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The Race
Set in a future Great Britain scarred by fracking and ecological collapse, The Race is the first full-length novel from Nina Allan, winner of the 2014 BSFA Award for Best Short Fiction (Spin, TTA Press), and the prestigious Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire for Best Translated Work (Complications/The Silver Wind, Editions Tristram).
Christy's life is dominated by fear of her brother, a man she knows capable of monstrous acts and suspects of hiding even darker ones. Desperate to learn the truth she contacts Alex, a stranger she knows only by name. Together they must face their demons, wherever that may lead. Raised at the Croft, a secret government programme focussing on smartdogs, Maree has to undertake a journey through shipping lanes haunted by the enigmatic and dangerous Atlantic whale. What she discovers en route will change her world forever.
The story of four damaged people whose lives are inextricably linked, The Race is a novel of tender nuances, brutality, insight and great ambition, a narrative that lays bare the fears and joys of being human, and, ultimately, offers hope to us all.
256 pages, Paperback
First published August 3, 2014
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1929 people want to read
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April 26, 2019
Occasionally, when I'm reading something I really love, I experience this feeling that is difficult to quantify in words. It's as though pieces of the past, encapsulating the pure undiluted pleasure of reading as a child, come back to me not as memories, but as full and tangible moments. I think it's probably the closest it's possible to get to time-travelling. The Race had this effect on me several times.
It opens with the story of Jenna, who lives in an English coastal town named Sapphire. The place is both familiar and strange. For example, while the characters use language and technology that recognisably belongs to modern Britain, they pay for things in shillings. Most significantly of all, the economy of Sapphire revolves around the racing of genetically engineered 'smartdogs'. However, we won't stay with Jenna for the whole of The Race. It's divided into four narratives, some of which are explicitly connected, others linked in more nebulous ways – through imagination, invention and the intersections of possible worlds.
It's difficult to adequately describe the book beyond that – because the worldbuilding is so complex, and because explaining the differences between the narratives might be considered spoilerish. (With that said, I have a hunch people who are bothered about spoilers probably wouldn't be into this book anyway.) It is perhaps best described as a collision of literary and science fiction, and the closest comparison I can think of is David Mitchell's work – especially Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas, which are similarly divided into a number of separate, but interlocking, stories.
There is a great deal of overlap in the themes explored through The Race's four narratives. This is what I think of when I think of each one:
• Jenna: family and everything it entails – loyalty; feeling bound to someone, even if they make terrible decisions; understanding a sibling instinctively. Small-town life, being part of a community, but also dreaming of an escape. Finding solace through creativity, making beautiful things out of scraps. The power of objects, the memories and meanings held within.
• Christy: many parallels with Jenna's story. Betrayal. Secrets. Surviving and moving past a violent assault. Writing and imagining your way out of trauma.
• Alex: love and relationships and how they evolve over time. Identity; the experience of belonging to two cultures and how this can sometimes make you feel you belong nowhere. Finding a resolution to a story that has lain dormant for so long it has taken on the quality of myth.
• Maree: both an opposite and a parallel to Alex's experience, i.e. belonging nowhere because you have no idea about your origins. Becoming an adult and beginning to understand you have agency. The excitement and risk of taking a leap of faith versus the comfort of what is known.
Jenna, Christy, and Maree could each work as a standalone novella; Alex is more of a short story, and also acts as a coda to Christy's narrative. Jenna and Christy are the richest, employing first person most effectively. Alex's briefer, third-person narrative feels ever-so-slightly insipid in comparison, and Maree's intentionally stilted voice, which reflects her odd upbringing, didn't entirely work for me.
Still, the overall effect is powerful. Christy's first reference to the incident that reshapes her life is so sudden, so out-of-the-blue, that it's properly shocking. This made me realise how rarely I feel genuinely surprised and destabilised while reading a novel. I also think Allan's work offers a great example of how to write diverse characters. As a reader, you're aware that lots of people in this book aren't white or straight, but it doesn't come off as tokenistic in the slightest. It helps, of course, that every character has such depth. Nobody is ever just there – we're always given tiny details that make them human; I feel like Allan must gather whole folders of research and background detail for even the most minor players.
It's fitting that a strand of The Race ends up being about – essentially – empathy as a superpower, because Allan is a deeply empathic writer whose warmth and intuition make most other fiction look like shallow posturing. I was sorry to leave each character in this novel behind, and I was sorry to leave the whole book behind. While it has some imperfections, The Race is the fullest realisation of Allan's talents I have yet come across, and one of the most satisfying books I have read all year.
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It opens with the story of Jenna, who lives in an English coastal town named Sapphire. The place is both familiar and strange. For example, while the characters use language and technology that recognisably belongs to modern Britain, they pay for things in shillings. Most significantly of all, the economy of Sapphire revolves around the racing of genetically engineered 'smartdogs'. However, we won't stay with Jenna for the whole of The Race. It's divided into four narratives, some of which are explicitly connected, others linked in more nebulous ways – through imagination, invention and the intersections of possible worlds.
It's difficult to adequately describe the book beyond that – because the worldbuilding is so complex, and because explaining the differences between the narratives might be considered spoilerish. (With that said, I have a hunch people who are bothered about spoilers probably wouldn't be into this book anyway.) It is perhaps best described as a collision of literary and science fiction, and the closest comparison I can think of is David Mitchell's work – especially Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas, which are similarly divided into a number of separate, but interlocking, stories.
There is a great deal of overlap in the themes explored through The Race's four narratives. This is what I think of when I think of each one:
• Jenna: family and everything it entails – loyalty; feeling bound to someone, even if they make terrible decisions; understanding a sibling instinctively. Small-town life, being part of a community, but also dreaming of an escape. Finding solace through creativity, making beautiful things out of scraps. The power of objects, the memories and meanings held within.
• Christy: many parallels with Jenna's story. Betrayal. Secrets. Surviving and moving past a violent assault. Writing and imagining your way out of trauma.
• Alex: love and relationships and how they evolve over time. Identity; the experience of belonging to two cultures and how this can sometimes make you feel you belong nowhere. Finding a resolution to a story that has lain dormant for so long it has taken on the quality of myth.
• Maree: both an opposite and a parallel to Alex's experience, i.e. belonging nowhere because you have no idea about your origins. Becoming an adult and beginning to understand you have agency. The excitement and risk of taking a leap of faith versus the comfort of what is known.
Jenna, Christy, and Maree could each work as a standalone novella; Alex is more of a short story, and also acts as a coda to Christy's narrative. Jenna and Christy are the richest, employing first person most effectively. Alex's briefer, third-person narrative feels ever-so-slightly insipid in comparison, and Maree's intentionally stilted voice, which reflects her odd upbringing, didn't entirely work for me.
Still, the overall effect is powerful. Christy's first reference to the incident that reshapes her life is so sudden, so out-of-the-blue, that it's properly shocking. This made me realise how rarely I feel genuinely surprised and destabilised while reading a novel. I also think Allan's work offers a great example of how to write diverse characters. As a reader, you're aware that lots of people in this book aren't white or straight, but it doesn't come off as tokenistic in the slightest. It helps, of course, that every character has such depth. Nobody is ever just there – we're always given tiny details that make them human; I feel like Allan must gather whole folders of research and background detail for even the most minor players.
It's fitting that a strand of The Race ends up being about – essentially – empathy as a superpower, because Allan is a deeply empathic writer whose warmth and intuition make most other fiction look like shallow posturing. I was sorry to leave each character in this novel behind, and I was sorry to leave the whole book behind. While it has some imperfections, The Race is the fullest realisation of Allan's talents I have yet come across, and one of the most satisfying books I have read all year.
TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr
March 1, 2015
This book was a hot mess. I suppose there's some fancy scifi-slash-pyschological reason why Jenna and Christy's stories were exactly the same, or why we got pages and pages of Jenna explaining how she made gloves instead of any resolution of these four desperately boring, disparate storylines, but I can't grasp it. Allan never explains why smartdogs were smartdogs, and not smartrats or any other animal, in the same way she doesn't explain why this futuristic greyhound racing needs human 'runners' involved to ... make the dogs ... run ... faster? Okaaaaay. I'm glad that the entirety of human scientific enterprise culminates in helping people gamble in even stupider ways than before.
It is clear that Allan uses her introspective writing style to clumsily hide the fact that she hasn't, can't, or won't think through the hard-science part of science fiction. Too bad that style is so amateur and patchy, imbuing basic interactions with Weighty Meaning instead of, y'know, INSTILLING SOME. The number of times a character felt the ominous heebie-jeebies about a randomer renting them a hotel room or whatever outnumbers the nefarious action by about a million to one. Waste of reading time and kindle space.
It is clear that Allan uses her introspective writing style to clumsily hide the fact that she hasn't, can't, or won't think through the hard-science part of science fiction. Too bad that style is so amateur and patchy, imbuing basic interactions with Weighty Meaning instead of, y'know, INSTILLING SOME. The number of times a character felt the ominous heebie-jeebies about a randomer renting them a hotel room or whatever outnumbers the nefarious action by about a million to one. Waste of reading time and kindle space.
April 3, 2021
Familiar territory for Nina Allan. Another book dealing with a kidnapping, or missing woman. This one had a stronger feminist slant than The Rift, and I felt that the male characters were too two-dimensional, even by the standards of that agenda. The first segment of the book, dealing heavily with the enhanced dog races, was the most interesting to me. The other several sections dealt with troubled characters whose lives intersected tangentially, while touching on world building elements. It was all very subtle and lacking in plot after 200 pages or so. The depth of character development was only middling in my opinion, rarely progressing past a few dalliances with bisexuality and racial themes, family, friendship, rape, and incest - all motifs explored by Allan elsewhere and with more poignancy. Overall, the elements worked well, but I tired of the same bitter tone dispensed throughout, the darkness layered on thick, the slightly jaded and irresponsible attitudes of the characters' viewpoints. The writing was not polished - I constantly noticed extra words - but I think she deliberately tweaked the narration to give it voice. There is a great deal of voice, many Britishisms, but not much concision. It is a laid-back telling of a gruesome series of events, involving despicable male characters in a pseudo-futuristic setting. The backdrop provides ample atmosphere, but by the time I got to the Maree section, the reiteration of the empathic powers, roping in the dog races, the backstories, the whales, and the other empaths, I got annoyed by the whole concept. Empathy, I get it.
Still recommended for fans of soft s-f. For some reason, the blurbs call it hard s-f. There's not enough science to call it that. It's again about relationships, though The Rift is a better place to start.
Still recommended for fans of soft s-f. For some reason, the blurbs call it hard s-f. There's not enough science to call it that. It's again about relationships, though The Rift is a better place to start.
