cross-posted from: https://lemmings.world/post/759157
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?
Check out the Culture series by Iain M Banks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Time_(novel) and follow up book are good.
Protector by Larry Niven… I promise you it fits your requirements. But I don’t want to spoil it
The whole Hainish Cycle from Ursula K Le Guin may fit here, in the sense that all human-like ‘aliens’ are the offsprings of the colonies planted by a primitive human civilization.
I love the short story The Road Not Taken by Harry Turtledove. There’s of course the alien invasion trope, where aliens are space conquistadors pillaging the earth with their extra-terrestrial powers, and its complement, the Star Trek trope, where humans are culturally and technologically superior secular humanists descended to a backwards planet. And then there’s this story.