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The Forever War [S1]
by Joe Haldeman (1974)

Haldeman's use of deep space settings to portray Vietnam-era military training methods and combat strategies is a history lesson from someone who was there. Earth must face a fierce alien enemy that is very far away. In a few months at the front lines centuries can pass by on Earth. Sexually-liberated soldier William Mandella finds that things aren't much fun in the 32nd-century.

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Armor
by John Steakley (1984)

Felix is an Earth soldier, encased in special body armor designed to withstand Earth's most implacable enemy... a bioengineered, insectoid alien horde. But Felix is also equipped with internal mechanisms that enable him, and his fellow soldiers, to survive battle situations that would destroy a man's mind. A remarkable novel of the horror, the courage, and the aftermath of combat.

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The Warrior's Apprentice [S2]
by Lois McMaster Bujold (1986)

Shortly after his arrival on Beta Colony, physically challenged Miles Vorkosigan unexpectedly finds himself the owner of an obsolete freighter and in deeply debt. Propelled by his manic 'forward momentum', the ever-inventive Miles becomes the commander of his own mercenary fleet to obtain a lucrative cargo... a shipment of weapons destined for a dangerous warzone.

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Use of Weapons [S3]
by Iain M. Banks (1990)

An idyllic existence in the dominant socialist-utopian Culture provides little joy for a Special Circumstances agent with a dark past. He masterfully changed the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks and military action. The woman who plucked him from obscurity to pre-eminence soon finds out she does not know him as well as she thought.

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On Basilisk Station [S1]
by David Weber (1992)

Having made her superior look the fool, Honor Harrington has been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin. The major local industry is smuggling, the merchant cartels want her head, and the star-conquering so-called "Republic" of Haven is up to something. Harrington has a single, over-age light cruiser with an armament that doesn't work to police the entire star system.

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Ender's Shadow [S1]
by Orson Scott Card (1999)

A parallel novel to Card's justly-famous 'Ender's Game'. Again the story focuses on the training of brilliant children to lead a struggle against alien invaders. Whilst the events are basically the same in both novels, Shadow is told from the perspective of Bean, Ender's lieutenant. Bean is a genius with a magician's ability to zero in on his enemy and exploit his weakness.

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Old Man's War [S1]
by John Scalzi (2005)

On his 75th birthday John Perry joined the Colonial Defense Force. Planets fit to live on are scarce, and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. The CDF doesn't want young people... they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. And if you survive, you'll be given a generous homestead stake of your own on one of the hard-won colony planets.

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Dauntless [S1]
by Jack Campbell (2006)

The Alliance has been fighting the Syndics for a century, and losing badly. Now its fleet is crippled and stranded in enemy territory. Their only hope is a man who's emerged from a century-long hibernation to find he has been heroically idealised, beyond belief. Appalled by the hero-worship around him, he is nevertheless a man who will do his duty and try to live up to his own legend.

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Ninefox Gambit [S1]
by Yoon Ha Lee (2016)

Disgraced captain Kel Cheris, who must recapture the formidable Fortress of Scattered Needles in order to redeem herself in front of the Hexarchate. If the fortress falls, the Hexarchate itself might be next. She teams with the undead tactician Shuos Jedao, who has never lost a battle. The bad news is that Jedao went mad in his first life and massacred two armies, one of them his own.

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Aurora Rising [S1]
by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (2019)

Star Aurora Academy pupil Tyler Jones' own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else would touch. The girl he's just rescued from interdimensional space is out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler's squad of losers and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.