April 11, 2017
3,5 / 5
Nina Allan juega con nosotros, se dedica a llevarnos por tres escenarios con tres protagonistas diferentes. En Sapphire reside Jenna, una diseñadora de guantes para Controladores de perros biónicos, los cuales son el deporte y pasatiempo que predomina, que ve su vida marcada por la ausencia de su madre. En Hastings vive Christy, una joven solitaria refugiada en la biblioteca que se dedica a escribir sobre todo lo que la rodea con un pasado de lo más duro. Por último, Maree por fin va abandonar La Granja, un centro de adiestramiento para niños con un alto nivel de empatía, surcará el peligroso océano Atlántico donde residen las descomunales ballenas hasta llegar a su destino.
La Carrera se divide en cinco capítulos que pueden verse como novellas independientes, que contienen tres voces narrativas diferentes en primera persona, y otras dos que llegan en tercera persona. Las del primer grupo; Jenna, Christy y Maree se sienten como más cercanas, nos aportan mucho más y su interés en general, es mucho mayor. La narrativa se resiente en las otras dos historias, que chocan bastante y con poco que aportar al entramado rompen con lo establecido hasta el momento, desembocando en un final que no está a la altura de las expectativas, del que no obtenemos un gran premio final. Eso sí, me parece que la prosa de Nina Allan es muy interesante, ágil, con una facilidad pasmosa para llevarte de un sitio a otro, para hacerte sentir igual que sus protagonistas.
Pese a que temáticamente podríamos englobarla como ciencia ficción, en realidad su mayor virtud es el realismo que rezuman sus letras. Olvidaos de una acción trepidante, la narración es fluida, pero lo que busca es profundizar en la mente de nuestras protagonistas, en describir los lugares que habitan y en transmitir sus recuerdos pasados, sus sensaciones. Todo forma una gran excusa para abordar diferentes temáticas que se asientan en nuestro propio mundo. La decadencia medioambiental, la violencia de género, el racismo, la búsqueda de la identidad propia o la necesidad de relacionarnos como seres humanos y de buscar a los demás, la necesidad de la empatía serán los temas centrales que ronden todas las historias.
Reseña en el blog:http://boywithletters.blogspot.com.es...
Nina Allan juega con nosotros, se dedica a llevarnos por tres escenarios con tres protagonistas diferentes. En Sapphire reside Jenna, una diseñadora de guantes para Controladores de perros biónicos, los cuales son el deporte y pasatiempo que predomina, que ve su vida marcada por la ausencia de su madre. En Hastings vive Christy, una joven solitaria refugiada en la biblioteca que se dedica a escribir sobre todo lo que la rodea con un pasado de lo más duro. Por último, Maree por fin va abandonar La Granja, un centro de adiestramiento para niños con un alto nivel de empatía, surcará el peligroso océano Atlántico donde residen las descomunales ballenas hasta llegar a su destino.
La Carrera se divide en cinco capítulos que pueden verse como novellas independientes, que contienen tres voces narrativas diferentes en primera persona, y otras dos que llegan en tercera persona. Las del primer grupo; Jenna, Christy y Maree se sienten como más cercanas, nos aportan mucho más y su interés en general, es mucho mayor. La narrativa se resiente en las otras dos historias, que chocan bastante y con poco que aportar al entramado rompen con lo establecido hasta el momento, desembocando en un final que no está a la altura de las expectativas, del que no obtenemos un gran premio final. Eso sí, me parece que la prosa de Nina Allan es muy interesante, ágil, con una facilidad pasmosa para llevarte de un sitio a otro, para hacerte sentir igual que sus protagonistas.
Pese a que temáticamente podríamos englobarla como ciencia ficción, en realidad su mayor virtud es el realismo que rezuman sus letras. Olvidaos de una acción trepidante, la narración es fluida, pero lo que busca es profundizar en la mente de nuestras protagonistas, en describir los lugares que habitan y en transmitir sus recuerdos pasados, sus sensaciones. Todo forma una gran excusa para abordar diferentes temáticas que se asientan en nuestro propio mundo. La decadencia medioambiental, la violencia de género, el racismo, la búsqueda de la identidad propia o la necesidad de relacionarnos como seres humanos y de buscar a los demás, la necesidad de la empatía serán los temas centrales que ronden todas las historias.
Reseña en el blog:http://boywithletters.blogspot.com.es...
July 22, 2016
I feel a little bit misled by this one. It was perfectly well written and interesting, but the blurb promised SF and greyhounds, two of my absolute favourite things. The book is structured almost as four novellas, and two of the novellas are not SF at all. In fact, most of the book was not SF and it only featured holistic amounts of greyhounds, hence the low rating.
If someone wants to write a near-future SF that actually focuses on enhanced greyhounds, then I would buy that like a shot. But this is not that book.
If someone wants to write a near-future SF that actually focuses on enhanced greyhounds, then I would buy that like a shot. But this is not that book.
December 18, 2020
What’s It About
The back cover copy of The Race would lead you to believe that the entire novel is set on the coastal town of Sapphire, suffering a slow decline from fracking and ecological disaster. And while that’s partly true, Sapphire and its denizens only comprise a fourth of the novel. In actual fact The Race consists of four novellas that are linked in an unexpected way.
Should I Read It?
Yes. Absolutely.
This is a remarkable début novel on a number of levels. For one there’s the gorgeous, measured writing. I’d come to expect this from Nina Allan, having read her shorter fiction, but it was pleasing to see how she modulated the tone and rhythm of her prose depending on the story and point of view character. And then there’s Allan’s head-spinning treatment of science fiction – aptly described by Dan Hartland, in his Strange Horizon review, as “a queasy relationship to genre” – which at first seems to be mocking the slap-dash and incoherent world building of “near future” genre novels and then completely turns that idea on its head.
If the above sounds nebulous, it’s because I recommend you come to this novel cold. Afterwards you can read both my commentary below and Dan’s excellent review.
Representative Paragraph
Commentary
At first there’s nothing particularly innovative about the setting of “Jenna” – the first of four novellas that comprise The Race. Like a good chunk of slow apocalypse fiction – and by Christ I’ve read plenty over the last 12 months – Nina Allan’s description of a dying Earth draws heavily on the imagery of death and decay:
However, as I continued to learn about the village of Sapphire, a once holiday resort gasping its last breath due to fracking, something occurred to me. Jenna’s world made no sense at all. Because I’m slow on the uptake, I only became aware of the weird inconsistencies when Jenna made a passing remark about how there was no longer any salmon left in England, that all the fish they had left to eat were a “few hardy carp.” This jarred with me because previous to this reference there was no indication that the people of Sapphire were struggling from a scarcity of food. And while I admit that this apparent hole could be explained away by saying that their meals were manufactured using the same genetic technology that had developed the smart dogs, I started to pay attention to the world building. I noticed that there were these references to a recent war, possibly with Argentina, with no explanation of why the war was fought or who had won. And there was a weird mix of technology. No-one seemed to use mobile phone or tablets and yet genetically smart dogs telepathically linked to their jockeys was a normal aspect of the society. Even the name of the village, Sapphire, rang a false note. It reminded me of the sort of fake American towns the Russians built during the Cold War to train their spies.
In spite of my reservations, I didn’t stop reading because the prose and the plot were so compelling. Jenna’s story of her unstable brother Del, his love for training smart dogs and how his getting involved with the wrong sort of people led to (a) the kidnapping of his daughter and (b) her survival resting on the outcome of a dog race, builds in momentum until the tension becomes unbearable. Seriously. It’s genuine white knuckle stuff.
And then “Jenna” ends and I start reading “Christy”, which is most definitely set in our world – possibly in the 80s – and I quickly realised that Christy’s life mirrors that of Jenna’s in that they both have a brother that they don’t entirely trust. It becomes clear that Christy has used aspects of her real life to create Jenna’s world. Later were informed by Alex, in the third novella, that Christy has written a number of short stories set in that strange, twisted version of the United Kingdom where wars are fought with Argentina and the technology is a mix of the mundane and the bleeding edge.
It’s all very meta, and if I was looking at the book through a more academic lens, I might view The Race as a commentary on the self imposed ghettoisation of literary and genre fiction. As an examination of that divide, Allan’s novel splits the genre and literary sections apart and then has them fold into each other through the course of the narrative. And while it’s extremely clever, and demonstrates an author comfortable with her genre and literary ancestry, for me it wasn’t the most striking aspect of the novel.
Rather, I was drawn to how The Race explored to the act of creativity as therapy and catharsis. Christy has always believed that her brother killed his girlfriend Linda. And yet during a meeting with Alex, also a once boyfriend of Linda, Christy is informed that Linda is very much alive. Given that she was living with the guilt of not reporting her brother for the crime she’d thought he’d committed the news that Linda survived the relationship unsurprisingly affects Christy deeply.
That reference to “fictions” has more than one meaning in the context of the novel. For Christy, the abuse at the hands of her brother has not only haunted her nightmares but also informed her fiction. If the writing of “Jenna” is Christy’s attempt to exorcise those demons at the hands of her brother, “Maree” is a genuine moment of catharsis. The child who was kidnapped in “Jenna” has now grown up and is travelling on a steamer to an island where gifted young adults are sent. Again, the story retains the quirky world building of “Jenna” – there’s mention of war, but this time it’s between the Thalians and Crimond – and there’s the same strange mix of technology. Although the novella has nowhere near the momentum or intensity as “Jenna” (aside from one thrilling set piece involving killer whales) this is very much a story about a young woman coming to terms with who she is. For Christy – never mentioned, never hinted at, but a presence nonetheless – there is also the need to absorb what she now knows, the fact that Linda is alive and that she no longer needs to burden herself with the crushing guilt of not speaking up. And while the scars of abuse are still present, at least, like Maree, who is asked to make a critical choice at the end of the novella, there’s a sense in which Christy is free to forge her own destiny.
Smart, emotionally engaging and beautifully written, The Race is an astonishing novel by one of the best writers in the genre field at the moment.
The back cover copy of The Race would lead you to believe that the entire novel is set on the coastal town of Sapphire, suffering a slow decline from fracking and ecological disaster. And while that’s partly true, Sapphire and its denizens only comprise a fourth of the novel. In actual fact The Race consists of four novellas that are linked in an unexpected way.
Should I Read It?
Yes. Absolutely.
This is a remarkable début novel on a number of levels. For one there’s the gorgeous, measured writing. I’d come to expect this from Nina Allan, having read her shorter fiction, but it was pleasing to see how she modulated the tone and rhythm of her prose depending on the story and point of view character. And then there’s Allan’s head-spinning treatment of science fiction – aptly described by Dan Hartland, in his Strange Horizon review, as “a queasy relationship to genre” – which at first seems to be mocking the slap-dash and incoherent world building of “near future” genre novels and then completely turns that idea on its head.
If the above sounds nebulous, it’s because I recommend you come to this novel cold. Afterwards you can read both my commentary below and Dan’s excellent review.
Representative Paragraph
My mother, Anne Allerton, walked out on the town and on our family when I was fifteen. After she left, my brother Del, whose nickname is Yellow, went a little bit crazy. He was crazy before, most likely – it was just that our mother leaving made his madness more obvious. I was scared of Del then, for a while, not because of anything he did especially but because of the thoughts he had. I could sense those thoughts in him, burrowing away beneath the surface of his mind like venomous worms. I swear Del sometimes thought of killing me, not because he wanted me dead but because he was desperate to find out what killing felt like.
