Ok, Here's my first nomination... I looked in the Baen free library and found this Military Science Fiction that sounds like it might be good.
Cross the Stars
by David Drake
Hammer's Slammer Don Slade is coming home to the planet Tethys, to his son and the woman he loves. But the space between is dark and cold. And the stars he must pass shine their light on planets which beckon to the weary traveler, planets which hold hidden dangers.
And if Don Slade should ever reach Tethys ... that is when the real fighting starts.
BOb