I read it in the late 70s, but I’d guess it’s 60’s or earlier, I remember the book being reasonably weathered when I got it from the library.
A fleet of aliens visits Earth. They tell us there’s a migrant species that invades the galaxy every million(?) years or so and wipes out all intelligent life. They’re putting together a multi-species fleet to defend the galaxy, and they want Earth to help. But all they want is one particular man.
He agrees and joins the fleet. He’s assigned to a ship with 30ish crew, all different species. The first day he arrives he’s challenged to a fight, which he wins. He finds out that rank on the ship is purely decided by fighting - he’s now the 2nd lowest ranked crew member.
80% of the book is him on the ship before the invaders arrive. He finds out lots of things - there are a few high powered species that pretty much run the galaxy. His ship is full of the least powerful species, those who could barely get a satellite into orbit. He also finds that when the invaders arrive, the commanders will decide whether to fight, or to run and hide and try to rebuild what they can after they leave. They’ll base this on the odds once they see how big the invaders fleet is. I think, but could be inventing, that the fighting is all done by computers as well. He also finds that the commanders don’t really care the ships that the weak species crews - they just bring one member of each weak species for fairness sake.
This does not sit well with our hero, who makes it his goal to become captain of the ship so he can communicate with the fleet commanders and put forth that the weaker species are valuable in a fight, and hiding from the invaders and giving up the galaxy to destruction is not an option. He makes his way up to the 2nd rank, but cannot defeat the captain in hand to hand combat - he’s much faster, stronger, and has better senses, so the hero is always beaten. Finally the captain asks him why he keeps trying to fight, and when the hero explains what he wants to do, the captain willingly steps down. The hero has no luck convincing the fleet commanders of anything, so spends all his time training his crew to fight the ship.
Finally, the invaders arrive. The commanders decide they’re too strong, and order all ships to disperse and hide. Instead, our hero takes his ship on a wild attack against the invaders. His crew is so well trained they actually do significant damage against the attackers, there’s definitely some of the “less civilized species are much better at war” trope at play. They’re so good that the commanders recalculate the odds, release all the other ships of weaker species, make their own attack, and drive back the invaders.
Any ideas?
Hour of the Horde, Gordon R Dickson.
What was supposed to be so special about the one guy?
Nailed It. Think I still have a paperback copy on my shelves.
It wasn’t that they were so good or special, it was that the fleet command ran on probabilities and would only fight if the odds favored them. They initially ordered a retreat , but when the human commanded ship disobeyed orders and began fighting anyway, it was just enough to tip the odds in their direction and the rest of the fleet joined the attack.
Classic old sci-fi trope, plucky humans show up decadent “superior” aliens with their grit and determination.
As an aside, Asimov hated that trope, because he thought that “humans are superior to everyone else” was (possibly subconscious) racist code for “white Protestant humans are superior to everyone else”.
I hate that trope in published sci fi, too.
Yet I still occasionally dive to the Humanity, Fuck Yeah subbreddit for some reason.
Thanks! That’s definitely it. I thought it was a well-known author, but I knew it wasn’t the Asimov/Heinlein/Clarke that I was devouring at that age. But Dickson makes perfect sense.