Commentary
At first there’s nothing particularly innovative about the setting of “Jenna” – the first of four novellas that comprise The Race. Like a good chunk of slow apocalypse fiction – and by Christ I’ve read plenty over the last 12 months – Nina Allan’s description of a dying Earth draws heavily on the imagery of death and decay:
I was shocked to see that the southern outskirts of the city still showed signs of bomb damage – vast craters full of oil-scummed water, acres of burned-out warehouses. Off to one side I spotted one of the old furnace chimneys. It stood alone amidst the ruins of several others, their broken uprights jutting out between the rusting girders and twisted stanchions like pointing fingers.
However, as I continued to learn about the village of Sapphire, a once holiday resort gasping its last breath due to fracking, something occurred to me. Jenna’s world made no sense at all. Because I’m slow on the uptake, I only became aware of the weird inconsistencies when Jenna made a passing remark about how there was no longer any salmon left in England, that all the fish they had left to eat were a “few hardy carp.” This jarred with me because previous to this reference there was no indication that the people of Sapphire were struggling from a scarcity of food. And while I admit that this apparent hole could be explained away by saying that their meals were manufactured using the same genetic technology that had developed the smart dogs, I started to pay attention to the world building. I noticed that there were these references to a recent war, possibly with Argentina, with no explanation of why the war was fought or who had won. And there was a weird mix of technology. No-one seemed to use mobile phone or tablets and yet genetically smart dogs telepathically linked to their jockeys was a normal aspect of the society. Even the name of the village, Sapphire, rang a false note. It reminded me of the sort of fake American towns the Russians built during the Cold War to train their spies.
In spite of my reservations, I didn’t stop reading because the prose and the plot were so compelling. Jenna’s story of her unstable brother Del, his love for training smart dogs and how his getting involved with the wrong sort of people led to (a) the kidnapping of his daughter and (b) her survival resting on the outcome of a dog race, builds in momentum until the tension becomes unbearable. Seriously. It’s genuine white knuckle stuff.
And then “Jenna” ends and I start reading “Christy”, which is most definitely set in our world – possibly in the 80s – and I quickly realised that Christy’s life mirrors that of Jenna’s in that they both have a brother that they don’t entirely trust. It becomes clear that Christy has used aspects of her real life to create Jenna’s world. Later were informed by Alex, in the third novella, that Christy has written a number of short stories set in that strange, twisted version of the United Kingdom where wars are fought with Argentina and the technology is a mix of the mundane and the bleeding edge.
It’s all very meta, and if I was looking at the book through a more academic lens, I might view The Race as a commentary on the self imposed ghettoisation of literary and genre fiction. As an examination of that divide, Allan’s novel splits the genre and literary sections apart and then has them fold into each other through the course of the narrative. And while it’s extremely clever, and demonstrates an author comfortable with her genre and literary ancestry, for me it wasn’t the most striking aspect of the novel.
Rather, I was drawn to how The Race explored to the act of creativity as therapy and catharsis. Christy has always believed that her brother killed his girlfriend Linda. And yet during a meeting with Alex, also a once boyfriend of Linda, Christy is informed that Linda is very much alive. Given that she was living with the guilt of not reporting her brother for the crime she’d thought he’d committed the news that Linda survived the relationship unsurprisingly affects Christy deeply.
Alex had the sense that she was still trying to get to grips with things, to sort out the facts as she now understood them from the fictions that had tormented her for so long.
That reference to “fictions” has more than one meaning in the context of the novel. For Christy, the abuse at the hands of her brother has not only haunted her nightmares but also informed her fiction. If the writing of “Jenna” is Christy’s attempt to exorcise those demons at the hands of her brother, “Maree” is a genuine moment of catharsis. The child who was kidnapped in “Jenna” has now grown up and is travelling on a steamer to an island where gifted young adults are sent. Again, the story retains the quirky world building of “Jenna” – there’s mention of war, but this time it’s between the Thalians and Crimond – and there’s the same strange mix of technology. Although the novella has nowhere near the momentum or intensity as “Jenna” (aside from one thrilling set piece involving killer whales) this is very much a story about a young woman coming to terms with who she is. For Christy – never mentioned, never hinted at, but a presence nonetheless – there is also the need to absorb what she now knows, the fact that Linda is alive and that she no longer needs to burden herself with the crushing guilt of not speaking up. And while the scars of abuse are still present, at least, like Maree, who is asked to make a critical choice at the end of the novella, there’s a sense in which Christy is free to forge her own destiny.
Smart, emotionally engaging and beautifully written, The Race is an astonishing novel by one of the best writers in the genre field at the moment.
August 3, 2014
Originally published at Risingshadow.
The Race is Nina Allan's debut novel. It's a rewarding, thought-provoking and beautifully written novel about four damaged people, brothers and sisters, everyday life, ecological collapse, smart dog racing and two different realities that merge and twist in a compelling way.
Because Nina Allan has written beautiful short stories and novellas, I was eager to read her debut novel. In my opinion she has succeeded perfectly in writing a beautiful and immersive novel that is just as beautiful, nuanced and strange as her stories. All the things that have made her stories excellent can be found in this novel. I was very impressed by this novel, because the story was intriguing and the characters were three-dimensional.
Beauty, terror, loss, longing and love go hand in hand in this novel. The tender and beautiful moments are nicely balanced by the bleak, brutal and terrifying moments that almost tear apart the characters' lives. I admire the author's way of writing about these moments in a realistic way, and I especially admire the avoidance of easy solutions. The author shows that life isn't always neat and pretty, because there are times when you have to face difficult situations and what matters is the way you handle the situations and how you accept and deal with the changes in your life.
Although there are bleak and brutal moments in this novel, the author never dwells too much on them and doesn't let the story become over-sentimental. The author is such a gifted storyteller that she knows how to write expertly about bleak and sentimental issues. She's also capable of lightening the atmosphere without resorting to cheap tricks and the characters may suddenly experience hope, just like in real life.
What I like perhaps most about this novel is that Nina Allan has created a story that reveals its readers the whole spectrum of human life and emotions. The author doesn't shy away difficult issues, but writes boldly about them. She also writes boldly about the consequences of shocking events, because they affect the characters' lives. By writing about the characters' feelings and emotions she is able to create a realistic atmosphere.
This novel can be categorized as science fiction and literary speculative fiction. I personally categorize it as literary speculative fiction, because in my opinion the author flawlessly combines literary fiction and speculative fiction.
Here's information about the story:
The Race opens in a coastal town of Sapphire where illegal smartdog racing is popular. Fracking has affected and changed the landscape - a failed fracking industry has reduced large areas of the natural environment to a toxic wasteland and has affected the lives of the local residents.
There are four main characters in this novel: Jenna, Christy, Alex and Maree. The tales of these characters are connected to each other and together they create a stunning vision of people's lives, fears and hopes in a contemporary and futuristic England.
Here's a bit of information about the main characters and their lives:
Jenna:
- Jenna Hoolman lives in Sapphire. Jenna's mother left when she was fifteen. She has a brother, Del.
- Jenna makes high-end gloves for the runners who are the stars of the smartdog races.
- Jenna's brother, Del, is interested in smartdogs. He has a friend, Em, who also becomes Jenna's friend. Del often hangs out with Em's father, Graeme, because Graeme is involved in the smartdog races.
- Del has a wife, Claudia, and a daughter, Lumey, who is special and loves dogs. When Lumey suddenly goes missing, things change quickly for Jenna, Del and Claudia.
Christy:
- Christy has an older brother called Derek. Their mother left when Christy was fifteen. Christy is a writer.
- Something wrong happens between Christy and Derek, and that affects their relationship.
- Derek begins to date a woman called Linda and they have a slightly unusual relationship. Christy gets caught up in the middle of their relationship.
- When things get bad between Derek and Linda, Christy is worried about Linda.
Alex:
- Alex's father is a Londoner and his mother is from Lagos. He has encountered racism.
- Alex has dated Linda and misses her. He was Linda's boyfriend before Derek.
- Alex has a wife, Janet, and a daughter, Leonie.
- Christy contacts Alex and wants to talk with him about Linda, because she thinks that something bad may have happened to her.
Maree:
- Maree travels aboard a ship towards Kontessa. She's part of a special programme and the main facility of the programme is in Kontessa. She was recruited in the programme because of her ability to communicate with smartdogs.
- Maree remembers bits and pieces of her childhood, but not much anything else. She's only been told a few things about how her parents died when she was young.
- Maree discovers new things during the voyage towards Kontessa and meets new people.
These four damaged characters, whose lives are linked, are genuinely interesting, because they're like real people and act like ones. They all have their own feelings, lives and secrets, and each of them reviews their past in an enchanting way. Reading about their past was interesting for me, because it brought depth to the characters.
The characterization and character interaction is excellent and fluent. Nina Allan writes confidently and deftly about what happens between family members and friends. As everybody knows, relationships between siblings can be difficult in many ways. The author writes perfectly about these relationships, because the relationship between Jenna and Del is handled well, and so is the difficult relationship between Christy and Derek.
Nina Allan writes beautifully and memorably about childhood, family life and childhood memories. For example, reading about Christy's childhood and how her mother leaves her is something that's difficult to forget after reading about it because of the absorbing writing style. I'm sure that nobody can forget the image of a young Christy who watches how her mother leaves the house never to come back again.
What happens between Christy and Derek will also linger on the reader's mind, because Derek does something bad and unexpected to her. What happens between them has a big effect on Christy's life, because it scars her for a long time. After the incident Christy begins to distance herself from her brother and eventually she communicates only briefly with Derek. In my opinion this adds plenty of harsh realism to the story.
The smartdogs play an important role in this novel. They're greyhounds that have been spliced with human DNA. They're product of illegal experiments in stem cell research. The smartdogs are often dognapped, because they're worth lots of money, and something bad may also happen to them.
All the smartdogs have runners. The runners are the stars of the smartdog races. Each runner has an implant that allows him/her to feel the dog's thoughts. The symbiosis between the dog and its runner is strong. The runners who have implants act normally, but they develop a deep understanding of the dog and may even defend the dog with their lives and vice versa.
The excitement of the smartdog racing and all things connected to it are brought to life in vivid details. Smartdog racing is illegal, but it's very popular in Sapphire and a lot of money is involved in the races. In my opinion the author has succeeded amazingly well in creating a totally believable vision of the smartdog racing and shows how much money is involved in it.
It was interesting to read about glass, because it was a new kind of drug and was connected to smartdog racing, because it enables brains to be more sensitive to the chip's software processes. Using glass can be dangerous, because it will erode brain function.
