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.
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.
The Bobiverse is a fun read. Highly recommend
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
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.
Project Hail Mary (by Andy Weir, who wrote The Martian as well)
Chiming in to agree with this one.
It's definitely a... Nah, go read it for yourself, there are enough spoilers here already XD
Anyone somehow reading this comment without seeing the thread it's in, go read 'project hail Mary'.
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.
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.
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.
If memory serves, wasn't it explained that Sabacians were humans with slightly altered DNA? They were altered to be more aggressive and more warrior like? I thought I remember hearing that during my 5rh rewatch. Or was it my 6th or 7th?
Yes, I think you are right. What kills me is that with modern day effects it would be much easier to create a show like this again. It was wild with its creativity in a way that is rare today.
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.
You may enjoy "A Call to Arms" by Alan Dean Foster (The Damned Series)
The short of it, humans are an uncontacted race in the path of an alien empire "The Amplitur" that is co-opting all of the galaxy. So the resistance forces, (aka "The Weave") decide they might as well reach out to us, since having unassimilated allies is now far more important than their first-contact rules.
Foster takes the basic premise that humans are unlike any other animal on earth, and so by that same token unlike any other species in the galaxy. This means our abilities in creativity, adaptation, survival and our predilection for violence (something every other civilized race evolved to avoid at all costs) all become keystones of how The Weave accept us as members of their alliance.
The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven is exactly what you want
Ender's Game may fit this, but the sequel Speaker for the Dead definitely does. Not to give away too many details, but it's basically about a space anthropologist making second contact with an alien race still confined to its own planet. I'd say the first book has humans and aliens more or less at parity, but in the second the humans are more technologically advanced. Both are more meditations on otherness more than anything.
Umm, Alien?
I absolutely adore Peter F Hamilton’s Void books in his Commonwealth saga. The earlier books in the commonwealth saga feature a weaker humanity but in the void series humanity is at the top of the food chain.
Project Hail Mary
Avatar?
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.
The books of The Commonwealth Saga, by Peter F. Hamilton, have humans in the mix. They are neither the most advanced, nor the least, and the balance changes over the course of the books
Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky. While humans are not the most advanced species in the galaxy, the books deal with the interaction between humans and vastly inferior (but absolutely fascinating) alien races.
C J Cherry - Foreigner series. Humans more advanced but only a small community stuck on an alien planet, and may not understand the natives as well as they think (and vice versa )
The Revelation Space series humans are pretty techy. We are Bob also.
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.
I think these stories are good. Best part is these are series so if you dig them, there's a longer road to travel.
Old Man's War John Scalzi
Lazarus War Jaime Sawyer
The Lost Fleet Jack Campbell
A classic: Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh. In it, the planet known to humans as Pell’s World is populated by the gentle, sentient but technologically naive Hisa. The Hisa are exploited by humans as a manual labor force. Some humans decry this exploitation and work to establish a more compassionate, cooperative relationship with the Hisa.
How about The Road Not Taken by Harry Turtledove, kind of?
A lot of the aliens encountered in Rick and Morty are quite dumb. Then again so are most of the humans. It’s a tossup.
HFY fare is a coin toss.
The Jenkinsverse rapidly goes from humans being assumed nonsentient (because our planet is a deathtrap) to cheating our asses off with galactic-standard technology. For example: teleportation is possible, but only between pre-set endpoints, and with a lengthy charge-up. So humans crammed obscenely large capacitors into standard hulls and instantly bip between microsatellites. Our ships have no staying power, but they're absolutely infuriating to fight.
Our main problem is being 99% confined to one vulnerable rock.
James Cameron's Avatar comes to mind
Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K Le Guin
Humanity sends an envoy to a planet which is in the industrial era
The following book settings/series should work.
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.
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