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.
Do you have any recommendations?
This is a driving factor in a majority of Star Trek fiction.
Also > Hard to Be a God - by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Anton a man from a future human utopia in undercover mission on an alien planet that is populated by human beings whose society has not advanced beyond the Middle Ages.
Never really was into Star Trek, unfortunately.
I’d watch star trek if i can skip the old ones. I’m sorry die hard star trek fans but the cgi in those times is just way too terrible for me. I’m sure i can maybe skip to the new ones and just spoil the older shows for myself to get the jist though.
Edit: wait are we talking books or movies/shows? I come from the (everything) fediverse section my bad
the cgi in those times is just way too terrible
In their defense, it was pretty hard to do good Computer-Generated Imagery without computers… 😉
Ye you got a point 😆
You can watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds easily without watching the old ones (I only watched a few episodes of the older ones when I was young).
I also recommend The Orville if you’re into Seth MacFarlane’s type of comedyHonestly I recommend it even if you aren’t into his comedy. It’s a bit thick in the first half of the first season, but it becomes a decent sci-fi show in general past that point.
The Orville was the best new trek until strange new worlds
I love the Orville! Reminds me of farscape.
The post was about books, but I realize I should’ve mentioned it in the title. But hey, I’m not one to turn down a good sci-fi show or a movie!
Stargate SG-1 has a VERY interesting premise. Humans start from 0 and we see them gradually learning new technology and making alliances (Plus, the original cast is just stellar)
I’m in the middle of a 5th (or so) rewatch!
Richard Dean Anderson is a national treasure! :D
Definitely! While I still enjoyed the Ori saga, it definitely wasn’t the same without O’Neill.
I think he’s Canadian.
Edit: I’m wrong. Now why did I think that?
SG-1 was largely filmed in Canada. It’s why a lot of planets look like wilderness near Vancouver. (And quarries, in classic Doctor Who fashion.)
In the back half of the series you can really hear it creeping into RDA’s accent.
He filmed Macgyver there before Stargate too so the dude had TONS of time in van
Foundation or Dune pop immediately into my mind. Asimov has an interesting view of humanity. As does Herbert. No aliens really in those books though. Honor Harrington series is also about humanity’s dominance in space. Edit thanks saintwacko for the correction lol
Interestingly, the trend in 1940s SF was for humans to always be superior to aliens; John W. Campbell, the editor for Astounding, particularly liked this view. Asimov hated this trend, so that’s why the Foundation series has no aliens in it; as a result he could sell the stories to Campbell without having to write about the inferiority of aliens. It’s also why Asimov wrote a lot of three-law robot stories at this time, as he didn’t mind writing humans to be superior to robots.
Honor* Harrington
I’ve read both and while I agree both series are great (though Dune gets really weird in the later books), this is not what I’m after. I’ll check out Honor Harrington (I assume that’s what you meant, Hunter found me some tennis dude.
The Honor Harrington series actually has some interesting tech disparities, besides being pretty good/exciting military science fiction.
In the first book, there are Bronze-Age-ish aboriginals.
In the second book, you see several human polities. Harrington interacts with less technologically/culturally developed groups of humans, and there are frictions and opportunities coming from the more advanced polity.
Harrington’s polity generally remains the most technologically advanced group. There’s later interaction with human polities who had thought they were the top dog, in terms of military power.
Just to note, it’s a big series that gets somewhat too sprawling in the later books. The earlier books are Age of Sail (IN SPACE!!!) adventures, which transforms into a wide-ranging interstellar war driven by technology change. Weber’s analogy is sailing ships -> steam ironclads -> Dreadnaught battleships -> WW2 radar directed gunnery / aircraft carriers. Not everyone is at the same tech level.
Age of Sail (In space!) is an apt description since Weber directly paid homage to the Horatio Hornblower books he modeled the initial books off of by giving his main character the same initials.
Forgive me if I am uninformed, as it has been a while since I read Dune and I never read the complete series, but that universe doesn’t have aliens in it, does it?
Does Foundation have any either? I’ve only watched the series on Apple TV (which I know is very divergent from the books) but it also seems to involve mainly humans and their creations than anything else.
No, you are correct. Both series are in the Humans are the only sentient space civ camp.
If you want to split hairs, it’s said that it seems like sandworms weren’t originally native to Arrakis and had to have originated elsewhere.
Where they were from originally and who brought them there is never really gone into, it could potentially have been aliens, or given how far in the future takes place it could have been previously human settlers who died out and been lost to history thousands of years prior to the events of the book.
You could also probably really get into it about whether some of the tleilaxu creations really count as humans.
Even in the latter books when the people from the scattering return from distant galaxies there is still no sign of any other sentient species.
Certainly there’s no evidence of other civilizations, but space and time are vast, other civilizations could have risen and fallen before humanity ever came to be and evidence of their existence lost to time. They could exist in places humans wouldn’t look, possibly even in forms we wouldn’t recognize, or maybe they even purposely avoid us, folding space and time around themselves, hiding from prescient vision, etc. Maybe they’re even out there and humanity is aware of them and they just have nothing we want and they’re not posing a threat so they’re never really worth talking about in-universe, certainly wouldn’t be the first time humans didn’t give a shit about another civilization, not even the first time in the scale of the books like how the harkonens never game much serious consideration to the fremen.
That’s of course all just baseless speculation based on basically nothing in the books, pretty much just the old “absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence” thing.
