout and the wise. Yet she watches as her father unceremoniously banishes her mother, listens as her own worth is reduced to how great a marriage alliance she can secure. And when she calls upon the gods for help, they never seem to hear. Desperate for some measure of independence, she turns to the texts she once read with her mother and discovers a magic that is hers alone. With this power, Kaikeyi transforms herself from an overlooked princess into a warrior, diplomat, and most favored queen, determined to carve a better world for herself and the women around her. But as the evil from her childhood stories threatens the cosmic order, the path she has forged clashes with the destiny the gods have chosen for her family. And Kaikeyi must decide if resistance is worth the destruction it will wreak—and what legacy she intends to leave behind."

Find Kaikeyi on Amazon.