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?
I know it’s not exactly what you asked but “To sleep in a sea of stars” by Christopher Paolini has humans at almost comparable with the aliens they interact with. Humans are slightly outclassed by the aliens in ship speed but the rest of the technology seems roughly comparable, with humans having better missile tech. It feels more like humans will lose a war of attrition if something major isn’t done, not being completely outclassed.
I just enjoyed the book so much I’m recommending it regardless of the tech differences not quite aligning to the question.
Funny thing, this is the book which prompted me to write the original post. I’m halfway through, but:
spoiler
there are the ancient ones which so far seem to be basically god-like and the jelly ones are better than humans as well, though not by that much.