Orson Scott Card’s Ender series. We are way in advance of the piggies, but basically good toward them. We try to not give them any technology, but there’s a pretty good reason for that. They carry a disease that can wipe out all life.
It’s been a while since I read this one, I just read the synopsis on Wikipedia and I was wrong about them being crusaders, they were gathering troops for the 100 Year War.
I think that’s a “Yes” and a “No.”
I’ve read Die Wacht am Rhein and Yellow Eyes, both co-authored with Tom Kratman, and considered them good. I especially liked Rhein.
Cally’s War, co-authored with Julie Cochrane, was interesting in its depiction of the post-war reconstruction of Earth, and the cold-war that was really getting under way between the Bane Sidhe (anti-Darhel collaborators) and the Darhel. But the actual characters and storyline I could’ve done without.
Similarly, The Hero, co-authored with Michael Z. Williamson, was again facinating for its “snapshot” of human/Galactic society a millennia or so after the Posleen Wars ended, and was a decent enough story in its own right, but tended to drag; a quarter of the story could’ve easily been chopped, IMO.
Oh, that reminds me–Mother of Demons by Eric Flint would also fall into this category. A small band of humans is marooned on a planet where the natives are intelligent molluscs, and are forced to introduce human knowledge or war.
It’s okay if you get a cheap used copy of grab it at the Baen Free Library, but realistically it’s not particularly worth reading.
Hmm. Maybe I’ll take a look at them then. All the reviews of them I read tended to trash them and the one excerpt of Cally’s War I read was horrendous so I figured they weren’t worth the effort.
Whoops, that should be “knowledge of war.” One small typo, one big difference in plot…
A related Sci-Fi concept: (But geez I can’t the book/short story names!)
Humans are in fact the sickest species in the universe. When we get FTL tech and join galactic society, we make a moolah by being the universe’s best doctors. Our medical knowledge is immensely advanced because we use it constantly Other species don’t get sick as often and generally have little-to-no knowledge of surgery or disease mitigation or cures. But of course, when you’re dealing with multi-billion population planets, even a small percentage of medical needs becomes a lot over time. I’m not sure if you consider this being “tough”, but it’s close.
Sounds like Alan Nourse’s “Star Surgeon” (not to be confused with James White’s “Star Surgeon”)
A novel called Demon of Undoing had a stray human amongst a race of feudal cat-like aliens. It turned out that humans’ arm and shoulder structure made them much deadlier with a battleax than the natives. And the humans were good, it was just that they accidently introduced concepts so alien to the felinoids’ thinking that it disrupted their society.
In Mercedes Lackey’s urban fantasies humans are ( sometimes ) the good guys, or at least innocent bystanders most of the time. It’s mentioned several times that the real reason the supernaturals are in hiding and/or have retreated to the parallel dimension of Underhill of because if they came out in the open we’d crush them. We wouldn’t distinguish much between the arrogant-but-typically-benevolent supernaturals and the nasty, nasty evil supernaturals, and “Underhill would go under the human militaries like wheat in front of a threshing machine”.
Oh, various supernatural types like the elves especially the evil ones like to gas on about how badass they are, and how powerful their magic is; but ultimately, in an open conflict most of them wouldn’t have a chance. We’ve got iron and related metals that disrupt much magic and the very substance of Underhill. We have technology ( “What can mere humans do against us ?” “Very little. But their steel jacketed bullets can do much.” ). We are more creative than the elves at least. We have the rare but powerful human mages, who no doubt would reveal themselves and throw in with the humans in a human-Underhill war. And we have numbers, numbers, numbers.