[QUOTE=fjtorres;882243] As a whole, the RCN series gets classified as military SF (fair enough as far as that goes) but an individual story like the FAR SIDE OF THE STARS most definitely is not, even if it does feature a space battle climax. But the only way to appreciate this is to actually read the thing. Easier to say all the RCN stories are military SF and move on, right? [QUOTE]
Life is short and there are many books. If the original poster read everything that *seemed* like military SF in order to make sure it actually *was* military SF, zie would spend all zir reading time reading a genre zie doesn't like to make sure zie wasn't missing anything.
This doesn't strike me as a good use of reading time.
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Originally Posted by fjtorres
....humans are by nature tribal. We *always* seek to define ourseves in terms of the familiar vs the alien, us vs them, in every large scale activity. (Even if we have to invent artificial distinctions like sports team affiliation.) And when these "tribes" come into conflict we invariable end up with War.
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Unless we're going to widen the definition of "war" to include March Madness and the World Series, I would have to differ on that.
And plenty of excellent SF is not military SF. I recommend Sherri S. Tepper to your attention. C.J. Cherryh's "Foreigner" series. Connie Willis. Charles Stross. David Brin. Wen Spencer. Most of Heinlein.
Military SF (by which I mean the military is the setting, the majority of the characters, and most of the plot--not just that a few uniformed soldiers are seen in the background as three resourceful teens race across the city on their bikes to rescue Spots the Beagle from invading space aliens) is a subgenre of Science Fiction.