Science Fiction

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Lemmy World Rules

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Any sci-fi with aliens where humans are not the less advanced race? (lemmings.world)

submitted 2 years ago by rikudou@lemmings.world to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world

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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?

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[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago (3 children)

The following book settings/series should work.

The Expanse
Alien
Altered Carbon
Warhammer 40,000

[–] s1ndr0m3@kbin.social 6 points 2 years ago

I love the Altered Carbon book series. Each book has its own very different story where even the main character is in a different body, on a different planet, dealing with different kinds of people. The first book is very cyberpunk detective noir.
The first season of the Netflix series captured that aesthetic very well. My only critique was how they mish-mashed some stuff from all three books and added a new character at the final antagonist. The second season is not good. The whole series also changed the ideology and back story of this revolutionary group and the main character's relation to them.

Read the books. They are a blast.

[–] weeabooextract@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

40K doesn't really fit. While humanity isn't the least advanced civilization in that universe, it's also far from technological dominance (especially considering 10 000 years of stagnation following Horus' Hoolabooga). I mean, even the vagina faced fish are more advanced than the Imperium!

[–] ImpossibilityBox@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It took me way to long to figure out you were talking a out the Tau. I have never heard them described like that and will never be able to look at them the same again.

[–] weeabooextract@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago

It's a combination of two common jokes about them. The vagina-face one is pretty obvious (y'know, the slit), as far as I know, the fish joke comes from the designations for their vehicles (although these are in-universe Imperial designations, kinda like the Hind is a NATO designation for a Soviet aircraft)

[–] paper_clip@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I think The Expanse, while an amazing series that should be read anyway, doesn't fit the bill of "humans are more advanced than the aliens", since the Protomolecule and everything created by the Romans are essentially in the "tech as high level magic" category. Humans can't even understand the technology, often saying things like, the Protomolecule just changed the laws of physics.