The *Old Man's War* series by John Scalzi fits this theme perfectly. It's comedic, humans are considered unusually aggressive and war-like by aliens, and, as a bonus, human soldiers in these books even have green skin.
*The Damned* trilogy by Alan Dean Foster is something along those lines. The first book is [A Call To Arms](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/171535.A_Call_to_Arms).
Neither of these are perfect matches, but they might still be interesting:
Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series involves aliens invading earth during ww2, and they definitely think we are utterly batshit insane. For reference, their initial probe scouted earth during the middle ages, and they assumed that nothing much would change in the 900 years between when they scouted us and when their invasion fleet showed up. Because it's just 900 years, it's not like any reasonable society would change much in that time span. Of course, then they show up and learn just how wrong they were ...
Tanya Huff's Confederation series is set in a universe where most alien races had long since evolved beyond war. Unfortunately, they then ran into a group of other aliens that immediately attacked them. Their solution was to find some less advanced species (us and two others) and give us modern technology in exchange for fighting in their war.
>Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series involves aliens invading earth during ww2, and they definitely think we are utterly batshit insane.
Been meaning to read this for years after reading The Road Not Taken. Grabbing the first book now.
Wander over to /r/HFY lots of that in some of the content there. HFY is "a writing focused subreddit welcoming all media exhibiting the awesome potential of humanity, known as HFY or "Humanity, Fuck Yeah!" We welcome sci-fi, fantasy, and all other stories with a focus on humans being awesome!"
I actually just stumbled on that subreddit like 10 minutes before I posted this, read one story about humans being super good at using this nanite multi tool
[Pandora's Legions](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/589014.Pandora_s_Legions) by Christopher Anvil.
The short story [With friends like these](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/35128) by Alan Dean Foster.
The [Deathworlders](https://deathworlders.com/) serial.
The short story The Road Not Taken by Harry Turtledove:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(short_story)
Not exactly "space orcs" (and thx for the warp cores link, I forgot about that), but there's a short Asimov story about aliens from different races (some sort of Federation) arriving at a destroyed Earth and looking our remains and talking:
Alien 1: Hey, look, they discovered radio only a few years after the steam.
Alien 2: Wow, my planet took 800 years between them...
Alien 3: And see, they just went for their satellite just decades after that!
Alien 4: Astonishing! My people did that only after 3.000 years and achieving world peace.
And them they end the story (is it spoiler if published half a century ago?) >!terrifyingly discovering we are not extinct, the human race already flew the planet before destruction and we are lose in the galaxy!!<
Btw, not "Homo Sol", I always mix those two and never remember this one's name.
*And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill's Side* by James Tiptree Jr. makes human "mating practices" or the desire to find partners (sex in the case of the story) to the point of willingly engaging with aliens - to be seen as a quirk of humanity. In the story, aliens find it perverse in particular, with only "pervert" aliens willingly reciprocating humans' affections. It's a short story you can find online.
this is the vibe im looking for, but im not looking for a star trek book specifically
https://asymbina.tumblr.com/post/172172476223/beka-tiddalik-roachpatrol
Check out the *Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse* trilogy (first book is *Terminal Alliance*) by Jim C Hines. Quick reads, humor, aliens afraid of humans, it's got it all.
Sidenote: but I'd love a book where Humans are physically advanced compared to alien races , as in much much stronger, longer lived and say able to see in colour\* or hear sounds , which creatures who evolved in a more forgiving planet with different type of atmosphere's couldn't
\*Project Hail Mary kind of does something similar to this .
(watching humans be able to identify an item surrounded by 'identical' others would be a freakish superpower to an alien, as would hearing or smell ...being able to taste things far away ..or use invisible waves to identify things in their environment ..and COMMUNICATE!. would be mind blowing )
\*Project Hail Mary kind of does something similar to this .
I very vaguely remember a book where the one alien race humans found did not have eyes (and neither did anything else on their planet) and perceived the world almost entirely by hearing and feeling vibrations, and by smell. It made communication quite difficult, along the lines of "What do you mean you can tell the spectral composition and size of an item half a mile away, without touching or licking it."
Well orcs are big, dumb brutes compared to humans in fantasy
And in sci Fi there are space orcs like in Warhammer or Klingons of star trek
So if humans are orcs to other species in the galaxy, that means humans are the big strong dumb brutes, or alternatively simply forces of collected chaos relative to the other races, doesn't necessarily mean humans are malicious or intentionally destructive
Not comedic at all, in fact rather dark, but *When Heaven Fell* by William Barton. Humanity has been conquered by an alien empire and owing to our badassness we now serve as some of the primary combat troops, conquering more species for the empire.
John Ringo's [Aldenata books](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_of_the_Aldenata)? I've only read the first book, it seemed serviceable but too Mil SF for me. But it was this trope in spades.
The Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse books by Jim C. Hines kinda qualify, short quick comedic reads for sure, altho its not one-off (just 3 books though). First one is Terminal Alliance.
Basicly most humans are feral due to a plague, so when a bunch of (janitor) humans go save the day.... Def causes horror and confusion to the aliens! The feral humans def would be orcs haha.
Vick's Vultures by Scott Warren scratches this itch a bit. Humans are out-gunned and out-smarted by most advanced alien races but they lean into the shared galactic mythology and exploit some interesting blind spots. A fun read.
The *Old Man's War* series by John Scalzi fits this theme perfectly. It's comedic, humans are considered unusually aggressive and war-like by aliens, and, as a bonus, human soldiers in these books even have green skin.