Also, depending on what we’re willing to accept as a sentient species, what your interpretation of the butlerian jihad is, how you feel about Brian’s books, etc. there’s also the matter of thinking machines to consider. I’d personally call that a stretch, but we’re here talking about a weird sci Fi book, so weird sci Fi stuff isn’t off the table.
Project Hail Mary (by Andy Weir, who wrote The Martian as well)
I mean the aliens are literal microbes so that’s a pretty clear W for humans lol
!Seriously, if you haven’t read the book don’t unspoil the next section!<
!Eridians are technologically superior in some regards to humans, but less scientifically advanced by FAR lol!<
The Bobiverse is a fun read. Highly recommend
It’s fun but on the second re-read I can’t help but notice how first-person perspective is extremely overused and the overall writing style could use some refinement.
Yeah it’s not great writing but it’s fun so I’m cool with it. Fourth book should not have happened though.
Wasn’t tracking there was a fourth. Third seemed like a logical conclusion.
The one with the space river megastructure? I really liked that one actually, kinda reminded me of Ringworld with the whole “exploring an alien megastructure whose inhabitants don’t know how to build such things anymore” sorta plot.
Shit, there’s a 4th? I only listened to 3 then unsubbed from audible.
I might have been in a bad mood when I read it, but I just remember it as not as good as the originals. I think it was just rushed out.
I loved this series. Very entertaining and kept me engaged wanting more.
Counterpoint: it’s dreadful and I gave up in the middle of the first book.
It’s certainly well regarded though so worth a look for yourself, op.
I came here specifically hoping this series was already mentioned.
Although they did meet one race more advanced.
Not sure if this is what you are looking for.
Iain M Banks Culture books centre around The Culture a human civ (but not earth humans) who are one of the most advanced civs in a milky way with tens of thousands of sentient races at various level of development.
Sounds interesting, will check it out. Thank you!
Reading some of your other replies I think you will enjoy, The Culture. Banks created a galaxy that really feels lived in and the interactions of the civs at various tech levels works really well.
That has been recommended multiple times here and it indeed sounds like what I’m looking for. Thanks!
Came here to suggest the culture series. First thing that popped into my mind while reading the question.
Ursula K. Le Guin’s books in the Hainish Cycle might also fit the bill.
The Algebraist is an excellent standalone Banks book.
Humans finally make it out into the galactic community only to find humans are already there and that the galaxy is crawling with life of incredibly diverse kinds literally everywhere.
It’s one of his best.
The Culture series, Iain M banks.
Humana are part of the culture (although it is AI dominated) which is considered one of the most advanced groups in the setting.
Thanks!
Seconding, thirding and fourthing the Culture novels. One for each time I read the series.
Is there a reading order that’s recommended because I find getting into the first book very difficult.
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.
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein. Though it is a very militaristic point of view that explores interesting societal topics as well as successes and failures of historical human governments. If you liked the training and world building of Ender’s Game, you might like this one.
Another along those lines is John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War. Humans are at about the same technological level as the other races in that series.
On a side note, I love both the book and the movie for totally different reasons.
There is only one movie. Maybe 1 movie, one animated series, and a game
And that game is the RTS game Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendency.
Star Trek sort of fits this. Sort of.
Farscape (tv show) is a great example of this. Sabacians are basically human cousins that developed outside earth and are nearly identical in appearance and even genetically compatible to humans. They are also one of the most dominant races of the universe and often the antagonists on that show. I loved Farscape.
The Ancients in Stargate were also humans.
The Three Body Problem - Humans and aliens engage in a technological arms race for survival. There are times where the humans are a weaker feeble species, but there are also times where humans one up the aliens in ways they couldn’t have forseen. It’s a great back and forth that puts humanity on a path for stellar exploration and survival all in one moment.
Project Hail Mary
Just finished reading this. Excellent book!
The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven is exactly what you want
Definitely check this one out, OP. It’s fantastic.
“A Fire Upon the Deep” and “A Deepness in the Sky”, both by Vernor Vinge, are great too.
The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven is exactly what you want
I think you meant written by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven.
I’m as antiReddit as the next person, but r/HFY is exactly that. My favorite from that sub was the series Billy Bob Space Trucker. Highly recommend.
If we’re talking HFY there there’s this opus here
Came here to say this. Nothing else even comes close. And if you want to stay away from reddit, Ralts has self-published it as Behold: Humanity! You can get in for Kindle or in dead tree form on Amazon. Edit: Apologies Bob, I didn’t see your link was for Royal Road instead of reddit.
I found this post a few days ago.
I’m now on chapter 78 and accelerating.
Thank you.Surely Deathworlders is the defining HFY story?
Hmm which of the twenty million versions?
I’m still reading Deathworlders. Gets a bit repetitive and a little… furry at times but overall it’s been a fun read.
Stagate comes to mind (we’re not the LEST advanced, at least) but that’s not a book.
Among other things, I find Statgate an interesting exploration of how we might advance by finding and co-opting others’ technology (or being given it in some cases ie the Asgard) rather than developing it organically ourselves.
But one area that’s not explored, sadly, is how that technology would change earth geopolitics. The US Air Force gets to the point of having actual starships but everything is directed outward toward alien enemies. In reality this kind of edge would change our world on the ground too.
If we gain technology through others, we will make big leaps very quickly and that has the potential to be extremely disruptive. I wish they had explored this more. Perhaps a case where earth terrorists get hold of some Asgard tech, or a government hostile to the US makes an alliance with the Ori or something.