Birthright

honest, I'd have to say that it's secured a place in literary history for me. But it also had some deleterious

effects as well. For one thing, no book, no matter how potent or timely, sells as well asThe Steel Boot without an intense publicity campaign. Spending promotional money was just a small part of the procedure. For almost three years after its publication I was forced by contract to tour the worlds, of the Oligarchy, making personal appearances, being interviewed on video shows, pushing both the book and the ideas behind the book to as many people as I could reach. It was financially successful, but physically and artistically debilitating. I wanted to get back to work, to keep hammering at my theme, but I simply couldn't find the time.

THORON: But wasn't there a rash of similar books published shortly after the success ofThe Steel Boot became manifest?

NIIS: There were, but they never had much effect, and in fact they were so one-sided and passionate in their approach that they almost turned the whole subject of mistreatment of aliens into the private property of an elite cult. Perhaps I'm being less than generous, but I honestly feel that these books and authors lessened the potency of the arguments and the poignancy of the aliens’ plight. THORRIN: In other words, none of them could push a noun up against a verb as beautifully or as effectively as you could. And, lacking your literary skill, they failed where you succeeded. We won't be letting any secrets out of the bag by noting that no other book on the subject sold more than nine million copies.

NIIS: Still, it wasn't from a lack of sincerity. You might view it as a legal case: even the most sincere barrister will hurt his client's cause if he argues with insufficient skill. Nonetheless, they reached a number of readers that probably hadn't seen or boughtThe Steel Boot, so I've no objections to their jumping on the bandwagon, as it were.

THORRIN: Now, in retrospect, have you noticed any change in our policy toward the other races since the publication of your book?

NIIS: Not a hell of a lot, to be blunt about it. THORRIN: Why do you suppose that is?

NIIS: I don't know. Maybe the wrong people read my book. When we began to realize just how well it was selling, I really had hopes. I was naturally pleased from a professional point of view, but I had also entertained the thought that perhaps I had struck a responsive chord among the readership, had confronted them with the truth of our treatment of nonhuman beings and elicited from them the desire to make some amends. As it turned out, that wasn't the case. THORRIN: But what about those billions of readers? Are you saying that you don't feel the book had any effect on them at all?

NIIS: For all practical purposes, that is precisely what I am saying. I think the huge majority of them read the book, felt a very justifiable racial guilt, and having thus undergone a painless mini-catharsis, ambled off to bed and forgot the whole thing. THORRIN: Obviously this feeling is nothing new. What was your reaction when you first decided that the book, though admittedly a best-seller, was not the dawn of a new era of racial harmony? NIIS: There was no single day that I looked around me and said: Hey, what's the matter with