Inspiration and Relation To Other Works
The book's narrative describes a historical framework which serves as a setting for a number of Resnick's other woks of fiction, including the novels Ivory, A Miracle of Rare Design, and Santiago.
The story is very obviously inspired by Resnick's personal interest in Africa. Mankind's behavior and motivation is a direct continuation of 16th to 19th century European colonialism and imperialism: ruthless exploitation and domination of other cultures, justified by an ideology of racial superiority. "Birthright" is based on the speculation that this behavior could be a fundamental trait of humans, which would be exhibited in just the same way towards extraterrestrial aliens. The later part is apparently based on the rather less speculative notion that seemingly invincible empires can and invariably do crumble and disappear, often quite quickly. History provides numerous examples, including Ancient Rome, the Mongol and British Empires and the domain of Alexander the Great.
"Birthright" can also be seen as the antithesis of the SF stereotype of vicious, dangerous aliens who threaten mankind, as seen e.g. in Starship Troopers, the Predator and Alien movies, and many others. In Birthright, it is mankind itself that is the most vicious and dangerous of galactic races, also the basis for Resnick's short story With Friends Like These and works by others, such as The Damned trilogy by Alan Dean Foster.
Read more about this topic: Birthright: The Book Of Man
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—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
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“I look on trade and every mechanical craft as education also. But let me discriminate what is precious herein. There is in each of these works an act of invention, an intellectual step, or short series of steps taken; that act or step is the spiritual act; all the rest is mere repetition of the same a thousand times.”
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