Any sci-fi with aliens where humans are not the less advanced race?
What the title says, I’m tired of the trope where humans are the least advanced in the universe.
I’d like to read something different where we’re the more advanced ones (not necessarily the most advanced). As an example I quite enjoyed the Ender’s Game sequels and the angle of us being the more advanced ones was quite interesting.
The short story Three worlds collide (read for free at www.lesswrong.com/…/three-worlds-collide-0-8 ) has humanity at the middle of an interspecies first-contact triangle with a more and a less advanced race.
No it doesn’t. In enterprise it’s very clear humans are the junior species in space. Humans are also physically weaker than just about every other space faring species in the series.
Yes, it does. There are many episodes where the Enterprise crew are observing a less advanced race. It is the reason they have the Prime Directive in the first place.
Baring most of new trek, all of the species rock and suck in their own ways. Humans are extremely powerful in their own ways. So while they might not be the Mary sues of the universe they certainly aren’t light-years behind their opponents. If anything the federation, led by humanity, are in the position they are in due to the technology
Enterprise isn’t exactly a representative sampling of star trek.
In TNG the only reoccurring villains that are more advanced than humans are the Q and the Borg. The iconians were super advanced, but are long dead. There are random space babies/sentient nebulas but most species are behind the federation in tech. Even the romulans aren’t more advanced, just focused on war.
If you ever wonder how advanced humanity is in star trek, remember that Q is a reoccurring villain. Q has complete control of space, time and reality. The federation is so advanced God is an antagonist.
In Enterprise definitely, but even then the crew would occasionally come across a “lesser” species and then debate about what to do about them.
In TNG era shows most of the other species encountered were portrayed as equal or lesser to humans/federation. Voyager plays with this a little bit since that crew of mostly humans, while almost always more advanced than the people they encounter, they are a lone federation ship with zero support, which knocks down their capabilities a bit.
There’s a great throwaway line by Seven of Nine in voyager where the kazon weren’t even worth the Borg’s time to assimilate, but they were the main antagonist to Voyager those first few seasons because there were so many of them
Technically, most of the beings in the Hainish Cycle are humans that were lost colonies from Hain, some of whom, like the inhabitants of Gethen, were genetically engineered. The only aliens are The Shing and they’re more powerful than humans.
Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky. While humans are not the most advanced species in the galaxy, the books deal with the interaction between humans and vastly inferior (but absolutely fascinating) alien races.
Why, if I may ask? I had trouble keeping reading about halfway through, when I learned about the antagonist’s character and methods (too brutal even for a fiction book, and he became one of my most hated fictional characters ever), but I also heard of people who aren’t too fond of spiders and had to put the book down. In that case, Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time wouldn’t be for them, either.
I read in order of publication. Maybe try Player of Games. Use of Weapons is fantastic, but is also a bit odd. The best ones involve ship minds IMO. As much as I love UoW, I kinda read the first books trying to get to the later ones. Either way, you won’t be missing much by skipping Phlebas. There are a few call backs in the series but most of the books are more or less independent. Phlebas being one of the most independent other than maybe inversions.
Came to recommend this. In Ian M Banks’ Culture series, the main “Culture” are quite advanced, indeed with post-scarcity living and guardian AIs possible. We see “The Culture” working to subtly recruit less advanced civilizations and modernize them.
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