this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2025
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Can't go wrong with some Culture books from Iain M Banks - Consider Phlebas , Excession and Hydrogen Sonata (and probably others I'm forgetting) definitely have some big space battles without the overhead of military tropes.
IIRC, Excession is a novel about AI spaceships thwarting an existential threat involving tens of thousands of warships. It’s a great read, but arguably about AI & military, though Banks doesn’t rely on common tropes.
Came here to recommend that, but then realized that AIs often play major roles in this books...
So while definitely one of the greatest space opera books series, it does not quite fit OPs preference.
Thanks for the warning!