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The Race

Nina Allan

3.35 · Rating details · 774 ratings · 182 reviews

A child is kidnapped with consequences that extend across worlds... A writer reaches into the past to discover the truth about a possible murder... Far away a young woman prepares for her mysterious future...

In a future scarred by fracking and ecological collapse, Jenna Hoolman's world is dominated by illegal smartdog racing: greyhounds genetically modified with human DNA ...more

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Paperback, 444 pages

Published July 19th 2016 by Titan Books (first published August 3rd 2014)

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Jun 26, 2018 Blair rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sff, favourites, first-novels, read-on-kindle, 2014-release, nina-allan

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 ...more

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Mar 01, 2015 Rachel rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: tw-misogyny, use-for-kindling, science-fiction, tw-rape

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 ...more

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Jul 18, 2016 Joanne Hall rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, near-future-sf

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 ...more

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May 02, 2015 Ian Mond rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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, me ...more

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Feb 27, 2018 The Captain rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

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 perspe ...more

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Aug 03, 2014 Seregil of Rhiminee rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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 nov ...more

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Sep 07, 2017 Kend rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

I see from the other reviews that readers are deeply divided on the merits of this book. I happen to agree with several of them that this book's cover copy is deeply misleading, but I happen to think that Nina Allan herself didn't quite know what her book was about. There are some interesting conversations emerging here about family and such, but the pacing and plotting were a terrible mess, and the characters lacked distinctive voices. I found myself bored about a third of the way through, and ...more

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Jul 03, 2016 Ellie rated it really liked it

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 firs 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. ...more

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Oct 21, 2016 Tim Hicks rated it it was ok · review of another edition

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 ...more

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Dec 27, 2014 fromcouchtomoon rated it it was amazing

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.

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Aug 05, 2018 Ken-ichi rated it really liked it

Shelves: snoot

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 eng ...more

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Mar 21, 2019 Caitlin rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, biopunk, cyberpunk

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 sto 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. ...more

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Aug 10, 2018 Teleseparatist rated it really liked it

Shelves: owned, 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 obs ...more

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Aug 28, 2018 Girl rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018

Such a strange book.

I loved the whales.

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Apr 02, 2018 Marie-Therese rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, british-literature

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 ...more

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May 05, 2017 lucky little cat rated it liked it · review of another edition

Ambitious, beautifully written fantasy with multiple vignettes from related alternate universes, some more interesting than others. The opening chapter is outstanding.

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Jul 19, 2018 Marsha rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I have no idea what this was about.

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Feb 24, 2020 Anna rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, scifi, alternate-history, sapphic

'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 b ...more

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Dec 30, 2016 Ethan rated it really liked it

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 stumb ...more

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May 14, 2019 Kenya Starflight rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: did-not-finish

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 portio 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. ...more

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Oct 28, 2016 Laura Mauro rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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 percep ...more

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Apr 15, 2015 Jess rated it really liked it · review of another edition

An unusual, haunting, and thought-provoking book. Its four sections switch between our world and a not-quite-our-world slipstream setting, in which 'smartdog' racing goes on in the toxic Romney Marshes, and Atlantic whales move in convoys, attacking ships. We explore these worlds and their links to one another via four engaging narrators. Each tale concerns their search for truth (though that makes it sound rather cliched and quaint - 'The Race' is neither), with the protagonist coming to terms ...more

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Aug 27, 2016 Martin Huijgen rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

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 writin ...more

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Feb 12, 2016 Sam Fleming rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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. ...more

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Feb 26, 2015 Karl marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015-02-books-bought

This is copy 38 of 100 signed numbered copies.

