Expedtionay force series by Craig Alanson is fun romp around the galaxy. The start in first book is a bit slow and the tone of rest of series is very different.
Lost fleet by Jack Campbell is nice as well. Its more about fleet action and battles.
Terran Republic series by Charles Gannon is also quite good.
Icarus Hunt series by Timothy Zahn was very interesting.
Terran Republic series is about Earth fianlly meeting some alien races after it had expanded to a handful of planets. There is lots of politics and maneuvering among the races and earth is kind of caught in that. A secret org on Earth tries to guide earth through all the mess and the protagonist is recruited into this org.
Icarus hunt is about a pair with an old spaceship (Icarus) being hired to take some cargo to a different planet. However, major corps and races start looking for their ship trying to get hands on the cargo.
Terran Republic series by Charles Gannon has humans more advanced than one or two, but definitely not at the top of the pack.
Sector General by James White has humans as part of the large alliance of races. The alliance is more advanced than some of the races they encounter.
Foreigner series by C J Cherryh has humans far more technologically advanced, however the small number that reach the alien world have to learn to live peacefully with the aliens.
Most of the Stars wars books have humans as very advanced.
Looking for conventional ship and crew adventures that aren't tied to a franchise
Mass Effect, Star Trek, similar stuff, without the giant franchise money machine. To consume like popcorn....
Any sci-fi with aliens where humans are not the less advanced race?
What the title says, I’m tired of the trope where humans are the least advanced in the universe....