Science Fiction

This is a driving factor in a majority of Star Trek fiction.

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

The Bobiverse is a fun read. Highly recommend

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.

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)

Project Hail Mary (by Andy Weir, who wrote The Martian as well)

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.

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.

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.

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.

Project Hail Mary

Avatar?

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.

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.

Umm, Alien?

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

• Proxima by Stephen Baxter
• The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter
• Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement

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 )

Stagate comes to mind (we're not the LEST advanced, at least) but that's not a book.

The Revelation Space series humans are pretty techy. We are Bob also.

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.

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

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.

The book series We are legion (we are bob). They encounter two or three less advanced races. Great series, I just finished the fourth book.

The following book settings/series should work.

• The Expanse
• Alien
• Altered Carbon
• Warhammer 40,000

Avatar

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

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.