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Jul 15, 2016 Stuart rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Book Title: The Race

Author: Nina Allan

Publisher: Titan Books 2016

Source: Sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Page Count: 446

Format: Paperback

Genre: Science/Literary Fiction

ISBN: 978-1907069703

Audience: Those who enjoy complex and robust stories with scientific flourishes

Laugh or Cry: Both

Buy? Read? Avoid?: Buy/Read if you enjoy depth and complexity with your novels

Summed up in one word: Choppy

First Impression: Let me clarify choppy...this book is good, even great in parts ...more

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Dec 29, 2018 Kristen rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Didn't pass my 25% rule. Very dark, like it made me feel like I was living in the muck which I suppose is a testament to the writing. Just not for me. ...more

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Mar 12, 2019 M F added it

Shelves: unbury-your-queers, books-read-in-2019, by-women, canon-queer-characters

Well, that was a weird book. I'm not entirely sure I liked it; there were elements that I found really interesting, but they were never followed through to their conclusion. It has multiple narratives that interrupt each other and while the interactions/overlap between them were intriguing, I am a simple soul who would probably have preferred a straightforward sci-fi novel like it seemed like we were getting in the first section.

Also, some of the sexual content made me extremely uncomfortable. ...more

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Jan 27, 2020 Paul Calhoun rated it did not like it · review of another edition

After thinking about it, I cannot share my review for this book nor my notes because I do not believe I can discuss it without verging into dangerous territory when it comes to my opinion of this book. Even a summary of my review would get into words that, as a fellow writer, I believe are disrespectful.

I will only say this: This book needs a very different dust jacket blurb, because it hypes up elements that are very minor to the book itself. If you are looking for hard SF with "worlds in the ...more

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Dec 04, 2016 Hope rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book is at once beautiful, perplexing, horrifying and brilliant. The writing is superb. The story slowly spins around you and then unravels and spins you up again. In fact, I feel much like an insect caught in Allan's intricate web. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it. This is a book I feel I could read over and over again and still find hidden treasures.

Do not read if you are looking for a cut and dry sci-fi that follows some preconceived plot diagram. It's nothing like that.

*SPOIL This book is at once beautiful, perplexing, horrifying and brilliant. The writing is superb. The story slowly spins around you and then unravels and spins you up again. In fact, I feel much like an insect caught in Allan's intricate web. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it. This is a book I feel I could read over and over again and still find hidden treasures.

Do not read if you are looking for a cut and dry sci-fi that follows some preconceived plot diagram. It's nothing like that.

*SPOILERS*

After reading several reviews, I feel like a lot of people missed some key points and, in doing that, the book easily "unravels." This is definitely a book where every word matters and you must read it through to the very end. I can understand how it might leave one feeling lost, however, if you were one of those people who missed those key points. I also understand that the cover and blurb is extremely misleading, but cannot even fathom how else the book could have been presented without giving away its real treasure. It's very "Alice Through the Looking Glass." Even the title, The Race, is misleading for people expecting a SF book about smart dog races, which is only an important part of the first novella. Having thought about it, though, and considered the references to racism, the idea of a new race (the "empaths) and even an alien race, and the other literal race to decipher this supposed alien message that has travelled across the universe (which is all Christy's invention as a writer), I see that the title is apt.

I appreciate what Allan attempted to do here, while I'm unsure she entirely succeeded–mainly because a lot of readers are perplexed. I immediately understood what was happening, because it has the same feel of Phillip K Dick's "The Man in the High Castle" with its use of reality within alternate realities. Allan even mentions PKD in Christy's section, Christy being the author of both Jenna and Brock Island and the creator of Maree's character, the inventor of these alternate realities because her own is so distressing. The references to the girl in the mirror is obviously an allegory, where Christy's reality briefly merges with an alternate one, one that is "mirrored" in the fictional story Christy writes called Brock Island, wherein a painter has painted several portraits of someone she suspects to be her sister in an alternate universe.

Like I said, there are so many hidden treasures in this book, I may have to read it again. There is something beautiful and elusive that I can almost, just not quite, touch and I really, really want to.

Which reminds me of something Alex's daughter told him regarding something she liked. She liked it because it was "really real."

I have a feeling this book is one in which realization dawns slowly on people. It's deep. So deep, sometimes I felt I might drown. Like falling down the rabbit hole.

...more

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