Nina Allan writes believably and realistically about such delicate issues as sex, sexuality, first loves, infatuation, relationships and racism. Nina Allan also writes confidently about the characters' lives. The characters in this novel go through different phases in their lives and their past experiences affect their lives and decisions in a realistic way. It's possible to say that the past defines the characters (and affects their actions and decisions), but doesn't cripple them.
The observations about the characters, their appearances and their traits are nuanced and evocative. For example, what the author writes about the owner of the flower shop, Diane, is evocative. With a few words she manages to evoke a totally believable image of this woman.
This novel contains many beautiful descriptions of different places and how they have changed over the years. The author writes splendidly about how landscapes have changed and how certain areas have become polluted. Her descriptions of Sapphire, Hastings and their surroundings are detailed and beautiful.
There are references in this novel to a new kind of human beings - a new "race of empaths" - who have telepathic skills that can be used in many ways. I enjoyed reading about these human beings and their skills, because they differed from normal people.
There are also referecenes to speculative fiction authors and other authors in this novel. Many of their names are most likely familiar to readers who have read plenty of novels and are familiar with speculative fiction and literary fiction.
When I read this novel, I was slightly reminded of the stories written by Douglas Thompson and Christopher Barzak. Nina Allan has something similar in her writing style as they do, but she writes original and beautiful prose. If you've read Nina Allan's short story collections and novellas, you may have noticed that she has her own unique writing style and literary voice that sets her apart from other speculative fiction authors. When you read this novel, you'll notice that she has honed her literary voice and has created a story that fully showcases her writing skills.
I took the opportunity to read The Race twice before writing this review, because I wanted to read the story again as soon as possible. I enjoyed it very much during the first time, but I found myself liking it even more when I read it again, because I'd had time to think about the happenings and all the intricate details. The story is so good and full of details and descriptions of human life that re-reading it will allow the readers to fully understand the beauty of it.
Before I forget, I have to mention that the cover image by Ben Baldwin looks beautiful. It's a perfect cover image for this novel.
In my honest opinion The Race is one of the best speculative fiction novels of the year, because there's lots of depth in it and real human emotions and human destinies can be found on its pages. Because it's difficult to find this kind of debut novels that have depth, style and inventiveness in them, I honestly think that The Race is the best debut speculative fiction novel of the year. There are no flaws in this novel, because all the things and elements are beautifully connected to each other, and the story flows effortlessly from the first page to the last page.
The Race is a beautifully written, complex and absorbing debut novel that deserves to be read and praised. It's an exceptionally compelling and original speculative fiction novel that will resonate among readers who enjoy reading literary speculative fiction and quality novels. If you've read Nina Allan's short stories and enjoyed reading them, you must read this novel, because you'll love it. If you've never read Nina Allan's stories, you should read them (this novel is a good place to start reading her stories).
I highly recommend The Race to all readers who are interested in speculative fiction and quality stories. This novel is speculative fiction at its utmost best, so make sure that you read it as soon as possible.
Highly recommended!
The Race is Nina Allan's debut novel. It's a rewarding, thought-provoking and beautifully written novel about four damaged people, brothers and sisters, everyday life, ecological collapse, smart dog racing and two different realities that merge and twist in a compelling way.
Because Nina Allan has written beautiful short stories and novellas, I was eager to read her debut novel. In my opinion she has succeeded perfectly in writing a beautiful and immersive novel that is just as beautiful, nuanced and strange as her stories. All the things that have made her stories excellent can be found in this novel. I was very impressed by this novel, because the story was intriguing and the characters were three-dimensional.
Beauty, terror, loss, longing and love go hand in hand in this novel. The tender and beautiful moments are nicely balanced by the bleak, brutal and terrifying moments that almost tear apart the characters' lives. I admire the author's way of writing about these moments in a realistic way, and I especially admire the avoidance of easy solutions. The author shows that life isn't always neat and pretty, because there are times when you have to face difficult situations and what matters is the way you handle the situations and how you accept and deal with the changes in your life.
Although there are bleak and brutal moments in this novel, the author never dwells too much on them and doesn't let the story become over-sentimental. The author is such a gifted storyteller that she knows how to write expertly about bleak and sentimental issues. She's also capable of lightening the atmosphere without resorting to cheap tricks and the characters may suddenly experience hope, just like in real life.
What I like perhaps most about this novel is that Nina Allan has created a story that reveals its readers the whole spectrum of human life and emotions. The author doesn't shy away difficult issues, but writes boldly about them. She also writes boldly about the consequences of shocking events, because they affect the characters' lives. By writing about the characters' feelings and emotions she is able to create a realistic atmosphere.
This novel can be categorized as science fiction and literary speculative fiction. I personally categorize it as literary speculative fiction, because in my opinion the author flawlessly combines literary fiction and speculative fiction.
Here's information about the story:
The Race opens in a coastal town of Sapphire where illegal smartdog racing is popular. Fracking has affected and changed the landscape - a failed fracking industry has reduced large areas of the natural environment to a toxic wasteland and has affected the lives of the local residents.
There are four main characters in this novel: Jenna, Christy, Alex and Maree. The tales of these characters are connected to each other and together they create a stunning vision of people's lives, fears and hopes in a contemporary and futuristic England.
Here's a bit of information about the main characters and their lives:
Jenna:
- Jenna Hoolman lives in Sapphire. Jenna's mother left when she was fifteen. She has a brother, Del.
- Jenna makes high-end gloves for the runners who are the stars of the smartdog races.
- Jenna's brother, Del, is interested in smartdogs. He has a friend, Em, who also becomes Jenna's friend. Del often hangs out with Em's father, Graeme, because Graeme is involved in the smartdog races.
- Del has a wife, Claudia, and a daughter, Lumey, who is special and loves dogs. When Lumey suddenly goes missing, things change quickly for Jenna, Del and Claudia.
Christy:
- Christy has an older brother called Derek. Their mother left when Christy was fifteen. Christy is a writer.
- Something wrong happens between Christy and Derek, and that affects their relationship.
- Derek begins to date a woman called Linda and they have a slightly unusual relationship. Christy gets caught up in the middle of their relationship.
- When things get bad between Derek and Linda, Christy is worried about Linda.
Alex:
- Alex's father is a Londoner and his mother is from Lagos. He has encountered racism.
- Alex has dated Linda and misses her. He was Linda's boyfriend before Derek.
- Alex has a wife, Janet, and a daughter, Leonie.
- Christy contacts Alex and wants to talk with him about Linda, because she thinks that something bad may have happened to her.
Maree:
- Maree travels aboard a ship towards Kontessa. She's part of a special programme and the main facility of the programme is in Kontessa. She was recruited in the programme because of her ability to communicate with smartdogs.
- Maree remembers bits and pieces of her childhood, but not much anything else. She's only been told a few things about how her parents died when she was young.
- Maree discovers new things during the voyage towards Kontessa and meets new people.
These four damaged characters, whose lives are linked, are genuinely interesting, because they're like real people and act like ones. They all have their own feelings, lives and secrets, and each of them reviews their past in an enchanting way. Reading about their past was interesting for me, because it brought depth to the characters.
The characterization and character interaction is excellent and fluent. Nina Allan writes confidently and deftly about what happens between family members and friends. As everybody knows, relationships between siblings can be difficult in many ways. The author writes perfectly about these relationships, because the relationship between Jenna and Del is handled well, and so is the difficult relationship between Christy and Derek.
Nina Allan writes beautifully and memorably about childhood, family life and childhood memories. For example, reading about Christy's childhood and how her mother leaves her is something that's difficult to forget after reading about it because of the absorbing writing style. I'm sure that nobody can forget the image of a young Christy who watches how her mother leaves the house never to come back again.
What happens between Christy and Derek will also linger on the reader's mind, because Derek does something bad and unexpected to her. What happens between them has a big effect on Christy's life, because it scars her for a long time. After the incident Christy begins to distance herself from her brother and eventually she communicates only briefly with Derek. In my opinion this adds plenty of harsh realism to the story.
The smartdogs play an important role in this novel. They're greyhounds that have been spliced with human DNA. They're product of illegal experiments in stem cell research. The smartdogs are often dognapped, because they're worth lots of money, and something bad may also happen to them.
All the smartdogs have runners. The runners are the stars of the smartdog races. Each runner has an implant that allows him/her to feel the dog's thoughts. The symbiosis between the dog and its runner is strong. The runners who have implants act normally, but they develop a deep understanding of the dog and may even defend the dog with their lives and vice versa.
The excitement of the smartdog racing and all things connected to it are brought to life in vivid details. Smartdog racing is illegal, but it's very popular in Sapphire and a lot of money is involved in the races. In my opinion the author has succeeded amazingly well in creating a totally believable vision of the smartdog racing and shows how much money is involved in it.
It was interesting to read about glass, because it was a new kind of drug and was connected to smartdog racing, because it enables brains to be more sensitive to the chip's software processes. Using glass can be dangerous, because it will erode brain function.
Nina Allan writes believably and realistically about such delicate issues as sex, sexuality, first loves, infatuation, relationships and racism. Nina Allan also writes confidently about the characters' lives. The characters in this novel go through different phases in their lives and their past experiences affect their lives and decisions in a realistic way. It's possible to say that the past defines the characters (and affects their actions and decisions), but doesn't cripple them.
The observations about the characters, their appearances and their traits are nuanced and evocative. For example, what the author writes about the owner of the flower shop, Diane, is evocative. With a few words she manages to evoke a totally believable image of this woman.
This novel contains many beautiful descriptions of different places and how they have changed over the years. The author writes splendidly about how landscapes have changed and how certain areas have become polluted. Her descriptions of Sapphire, Hastings and their surroundings are detailed and beautiful.
There are references in this novel to a new kind of human beings - a new "race of empaths" - who have telepathic skills that can be used in many ways. I enjoyed reading about these human beings and their skills, because they differed from normal people.
There are also referecenes to speculative fiction authors and other authors in this novel. Many of their names are most likely familiar to readers who have read plenty of novels and are familiar with speculative fiction and literary fiction.
When I read this novel, I was slightly reminded of the stories written by Douglas Thompson and Christopher Barzak. Nina Allan has something similar in her writing style as they do, but she writes original and beautiful prose. If you've read Nina Allan's short story collections and novellas, you may have noticed that she has her own unique writing style and literary voice that sets her apart from other speculative fiction authors. When you read this novel, you'll notice that she has honed her literary voice and has created a story that fully showcases her writing skills.
I took the opportunity to read The Race twice before writing this review, because I wanted to read the story again as soon as possible. I enjoyed it very much during the first time, but I found myself liking it even more when I read it again, because I'd had time to think about the happenings and all the intricate details. The story is so good and full of details and descriptions of human life that re-reading it will allow the readers to fully understand the beauty of it.
Before I forget, I have to mention that the cover image by Ben Baldwin looks beautiful. It's a perfect cover image for this novel.