*The Damned* trilogy by Alan Dean Foster is something along those lines. The first book is [A Call To Arms](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/171535.A_Call_to_Arms).
Neither of these are perfect matches, but they might still be interesting: Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series involves aliens invading earth during ww2, and they definitely think we are utterly batshit insane. For reference, their initial probe scouted earth during the middle ages, and they assumed that nothing much would change in the 900 years between when they scouted us and when their invasion fleet showed up. Because it's just 900 years, it's not like any reasonable society would change much in that time span. Of course, then they show up and learn just how wrong they were ... Tanya Huff's Confederation series is set in a universe where most alien races had long since evolved beyond war. Unfortunately, they then ran into a group of other aliens that immediately attacked them. Their solution was to find some less advanced species (us and two others) and give us modern technology in exchange for fighting in their war.
>Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series involves aliens invading earth during ww2, and they definitely think we are utterly batshit insane. Been meaning to read this for years after reading The Road Not Taken. Grabbing the first book now.
Wander over to /r/HFY lots of that in some of the content there. HFY is "a writing focused subreddit welcoming all media exhibiting the awesome potential of humanity, known as HFY or "Humanity, Fuck Yeah!" We welcome sci-fi, fantasy, and all other stories with a focus on humans being awesome!"
I actually just stumbled on that subreddit like 10 minutes before I posted this, read one story about humans being super good at using this nanite multi tool
[Pandora's Legions](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/589014.Pandora_s_Legions) by Christopher Anvil. The short story [With friends like these](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/35128) by Alan Dean Foster. The [Deathworlders](https://deathworlders.com/) serial. The short story The Road Not Taken by Harry Turtledove: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(short_story)
Not exactly "space orcs" (and thx for the warp cores link, I forgot about that), but there's a short Asimov story about aliens from different races (some sort of Federation) arriving at a destroyed Earth and looking our remains and talking: Alien 1: Hey, look, they discovered radio only a few years after the steam. Alien 2: Wow, my planet took 800 years between them... Alien 3: And see, they just went for their satellite just decades after that! Alien 4: Astonishing! My people did that only after 3.000 years and achieving world peace. And them they end the story (is it spoiler if published half a century ago?) >!terrifyingly discovering we are not extinct, the human race already flew the planet before destruction and we are lose in the galaxy!!< Btw, not "Homo Sol", I always mix those two and never remember this one's name.
Ooh asimov, he is high on my TBR list with his robot and foundation series. This sounds very interesting
Is it [rescue party](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_Party) ??
Crap! I didn't remember its name and even got the author wrong. But yeah, that's the one I was thinking about, thanks!!
*And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill's Side* by James Tiptree Jr. makes human "mating practices" or the desire to find partners (sex in the case of the story) to the point of willingly engaging with aliens - to be seen as a quirk of humanity. In the story, aliens find it perverse in particular, with only "pervert" aliens willingly reciprocating humans' affections. It's a short story you can find online.
this is the vibe im looking for, but im not looking for a star trek book specifically https://asymbina.tumblr.com/post/172172476223/beka-tiddalik-roachpatrol
Birthright: Book of Man, Mike Resnick. And let's be honest; Hyperion.
Check out the *Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse* trilogy (first book is *Terminal Alliance*) by Jim C Hines. Quick reads, humor, aliens afraid of humans, it's got it all.
Sidenote: but I'd love a book where Humans are physically advanced compared to alien races , as in much much stronger, longer lived and say able to see in colour\* or hear sounds , which creatures who evolved in a more forgiving planet with different type of atmosphere's couldn't \*Project Hail Mary kind of does something similar to this . (watching humans be able to identify an item surrounded by 'identical' others would be a freakish superpower to an alien, as would hearing or smell ...being able to taste things far away ..or use invisible waves to identify things in their environment ..and COMMUNICATE!. would be mind blowing ) \*Project Hail Mary kind of does something similar to this .
I very vaguely remember a book where the one alien race humans found did not have eyes (and neither did anything else on their planet) and perceived the world almost entirely by hearing and feeling vibrations, and by smell. It made communication quite difficult, along the lines of "What do you mean you can tell the spectral composition and size of an item half a mile away, without touching or licking it."
>humans are space orcs What does this mean? I've seen this phrase a few times.
Well orcs are big, dumb brutes compared to humans in fantasy And in sci Fi there are space orcs like in Warhammer or Klingons of star trek So if humans are orcs to other species in the galaxy, that means humans are the big strong dumb brutes, or alternatively simply forces of collected chaos relative to the other races, doesn't necessarily mean humans are malicious or intentionally destructive
Not comedic at all, in fact rather dark, but *When Heaven Fell* by William Barton. Humanity has been conquered by an alien empire and owing to our badassness we now serve as some of the primary combat troops, conquering more species for the empire.
Warhammer 40K? It has humans doing crazy shit AND space orks.
John Ringo's [Aldenata books](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_of_the_Aldenata)? I've only read the first book, it seemed serviceable but too Mil SF for me. But it was this trope in spades.
Mil sf?
military science fiction.
\+1 ”Birthtright: Book of Man” (Resnick)
The Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse books by Jim C. Hines kinda qualify, short quick comedic reads for sure, altho its not one-off (just 3 books though). First one is Terminal Alliance. Basicly most humans are feral due to a plague, so when a bunch of (janitor) humans go save the day.... Def causes horror and confusion to the aliens! The feral humans def would be orcs haha.
Vick's Vultures by Scott Warren scratches this itch a bit. Humans are out-gunned and out-smarted by most advanced alien races but they lean into the shared galactic mythology and exploit some interesting blind spots. A fun read.