Science Fiction

13626 readers

2 users here now

Welcome to /c/ScienceFiction

December book club canceled. Short stories instead!

We are a community for discussing all things Science Fiction. We want this to be a place for members to discuss and share everything they love about Science Fiction, whether that be books, movies, TV shows and more. Please feel free to take part and help our community grow.

Be civil: disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally insult others.
Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, ableist, or advocating violence will be removed.
Spam, self promotion, trolling, and bots are not allowed
Put (Spoilers) in the title of your post if you anticipate spoilers.
Please use spoiler tags whenever commenting a spoiler in a non-spoiler thread.

Lemmy World Rules

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

Tenthrow

175

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

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/sciencefiction

193 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] WarlockFighter 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Someology 4 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Seconding, thirding and fourthing the Culture novels. One for each time I read the series.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is there a reading order that's recommended because I find getting into the first book very difficult.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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.