In my honest opinion The Race is one of the best speculative fiction novels of the year, because there's lots of depth in it and real human emotions and human destinies can be found on its pages. Because it's difficult to find this kind of debut novels that have depth, style and inventiveness in them, I honestly think that The Race is the best debut speculative fiction novel of the year. There are no flaws in this novel, because all the things and elements are beautifully connected to each other, and the story flows effortlessly from the first page to the last page.
The Race is a beautifully written, complex and absorbing debut novel that deserves to be read and praised. It's an exceptionally compelling and original speculative fiction novel that will resonate among readers who enjoy reading literary speculative fiction and quality novels. If you've read Nina Allan's short stories and enjoyed reading them, you must read this novel, because you'll love it. If you've never read Nina Allan's stories, you should read them (this novel is a good place to start reading her stories).
I highly recommend The Race to all readers who are interested in speculative fiction and quality stories. This novel is speculative fiction at its utmost best, so make sure that you read it as soon as possible.
Highly recommended!
April 7, 2018
Ahoy there me mateys! So back in 2015 I was mesmerized by the John W. Campbell award finalists and was determined to read them all. Why that year versus any other year? I have no idea. But since that time me determination has not waivered. Getting copies of the novels and the time to read them were more of the problem. This novel marks me finally making it to the half-way point.
This novel is a hard one to categorize. The story is written in four parts with each part portraying a different perspective. All four characters are interlinked in odd ways. There is an additional epilogue that expands one character’s story.
I do know that the first part was me favourite. It dealt with greyhound racing wherein the dog is partnered with a human via a mind-link. Me second favourite was the fourth part which follows a woman who can mind-link. These were the two very sci-fi parts of the book. The other two chapters are not sci-fi but are rather very interesting character studies.
In fact, while the plots of each section were interesting, the characterizations were the highlight of the book. Ye truly get into the head of each person. Some might feel bogged down by those details and minutiae. I felt that the depth of feeling was quite lovely and even lyrical at times.
The world-building itself was fascinating. All chapters seemed to take place in a place like our world only slightly skewed. The author seemingly has an idea of alternate or mirror worlds. But were they really? I don’t know. The book certainly brought up more questions than providing answers. I feel like the first read barely scratched the surface and that it deserves a re-read after some time has passed. While certainly not for everyone, I am very glad to have read this one.
Side note: there is a rape scene in this book. Had I known I might not have read it. It did fit into the story so ultimately I finished the novel. But be forewarned.
Check out me other reviews at https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordp...
This novel is a hard one to categorize. The story is written in four parts with each part portraying a different perspective. All four characters are interlinked in odd ways. There is an additional epilogue that expands one character’s story.
I do know that the first part was me favourite. It dealt with greyhound racing wherein the dog is partnered with a human via a mind-link. Me second favourite was the fourth part which follows a woman who can mind-link. These were the two very sci-fi parts of the book. The other two chapters are not sci-fi but are rather very interesting character studies.
In fact, while the plots of each section were interesting, the characterizations were the highlight of the book. Ye truly get into the head of each person. Some might feel bogged down by those details and minutiae. I felt that the depth of feeling was quite lovely and even lyrical at times.
The world-building itself was fascinating. All chapters seemed to take place in a place like our world only slightly skewed. The author seemingly has an idea of alternate or mirror worlds. But were they really? I don’t know. The book certainly brought up more questions than providing answers. I feel like the first read barely scratched the surface and that it deserves a re-read after some time has passed. While certainly not for everyone, I am very glad to have read this one.
Side note: there is a rape scene in this book. Had I known I might not have read it. It did fit into the story so ultimately I finished the novel. But be forewarned.
Check out me other reviews at https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordp...
October 21, 2016
Feh. Not as advertised. Cover quotes Alastair Reynolds saying it's a "superbly strange SF novel."
A quarter of the way through, we're in a dysfunctional part of England in a near-future version of our world. "Smartdogs" are being created, with empathic human handlers. Mildly interesting concept, legitimate SF, and we wonder where it is going.
Change gears. 127 pages in a world that is for all practical purposes real-today, about ordinary people growing up unhappy and not getting along very well. 0/100 on the SF scale. About 10/100 in the interesting scale. Decently written but verging on soap opera / bestseller.
Change gears. We're watching a character who's at last related to part 1. Maybe it's all going to tie together. I decide I don't really care what happens to any of them, and I stop reading.
There are plenty of good SF books out now that are SF all the way through, and I am going to read them.
A quarter of the way through, we're in a dysfunctional part of England in a near-future version of our world. "Smartdogs" are being created, with empathic human handlers. Mildly interesting concept, legitimate SF, and we wonder where it is going.
Change gears. 127 pages in a world that is for all practical purposes real-today, about ordinary people growing up unhappy and not getting along very well. 0/100 on the SF scale. About 10/100 in the interesting scale. Decently written but verging on soap opera / bestseller.
Change gears. We're watching a character who's at last related to part 1. Maybe it's all going to tie together. I decide I don't really care what happens to any of them, and I stop reading.
There are plenty of good SF books out now that are SF all the way through, and I am going to read them.
August 18, 2016
The Race wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I was drawn to the idea of the smartdog racing against a backdrop of a Britain damaged by fracking. Honestly, the fracking part is of no consequence, and I can understand why some readers were disappointed, but this book actually turned out to be something quite clever instead.
There are five stories, and to some they might seem disjointed, but the connections are there. In fact all the things I felt weren’t that great in Jenna’s story, which comes first, were completely OK when I got to Christy’s story. As I saw it, Christy wrote Jenna’s portion, that’s why it’s not perfect and maybe has a few too many things in.
Yet when we return to the world of smartdogs later on in Maree’s story, there is an inkling to something else. The place names aren’t quite right and there are allusions to alternate worlds. Maybe it’s just another of Christy’s stories, and she’s not that great with continuity, but there is an element from Alex’s life which he never told Christy that appears, in a way, in Maree’s world, dismissing the idea that it is another book within a book.
There are parallels between Jenna’s story and Christy’s. Christy uses elements of her life to shape her story, from trips to the races as a child, to her brother Derek, clearly Del in Jenna’s tale. Christy chooses to leave a trauma out of her written world, perhaps rewriting the event as the way she would have wanted it.
The title could be taken quite literally, with the smartdog racing and a specific race of importance in one story. But each one refers to race in a different way; human evolution, discrimination, cultural folklore and hints at races unknown to us. In Maree’s story, language and our place in the world is explored, even questioned.
The final story, Brock Island, carries on from Maree’s story in a more traditional way, but many years later. It has left me ruminating for days after finishing… Thought-provoking and different, I’d recommend The Race if you’re not after a post-apocalyptic, genetically altered dog adventure!
Review copy provided by publisher.
There are five stories, and to some they might seem disjointed, but the connections are there. In fact all the things I felt weren’t that great in Jenna’s story, which comes first, were completely OK when I got to Christy’s story. As I saw it, Christy wrote Jenna’s portion, that’s why it’s not perfect and maybe has a few too many things in.
Yet when we return to the world of smartdogs later on in Maree’s story, there is an inkling to something else. The place names aren’t quite right and there are allusions to alternate worlds. Maybe it’s just another of Christy’s stories, and she’s not that great with continuity, but there is an element from Alex’s life which he never told Christy that appears, in a way, in Maree’s world, dismissing the idea that it is another book within a book.
There are parallels between Jenna’s story and Christy’s. Christy uses elements of her life to shape her story, from trips to the races as a child, to her brother Derek, clearly Del in Jenna’s tale. Christy chooses to leave a trauma out of her written world, perhaps rewriting the event as the way she would have wanted it.
The title could be taken quite literally, with the smartdog racing and a specific race of importance in one story. But each one refers to race in a different way; human evolution, discrimination, cultural folklore and hints at races unknown to us. In Maree’s story, language and our place in the world is explored, even questioned.
The final story, Brock Island, carries on from Maree’s story in a more traditional way, but many years later. It has left me ruminating for days after finishing… Thought-provoking and different, I’d recommend The Race if you’re not after a post-apocalyptic, genetically altered dog adventure!
Review copy provided by publisher.
December 13, 2016
A series of vignettes intertwined by slightly familiar details from previous chapters, bookended by the more SFnal of the works. Calls to question the ideas of reality and SF, character perspective, origination of fictional detail. Heavily literary, much to play with here.
Even better as a reread.
Even better as a reread.
August 8, 2018
Misclassified and mis-marketed, I nevertheless had a grand time reading this novel, sort of despite myself. Since the cover and blurb are not only poor but misleading, here's a thumbnail. This is a mostly plotless collections of stories about siblings, missing parents, language and its limitations as a form of communication. Roughly half of the stories are works of speculative fiction by a character (Christy) in the other half, a sort of parallel world to ours where there are CDs and genetic engineering, but different nations and massive, dangerous whales in the Atlantic. But the world, the plot, the possibility of literal parallel realities, are not really the point. I'm not sure there is a point, but what there is is finely honed language and sometimes-minute attention to detail and character, with a lot of discursive exploration of the limits of familial bonds.
I have to admit, if it said that on the back cover I would never have brought this home, but I ended up loving most of the characters and especially some of the descriptions, like Jenna crafting her gaunts and Maree's character profiles aboard ship. The fact that this was classified and sold as scifi is completely absurd. Yes, genre is malleable and kind of stupid, but people expecting something all about genetically engineered greyhounds or space exploration are going to be wildly disappointed. What you should be expecting is something more like David Mitchell's ghostwritten, except *less* science fictional. It doesn't pass the Minsky test of being about something other than people screwing up their lives, but it was definitely my kind of screwed-up-lives book.
I have to admit, if it said that on the back cover I would never have brought this home, but I ended up loving most of the characters and especially some of the descriptions, like Jenna crafting her gaunts and Maree's character profiles aboard ship. The fact that this was classified and sold as scifi is completely absurd. Yes, genre is malleable and kind of stupid, but people expecting something all about genetically engineered greyhounds or space exploration are going to be wildly disappointed. What you should be expecting is something more like David Mitchell's ghostwritten, except *less* science fictional. It doesn't pass the Minsky test of being about something other than people screwing up their lives, but it was definitely my kind of screwed-up-lives book.
March 23, 2019
My next installment in the Women's Book March challenge is The Race, by Nina Allan.I have mixed feelings about this one. I've had The Race on my to-read list for a while, in part because it was praised by one of my favorite sci-fi authors, Alastair Reynolds, who called it "a gorgeously and superbly strange SF novel". Another blurb promised a blend of "English country novel and hard science fiction", which is a pretty intriguing mashup.
The first section of the book starts strong, delivering a story about a near-future England ravaged by fracking. Racing illegally genetically enhanced greyhounds, called smartdogs, is big business for the former resort towns of the English coast. One such town is Sapphire, where Jenna and her brother Derek live and breathe smartdog racing until Derek's daughter is kidnapped and held for ransom. Derek plans to win the ransom money by racing his beloved smartdog in the biggest race of the year, but things don't go as planned.
