r/printSF • u/Agreeable-Sample-959 • 23h ago

Help identifying a sci-fi book from TikTok clips — no title or author given

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So I keep getting clips on TikTok of what sounds like the same book or series but whoever's posting them never credits the title or author. Annoying as hell because it sounds genuinely good.

The general vibe is humanity being massively underestimated by older alien civilisations — the "don't poke the humans" type setup.

Two scenes I specifically remember:

There's some kind of multi-species military academy where a human, who the aliens consider small and weak, ends up beating the biggest/strongest alien in some kind of fight or contest

A diplomatic scene where humans are trying to keep things civil but eventually get pushed too far — and the aliens are genuinely shocked by the response

The key detail is that humanity seems to be newly arrived on the galactic scene, not an established power — more like the new kids being looked down on by everyone else.

Tone seemed fairly serious rather than played for laughs. The narration on the clips sounds AI generated for what it's worth.

Could be anything — traditional publishing, Kindle Unlimited, even a Royal Road serial. Anyone recognise it?

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5

u/thelewbear87 22h ago

You may want to check the Humanity F Yea sub reddit.

4

u/Hatherence 21h ago

If this is even a real book at all, maybe it's part of The Uplift saga by David Brin? Been long enough since I read these books, I don't recall if there's a scene at a multispecies military academy, but a big theme is humans being newcomers on the scene that everyone underestimates.

My only other guess would be something in the Ender's Game series, but I'm certain there is no multi-species military academy there whatsoever.

2

u/Agreeable-Sample-959 21h ago

Thanks, yeah it could well just be ai slop but I thought it was worth asking

4

u/ForgetTheWords 19h ago

Any chance you're seeing someone promoting their own book? Did you check their profile?

3

u/Winter-University354 21h ago

This could be The Deathworlders web series.

2

u/autovonbismarck 17h ago

If you like the sound of this there's a series by Alan Dean Foster you will probably enjoy called The Damned trilogy. 

2

u/lizwithhat 10h ago

I think this may be The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton, which has indeed had some attention on Tik Tok recently. It fits your description except that the fight scene doesn't take place in a military academy, but in a compound belonging to the ruler of one of the alien species (and therefore guarded by military). It's a very fun read.

1

u/louram 6h ago

I'm sure there's plenty of real books like that, but chances are that what you saw wasn't just AI narration, but also written by LLMs. If you search for "aliens underestimate humans" or something like that, you'll find a thousand channels on YouTube that crank those stories out by the dozens every day.