This first section was taut and gripping, with gorgeous prose and characters who are flawed in relatable ways. There's enough worldbuilding to sell the smartdog racing idea without bogging the story down, and the ending has a great twist.
I say ending because after the first section, Jenna's story ends and the novel becomes something else. In the next section we are introduced to Christy, a woman who lives in fear of her abusive brother and is grappling with the possibility he may have committed a murder. It's still set in England, but not the same England as Jenna's story; in fact, all elements of science fiction vanish from the tale for about 200 pages, and what we get instead is more like a suspense novel.
It's only in the fourth section that we return to something like the world of Jenna's story, this time to follow the kidnapped girl, Maree. Now a young woman, Maree is learning to use her empathic abilities as part of a government project trying to decode what may or may not be an alien signal from outer space. Unfortunately, what could have been an interesting conclusion to the book sort of fizzles. We don't get any answers about the origin or nature of the signal, and as a result the novel's end feels more like setup for its sort-of sequel, The Rift.
My ultimate issue with The Race is a matter of concept versus execution. Nina Allan clearly has writing chops and a lot of interesting ideas, but the story is not disciplined in how it deploys those ideas. At times it felt as though Allan included an idea or storyline not because it served the story but because she couldn't bear to cut it. This was especially true of the "suspense novel" section of the book, which could easily have stood on its own as a separate short novel.
The Race shows enough promise that I would be interested in returning to this author after she has a few more novels under her belt, and has perhaps become more disciplined about story structure. There's still enough good stuff here, especially in the first story, that I'd suggest checking it out if you're still interested. Your mileage may vary, and if the book had been marketed as a series of linked novellas rather than one novel, I probably would have enjoyed the whole much more.
Originally posted on the Expansion Front blog.
The first section of the book starts strong, delivering a story about a near-future England ravaged by fracking. Racing illegally genetically enhanced greyhounds, called smartdogs, is big business for the former resort towns of the English coast. One such town is Sapphire, where Jenna and her brother Derek live and breathe smartdog racing until Derek's daughter is kidnapped and held for ransom. Derek plans to win the ransom money by racing his beloved smartdog in the biggest race of the year, but things don't go as planned.
This first section was taut and gripping, with gorgeous prose and characters who are flawed in relatable ways. There's enough worldbuilding to sell the smartdog racing idea without bogging the story down, and the ending has a great twist.
I say ending because after the first section, Jenna's story ends and the novel becomes something else. In the next section we are introduced to Christy, a woman who lives in fear of her abusive brother and is grappling with the possibility he may have committed a murder. It's still set in England, but not the same England as Jenna's story; in fact, all elements of science fiction vanish from the tale for about 200 pages, and what we get instead is more like a suspense novel.
It's only in the fourth section that we return to something like the world of Jenna's story, this time to follow the kidnapped girl, Maree. Now a young woman, Maree is learning to use her empathic abilities as part of a government project trying to decode what may or may not be an alien signal from outer space. Unfortunately, what could have been an interesting conclusion to the book sort of fizzles. We don't get any answers about the origin or nature of the signal, and as a result the novel's end feels more like setup for its sort-of sequel, The Rift.
My ultimate issue with The Race is a matter of concept versus execution. Nina Allan clearly has writing chops and a lot of interesting ideas, but the story is not disciplined in how it deploys those ideas. At times it felt as though Allan included an idea or storyline not because it served the story but because she couldn't bear to cut it. This was especially true of the "suspense novel" section of the book, which could easily have stood on its own as a separate short novel.
The Race shows enough promise that I would be interested in returning to this author after she has a few more novels under her belt, and has perhaps become more disciplined about story structure. There's still enough good stuff here, especially in the first story, that I'd suggest checking it out if you're still interested. Your mileage may vary, and if the book had been marketed as a series of linked novellas rather than one novel, I probably would have enjoyed the whole much more.
Originally posted on the Expansion Front blog.
August 10, 2018
What can I say about this book? I loved it. I loved every page of it, and I'm not sure what I think now that I'm done, except that it was an entire experience, that I would love to discuss it and that its layers are so complex I almost want to re-read it immediately, so as to discern what I must have missed on the first read. Allan is exquisitely talented and thought-provoking. There were small fragments and sentences I didn't love, but the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.
A novel obsessed with the notion of stepping out of one's life and what happens later, and with mirror images and echoes. A family goes forward without a child; a girl loses her family; a sister and a brother become estranged; a mother walks out; a friend doesn't keep in touch. Can we make ourselves new identities? Is moving on like death and re-birth? Can we ever communicate with each other, far less with different creatures? There are many pairs of siblings in this novel, reflecting one another (a motif that gains a yet another iteration in The Rift, whose themes are very close).
The threads echo and amplify these themes and all of this within (various) science-fictional worlds. And then there's the appendix, which shifts everything into a yet different perspective.
I will think about this novel a lot, and it was one of my best impulse purchases of this year.
A novel obsessed with the notion of stepping out of one's life and what happens later, and with mirror images and echoes. A family goes forward without a child; a girl loses her family; a sister and a brother become estranged; a mother walks out; a friend doesn't keep in touch. Can we make ourselves new identities? Is moving on like death and re-birth? Can we ever communicate with each other, far less with different creatures? There are many pairs of siblings in this novel, reflecting one another (a motif that gains a yet another iteration in The Rift, whose themes are very close).
The threads echo and amplify these themes and all of this within (various) science-fictional worlds. And then there's the appendix, which shifts everything into a yet different perspective.
I will think about this novel a lot, and it was one of my best impulse purchases of this year.
April 2, 2017
4,5/5
He disfrutado muchísimo de esta lectura. Las historias, que se entrelazan entre ellas al más puro estilo David Mitchell y esa sensación de irrealidad extraña que tiene todo el libro que, como lo describen sus propios personajes, es como si leyeras algo conocido y desconocido a la vez. Nina Allan escribe el libro de manera que sea muy agradecido de leer, las páginas pasan solas sin que ello signifique que es un libro con una trama sencilla o poco profunda.
He disfrutado muchísimo de esta lectura. Las historias, que se entrelazan entre ellas al más puro estilo David Mitchell y esa sensación de irrealidad extraña que tiene todo el libro que, como lo describen sus propios personajes, es como si leyeras algo conocido y desconocido a la vez. Nina Allan escribe el libro de manera que sea muy agradecido de leer, las páginas pasan solas sin que ello signifique que es un libro con una trama sencilla o poco profunda.
August 28, 2018
Such a strange book.
I loved the whales.
I loved the whales.
May 14, 2019
I normally don't review books I didn't finish, but sometimes a book bothers me enough that I just have to say something despite not finishing it. And I fully believe that the review of someone who didn't finish a book can be just as valid as the review of someone who completed it -- sometimes knowing why someone coudn't finish a book can still help a potential reader make the decision on whether or not to pick it up themselves. I want to make it clear, however, that I'm ONLY reviewing the portion of the book I actually read, as judging content I haven't seen myself would be unfair.
"The Race" begins with a great deal of promise -- a girl living in a part of England ravaged by fracking and whose life (as well as the lives of her family) now revolves around the not-quite-legal sport of racing "smartdogs." These smartdogs, greyhounds engineered with just enough human DNA to make them intelligent and aware, and I'd hoped to see this impact the plot somehow. But for all intents and purposes, the dogs might as well be ordinary dogs, as their supposed higher intelligence barely factors into the plot at all. There's also mention of a psychic link between the dogs and their handlers, but again, it doesn't factor much into the plot except to make a target out of one character in particular.
Some will argue that this book is meant to be more of a character study than an actual exploration of the smartdogs and the culture that's adapted around them. I could understand that, even if I felt it was a waste of a concept... if the characters actually had some kind of likable characteristics, or if they got any interesting development. Jenna just feels like a wet blanket, however, one who lets her abusive older brother walk all over her. Said older brother is an idiot, to be honest, and his daughter is little more than a plot device -- and the one interesting character aspect of the child character doesn't get developed much.
All of this had the potential to be fixed had the story stuck with Jenna. But about a quarter of the way through the book, the story of Jenna comes to an abrupt end (without any resolution, might I add), and instead we're dumped into the world of a new character... one who lives in a crappy world with an abusive older brother. Does Nina Allan only know how to write one particular character arc? Did she grow up with an abusive brother and is trying to work through her issues in her writing? At any rate, if this book is just a collection of short stories that are mere variations on the same theme -- and if the characters, world, and/or concepts don't get developed in any of these stories -- then why should I bother caring?
On a side note, there's a graphic scene of sexual assault in Chrissy's story that could be disturbing for some readers. There's also the implication in her story that said sexual assault gave her homosexual tendencies, which is not only inaccurate but seems in terrible taste.
I gave up on this novel about 180 pages in, and am frustrated that a promising idea was squandered so badly. Not so much a sci-fi novel as it is a short story collection, this book does almost nothing with the premise of the smartdogs, and the characters are too weak and unlikable to make up for the flaws in the plot.
"The Race" begins with a great deal of promise -- a girl living in a part of England ravaged by fracking and whose life (as well as the lives of her family) now revolves around the not-quite-legal sport of racing "smartdogs." These smartdogs, greyhounds engineered with just enough human DNA to make them intelligent and aware, and I'd hoped to see this impact the plot somehow. But for all intents and purposes, the dogs might as well be ordinary dogs, as their supposed higher intelligence barely factors into the plot at all. There's also mention of a psychic link between the dogs and their handlers, but again, it doesn't factor much into the plot except to make a target out of one character in particular.
Some will argue that this book is meant to be more of a character study than an actual exploration of the smartdogs and the culture that's adapted around them. I could understand that, even if I felt it was a waste of a concept... if the characters actually had some kind of likable characteristics, or if they got any interesting development. Jenna just feels like a wet blanket, however, one who lets her abusive older brother walk all over her. Said older brother is an idiot, to be honest, and his daughter is little more than a plot device -- and the one interesting character aspect of the child character doesn't get developed much.
All of this had the potential to be fixed had the story stuck with Jenna. But about a quarter of the way through the book, the story of Jenna comes to an abrupt end (without any resolution, might I add), and instead we're dumped into the world of a new character... one who lives in a crappy world with an abusive older brother. Does Nina Allan only know how to write one particular character arc? Did she grow up with an abusive brother and is trying to work through her issues in her writing? At any rate, if this book is just a collection of short stories that are mere variations on the same theme -- and if the characters, world, and/or concepts don't get developed in any of these stories -- then why should I bother caring?
On a side note, there's a graphic scene of sexual assault in Chrissy's story that could be disturbing for some readers. There's also the implication in her story that said sexual assault gave her homosexual tendencies, which is not only inaccurate but seems in terrible taste.
I gave up on this novel about 180 pages in, and am frustrated that a promising idea was squandered so badly. Not so much a sci-fi novel as it is a short story collection, this book does almost nothing with the premise of the smartdogs, and the characters are too weak and unlikable to make up for the flaws in the plot.
February 24, 2020
'The Race' is an extremely readable yet surprisingly subtle sci-fi novel. The first 130 pages suggest an enjoyable and straightforward adventure, set in a near future or alternate present. Then the point of view and entire premise shift, undermining your initial assumptions and raising interesting questions about what science fiction can do as a genre. Allan seems to be saying that within sci-fi escapism and current anxieties coexist, both on a personal and societal level. The section narrated by Alex didn't have the depth and interest of the other three, but overall I really liked the worlds built in microcosm by each narrator. The encounter with whales on the transatlantic voyage was the most vivid and memorable scene; it reminded me of the whales in Sean McMullen's Greatwinter trilogy. By comparison, the twist regarding the purpose of Maree's voyage was less powerful. That seemed appropriate, though, as the plot was more about personal endeavour than world-ending threat. Similarly, the minor specifics of world-building, such as glove-making, were more memorable and intriguing than the quasi-supernatural empathy tech.
My only real criticism is that the sudden, horrible rape scene a third of the way through was not necessary. It certainly injected a lot of dread into the narrative, but in a particularly depressing manner. Had it not been for that, 'The Race' would have been wholly enjoyable and involving. The structure is unusual and the main characters appealing, with a pleasing amount of queerness and offbeat details.
My only real criticism is that the sudden, horrible rape scene a third of the way through was not necessary. It certainly injected a lot of dread into the narrative, but in a particularly depressing manner. Had it not been for that, 'The Race' would have been wholly enjoyable and involving. The structure is unusual and the main characters appealing, with a pleasing amount of queerness and offbeat details.
April 7, 2018
3.5 stars
Uneven (the entire first section fell flat for me-I almost set the book aside for good when endless descriptions of racing gauntlets began to overshadow the plot) but with enough intriguing ideas and imagery to make it worth reading as a whole.
Curiously, since Allan has identified herself as a science-fiction/fantasy writer, I find her most effective when she's writing straight-forward literary fiction, as in the second and third chapters of this book. Perhaps the necessity of setting the scene and creating a world throws her pacing off, but the "real world" modern England chapters flow better than the sf ones, and the characters and their dilemmas are much more affecting.
The appendix, which is sfnal (set in the same future as chapters 1 and 3), is the only bit of the book not written in the first person and I found the prose here of generally much higher quality than anywhere else in the novel. Perhaps the first person does not suit Allan (every voice in 'The Race' essentially sounds the same, with so little variation in vocabulary and phrasing as to make the narrators indistinguishable), although I do enjoy her personal voice on her blog, 'The Spider's House'.
Overall, I don't mind having read this and I suspect other readers might like it more than me. I plan to read Allan's most recent novel, BSFA award winner The Rift soon.
Uneven (the entire first section fell flat for me-I almost set the book aside for good when endless descriptions of racing gauntlets began to overshadow the plot) but with enough intriguing ideas and imagery to make it worth reading as a whole.
Curiously, since Allan has identified herself as a science-fiction/fantasy writer, I find her most effective when she's writing straight-forward literary fiction, as in the second and third chapters of this book. Perhaps the necessity of setting the scene and creating a world throws her pacing off, but the "real world" modern England chapters flow better than the sf ones, and the characters and their dilemmas are much more affecting.
The appendix, which is sfnal (set in the same future as chapters 1 and 3), is the only bit of the book not written in the first person and I found the prose here of generally much higher quality than anywhere else in the novel. Perhaps the first person does not suit Allan (every voice in 'The Race' essentially sounds the same, with so little variation in vocabulary and phrasing as to make the narrators indistinguishable), although I do enjoy her personal voice on her blog, 'The Spider's House'.
Overall, I don't mind having read this and I suspect other readers might like it more than me. I plan to read Allan's most recent novel, BSFA award winner The Rift soon.
July 31, 2023
I absolutely loved this book and the way in which Nina interlinked the characters. I did get confused initially over the similarities between Christie and Jenna but this added to the story as it stimulated me to think about parallel characters. I have read the book 3 times now and everytime I get more insight into how the world is shaped by our own preconceptions. I also like the fact that the 'science' takes a backseat and without lapsing into fantasy as I enjoy some boundaries about how technology and culture interact with each other. This adds a subtlety which engages the reader to think deeply. A really unique piece of science-fiction that entertains while being thought-provoking. I'd love to chat to other people who have read the book to see what they think about the characters.
abandonados
May 5, 2023Buena escritura y una voz que pretende ser sincera e íntima desde la cotidianeidad. El problema es que en casi cien páginas no ocurre nada interesante, todo parece ser un retrato de familia, pero sin el interés o el virtuosismo formal que le aplican los autores bregados en el mainstream. A este texto le falta fuerza. Lo dejo.
Want to read
February 26, 2015This is copy 38 of 100 signed numbered copies.
May 5, 2017
Ambitious, beautifully written fantasy with multiple vignettes from related alternate universes, some more interesting than others. The opening chapter is outstanding.
August 6, 2018
I have no idea what this was about.
December 30, 2016
This is an unexpectedly weird book. If you were to pick it up and read a randomly selected page, you might think it's near-future dystopian science fiction about genetically modified greyhounds, standard literary fiction about the pain and promise of family and romantic relationships, or a fantasy-tinged science fictional tale in the style of Ursula Le Guin.
This book is all of those things; it's not so much a novel as a series of tenuously connected novellas and (at least in the edition I stumbled upon at a local bookstore) an appendix. The first and last sections as well as most of the appendix are set in the future and/or an alternate universe. The second and third sections are basically literary fiction set in our world, in particular Britain in recent decades, although these are connected to the other sections in ways I won't say both because I don't want to spoil anything and because I'm not entirely sure I understood all the connections.
I may change my mind as I think about it more, but for now I'm giving it four stars as an aggregate: five stars for the quality of the writing, four for being audacious but not ground breaking, and three for the feeling that everything might only come together for me on a second or third reading if at all.
Allan writes in a style that's relaxed, understated, and often beautiful, a style that would be more at home in contemporary literary fiction than most science fiction. Here are a few examples, both of which reflect some of the themes of the book.
"I have heard there are wild horses there, great cities on a grassy plain that have never been bombed. I close my eyes for a moment, trying to imagine them, the way you screw your eyes shut at the end of a dream. You're trying to recapture its magic, but you never can." (p. 133).
"Like forgetting a language, she supposed, only to lose a language was to lose a fraction of the self. Most people tended to think of languages as if they were analogues of each other, lists of words and phrases that could be translated like for like, one for another. Yet a language was so much more than simply words for things. Language was like the soft clay used by naturalists to record tracks left by elusive creatures in out-of-the-way places. It captured everything, reflected everything. You could say that language was a recording device for history" (p. 434)
The use of interconnected narratives makes for interesting reading and it's fun to find all the connections, but it's not quite as ground breaking a device as it is in, say, David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. I could never tell what all the relevant connections were, whether the unity of the book was eluding me or whether the book was really just a disjointed mess. I feel like I'd have to read the book again to really judge.
But it may also be that the disjointed uncertainty is all part of Allan's intent. Even the stories set in our world have a certain dream-like quality to them, the feeling that everything makes sense even though you can't explain how. The scenes involving human-animal telepathy hint at another form of understanding beyond explicit verbal cognition.
This leads me to two possible ways to read the book: First, perhaps the form of the book deliberately eludes a certain kind of cognitive grasp in favor of something else. Alternatively it could be that the book deliberately eludes any kind of complete grasp as a kind of skepticism about humanity's ability to understand a larger reality.
In favor of the first reading, I'm reminded of philosophical issues involving alleged mystical knowledge, phenomenological analyses of being-in-the-world, the Buddhist concept of indeterminate perception, or the notion of qualia as "what it's like." These all involve kinds of knowledge that can't be reduced to explicit, cognitive, verbal knowledge. Nobody can really tell you how to ride a bike or what it's like to experience the color blue, but people do seem to know these things. You might say it's the difference between "knowing that" and "knowing how," although this is somewhat inadequate. Considering that books are filled with words, conjuring know-how out of these words is some kind of magic. So even if I can't explain in the words of this review how all the parts of the book are connected, maybe their connections can be known in other ways.
In favor of the second reading, I'm thinking of my favorite themes in Lovecraft, Camus on the absurd, or varieties of ancient Greek and Indian skepticism. This is especially clear with the whales in the fourth part of the book; they are powerful, elusive, and seemingly indifferent to human modes of understanding. Yet the humans continue to sail. Perhaps the novel, like a dream or like the universe itself, is always just beyond our grasp. It may be knowable to some entity (divine beings, hyper-intelligent aliens, the author, the whales, the greyhounds, etc.), but it doesn't seem to be knowable to us. Which meaning of "race" does the title refer to? Are all of the narratives "real" in some way? None of them? Some? Maybe the uncertainties of the novel are deliberately cultivated. Is it a cause for despair, as the typical modern reactions to skepticism imply? Or it is a means to liberation from haughty unrealistic expectations that we'd be happier living without?
I myself would like to take the second reading, although I feel the pull of the first. This work, like life, the universe, and everything, eludes a procrustean bed of transparency. And that's okay.
See also the version of this review on my blog: http://examinedworlds.blogspot.com/20...
This book is all of those things; it's not so much a novel as a series of tenuously connected novellas and (at least in the edition I stumbled upon at a local bookstore) an appendix. The first and last sections as well as most of the appendix are set in the future and/or an alternate universe. The second and third sections are basically literary fiction set in our world, in particular Britain in recent decades, although these are connected to the other sections in ways I won't say both because I don't want to spoil anything and because I'm not entirely sure I understood all the connections.
I may change my mind as I think about it more, but for now I'm giving it four stars as an aggregate: five stars for the quality of the writing, four for being audacious but not ground breaking, and three for the feeling that everything might only come together for me on a second or third reading if at all.
Allan writes in a style that's relaxed, understated, and often beautiful, a style that would be more at home in contemporary literary fiction than most science fiction. Here are a few examples, both of which reflect some of the themes of the book.
"I have heard there are wild horses there, great cities on a grassy plain that have never been bombed. I close my eyes for a moment, trying to imagine them, the way you screw your eyes shut at the end of a dream. You're trying to recapture its magic, but you never can." (p. 133).
"Like forgetting a language, she supposed, only to lose a language was to lose a fraction of the self. Most people tended to think of languages as if they were analogues of each other, lists of words and phrases that could be translated like for like, one for another. Yet a language was so much more than simply words for things. Language was like the soft clay used by naturalists to record tracks left by elusive creatures in out-of-the-way places. It captured everything, reflected everything. You could say that language was a recording device for history" (p. 434)
The use of interconnected narratives makes for interesting reading and it's fun to find all the connections, but it's not quite as ground breaking a device as it is in, say, David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. I could never tell what all the relevant connections were, whether the unity of the book was eluding me or whether the book was really just a disjointed mess. I feel like I'd have to read the book again to really judge.
But it may also be that the disjointed uncertainty is all part of Allan's intent. Even the stories set in our world have a certain dream-like quality to them, the feeling that everything makes sense even though you can't explain how. The scenes involving human-animal telepathy hint at another form of understanding beyond explicit verbal cognition.
This leads me to two possible ways to read the book: First, perhaps the form of the book deliberately eludes a certain kind of cognitive grasp in favor of something else. Alternatively it could be that the book deliberately eludes any kind of complete grasp as a kind of skepticism about humanity's ability to understand a larger reality.
In favor of the first reading, I'm reminded of philosophical issues involving alleged mystical knowledge, phenomenological analyses of being-in-the-world, the Buddhist concept of indeterminate perception, or the notion of qualia as "what it's like." These all involve kinds of knowledge that can't be reduced to explicit, cognitive, verbal knowledge. Nobody can really tell you how to ride a bike or what it's like to experience the color blue, but people do seem to know these things. You might say it's the difference between "knowing that" and "knowing how," although this is somewhat inadequate. Considering that books are filled with words, conjuring know-how out of these words is some kind of magic. So even if I can't explain in the words of this review how all the parts of the book are connected, maybe their connections can be known in other ways.
In favor of the second reading, I'm thinking of my favorite themes in Lovecraft, Camus on the absurd, or varieties of ancient Greek and Indian skepticism. This is especially clear with the whales in the fourth part of the book; they are powerful, elusive, and seemingly indifferent to human modes of understanding. Yet the humans continue to sail. Perhaps the novel, like a dream or like the universe itself, is always just beyond our grasp. It may be knowable to some entity (divine beings, hyper-intelligent aliens, the author, the whales, the greyhounds, etc.), but it doesn't seem to be knowable to us. Which meaning of "race" does the title refer to? Are all of the narratives "real" in some way? None of them? Some? Maybe the uncertainties of the novel are deliberately cultivated. Is it a cause for despair, as the typical modern reactions to skepticism imply? Or it is a means to liberation from haughty unrealistic expectations that we'd be happier living without?
I myself would like to take the second reading, although I feel the pull of the first. This work, like life, the universe, and everything, eludes a procrustean bed of transparency. And that's okay.
See also the version of this review on my blog: http://examinedworlds.blogspot.com/20...
June 2, 2017
La Carrera no es una novela para reseñar. Es una novela para lanzar a esos amigos que no saben qué hacer cuando quedáis. Así podréis disfrutar de largas tardes de debate tomando el té. Y sí, he dicho tardes, en plural. Esto no se resuelve en un día. Quizá nunca. La nueva novela de Nina Allan publicada por Nevsky da lugar a tantas lecturas diferentes que adherirse a una sola interpretación significa perder gran parte del mensaje de esta historia. Por eso solo puedo decir que esta es una de todas esas posibles visiones, las sensaciones e ideas que me ha ido dejando durante su lectura esta obra tan inquietante como enigmática. Y que es posible que cada lector tenga una percepción muy distanciada de la mía y no por ello menos válida.
En la sinopsis se nos habla de tres lugares, tres momentos, tres mujeres. Eso esa a grandes rasgos lo que vamos a encontrar en el libro. Cinco partes diferentes divididas en cuatro puntos de vista distintos con tres mujeres como eje principal. La historia de cada una de ellas tiene lugar en un momento y lugar diferentes. Hasta ahí, todo correcto. Estructura clara y sencilla, como una pared de ladrillo erigida con mimo y una buena maestra. Y ahora es cuando viene Nina Allan y le mete un martillazo mientras nos pregunta «¿Existen otros mundos?».
Ojo, hay interpelación, pero no respuesta. La novela es un trabajo continuo por parte del lector para establecer las relaciones entre las partes, ya que la linealidad se rompe por completo y la realidad se desdibuja. No es un juego de muñecas rusas ni universos superpuestos, sino que los planos se mezclan, se rompen las barreras del tiempo y el espacio y nada, absolutamente nada, es lo que parece. Más que novela-mosaico, como señala la contraportada, diría que es una novela-caleidoscopio, con multitud de espejos que van reflejando personajes y situaciones sin que haya un límite claro entre lo que nos muestra uno u otro. No es solo un puzzle que recomponer, sino algo más complejo, porque no sabemos dónde empiezan y acaban las piezas, si algunas se repiten u otras son desechables. Este juego con las realidades es lo que hace que La Carrera se califique como ciencia ficción, pero hay que acercarse a ella libre de prejuicios sobre el género, porque nos vamos a encontrar desde elementos que despiertan el sentido de la maravilla hasta el realismo más sucio.
Continúa en http://masqueveneno.blogspot.com/2017...
En la sinopsis se nos habla de tres lugares, tres momentos, tres mujeres. Eso esa a grandes rasgos lo que vamos a encontrar en el libro. Cinco partes diferentes divididas en cuatro puntos de vista distintos con tres mujeres como eje principal. La historia de cada una de ellas tiene lugar en un momento y lugar diferentes. Hasta ahí, todo correcto. Estructura clara y sencilla, como una pared de ladrillo erigida con mimo y una buena maestra. Y ahora es cuando viene Nina Allan y le mete un martillazo mientras nos pregunta «¿Existen otros mundos?».
Ojo, hay interpelación, pero no respuesta. La novela es un trabajo continuo por parte del lector para establecer las relaciones entre las partes, ya que la linealidad se rompe por completo y la realidad se desdibuja. No es un juego de muñecas rusas ni universos superpuestos, sino que los planos se mezclan, se rompen las barreras del tiempo y el espacio y nada, absolutamente nada, es lo que parece. Más que novela-mosaico, como señala la contraportada, diría que es una novela-caleidoscopio, con multitud de espejos que van reflejando personajes y situaciones sin que haya un límite claro entre lo que nos muestra uno u otro. No es solo un puzzle que recomponer, sino algo más complejo, porque no sabemos dónde empiezan y acaban las piezas, si algunas se repiten u otras son desechables. Este juego con las realidades es lo que hace que La Carrera se califique como ciencia ficción, pero hay que acercarse a ella libre de prejuicios sobre el género, porque nos vamos a encontrar desde elementos que despiertan el sentido de la maravilla hasta el realismo más sucio.
Continúa en http://masqueveneno.blogspot.com/2017...
May 19, 2017
Creo que lo principal y más importante que hay que saber con respecto a La carrera es que se trata de una obra bastante especial; y con especial me refiero a diferente o poco usual. No vais a encontrar en sus páginas una novela al uso, con una trama definida y una ordenada estructura de inicio-nudo-desenlace. De hecho, no hay desenlaces. No existe un punto fijo hacia el que avance un argumento y, por tanto, la narración se centra en la inmediatez del presente, el aquí y el ahora, lo que está sucediendo, sin que eso que sucede tenga de desembocar irremediablemente en una conclusión. De algún modo, importa más el camino que el destino al que se dirige. Es lo que podríamos llamar un slice of life. Y tener presente esta particularidad me parece esencial para poder disfrutar la obra, porque pedirle o exigirle algo distinto solo conseguirá frustrar al lector.
Aunque al final ha resultado no tener nada que ver con lo que me esperaba, reconozco que se me hizo muy fácil de leer y, una vez me adapté a sus peculiaridades, conseguí disfrutarlo más de lo que me esperaba. La parte de Christy sigue siendo la que más se me atascó, no solo por lo desconectada que está de la ciencia ficción, sino también por ciertas cosas que narra. Pero el Sapphire de Jenna y la travesía marítima de Maree compensaron el resto. Tiene personajes femeninos que se me han hecho bastante potentes, habla con mucha naturalidad de la sexualidad (aunque la violencia sexual no la maneja tan bien) y, sobre todo en los dos últimos relatos, cuenta con una importante representación queer.
Tenéis la reseña completa en La Nave Invisible.
Aunque al final ha resultado no tener nada que ver con lo que me esperaba, reconozco que se me hizo muy fácil de leer y, una vez me adapté a sus peculiaridades, conseguí disfrutarlo más de lo que me esperaba. La parte de Christy sigue siendo la que más se me atascó, no solo por lo desconectada que está de la ciencia ficción, sino también por ciertas cosas que narra. Pero el Sapphire de Jenna y la travesía marítima de Maree compensaron el resto. Tiene personajes femeninos que se me han hecho bastante potentes, habla con mucha naturalidad de la sexualidad (aunque la violencia sexual no la maneja tan bien) y, sobre todo en los dos últimos relatos, cuenta con una importante representación queer.
Tenéis la reseña completa en La Nave Invisible.
October 28, 2016
I’ve held off reviewing this because I honestly don’t know how to collate my feelings about it into a coherent piece of writing. Suffice to say, it’s an absolute triumph of a book. An interweaving of several stories connected, on the surface, by the thinnest of threads. But beneath the superficial similarities it’s clear that what they share is the same narrative heart, the same central questions asked: what is the nature of identity, and in what way can we be said to exist outside of the perceptions of others? By what measure do we define family, and what do we owe them? It’s a narrative which questions narratives, the stories we write for ourselves and others, the realities we decide upon when we come to know and understand another person.
It’s also about fiction, and the way it so frequently intersects with reality: the layers in every story ever told, which peel back and reveal the truths contained within. And there are so many clever ideas beneath the metafiction: genetically engineered racing greyhounds who form a symbiotic relationship with their ‘runner’, England viewed through a slightly skewed lens, recognisable but tangibly different. I’m rambling, but that’s only because I can’t really find the words to recommend this enough. Just do yourself a favour and read it.
It’s also about fiction, and the way it so frequently intersects with reality: the layers in every story ever told, which peel back and reveal the truths contained within. And there are so many clever ideas beneath the metafiction: genetically engineered racing greyhounds who form a symbiotic relationship with their ‘runner’, England viewed through a slightly skewed lens, recognisable but tangibly different. I’m rambling, but that’s only because I can’t really find the words to recommend this enough. Just do yourself a favour and read it.
August 27, 2016
Mentioning aliens and dogs with altered dna does not scifi make. The blurb is misleading. It is not even a novel. Nina Allan is a good writer. I received this book to review but if I would have bought it I would have returned it because of the misleading genre stamp and cover blurbs. At twenty-five years of reading all kinds of books I have never returned one; this would be the first.
DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR SCIENCE FICTION.
The first star is for the idea; the second for writing quality. Those are both ok however Nina: enough with the ten page descriptions already! Yes, I understand your character cares about gloves. Get on with it.
DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR SCIENCE FICTION.
The first star is for the idea; the second for writing quality. Those are both ok however Nina: enough with the ten page descriptions already! Yes, I understand your character cares about gloves. Get on with it.
February 12, 2016
This is Allan's debut novel, and it's an accomplished piece of work. The blurb on the back is somewhat misleading; this is less about a girl and her dog than it is about the nature of fiction and reality, and how subjective experiences are really all that we have, despite or even because of our efforts to manipulate them objectively. It takes science fiction into the literary bracket, rewarding the thoughtful reader who appreciates more than a by-the-numbers hero's journey.
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