The military and genre fiction have a close and complex relationship. Science fiction "is the #1 choice for young men," says Connie Lefever, whose Coronado, Calif., Bay Books store is popular among service members at nearby bases, and young men don't change their reading habits when they join the military. The same is true of military women, Lefever notes, who share their civilian counterparts' fondness for urban fantasy and paranormal romance.

The numbers bear out Lefever's assertions: according to Melissa Mick, a buyer for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES), 34% of the fiction sold in PXs (on-base retail stores) is SF. Operation Paperback, a volunteer organization that sends gently used books to troops serving overseas, reports that more requests come in for SF and fantasy than for any other genre.

Chrissy Honeywell, Operation Paperback founder and a former Air Force wife, says DVDs and video games are more popular than books on base, but the letters she receives make it clear that books are preferred among troops who have been deployed overseas. "The batteries run out," she says, and there's not much else to do in remote postings.

Lefever adds that even in postings with more recreational opportunities, such as aircraft carriers, "You can only see the movies so many times. You can only spend so much time working out." Books brought on board are read and reread. Left in the wardroom, they are shared by the entire ship. Lefever's son is in the Navy and she has sent him many replacement copies of books that were read until they fell apart.

Both Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein (Ace) and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (Tor) appear on a recommended reading list for the Navy, and Ender's Game also appears on the Marine Corps's recommended reading list, which may be why it's the single SF title most requested from Operation Paperback.

While both Ender's Game and Starship Troopers feature extensive descriptions of futuristic war, they're distant enough from current events to allow active troops a valuable moment of escape. "The troops who are over there don't want any books on Afghanistan, Iraq, or even Vietnam," says Lefever. "They don't want anything like that, except for The Kite Runner [Riverhead], and that's just for the guys who are really serious. Most of the people who are reading W.E.B. Griffin's military novels are veterans, not active troops."

The most popular genre authors at PXs and bookstores near military bases include David Weber, Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks, Orson Scott Card, and George R.R. Martin. Popular series include Star Wars and Star Trek tie-ins, the Honor Harrington space navy series, the Ender books, and epic fantasy such as the Sword of Shannara and Wheel of Time series. Operation Paperback participants also read fantasy as well as SF, frequently asking for role-playing game tie-in novels such as R.A. Salvatore's books and series set in the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms worlds.

The Sales Force

While some independent booksellers, such as Bay Books, have developed a close relationship with the military personnel in their area, most active-duty troops buy books—and everything else—at their base's PX, or, as it's called in the Navy, NEX. "I had always wanted to go to a PX," says Del Rey editor-in-chief Betsy Mitchell of a recent trip to a military base with author Terry Brooks. "It turns out it's a lot like a Wal-Mart."

For publishers, selling books to PXs turns out to be a lot like selling to Wal-Mart, too. The AAFES runs over 3,000 facilities in more than 30 countries. Last year the National Retail Federation ranked it 35th among the nation's retailers, two notches below 7-Eleven. It is, however, part of the U.S. military. Its commander and CEO is a major general, and its profits fund the military's Morale, Welfare, and Recreation program. Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM) runs the retail stores on Navy bases.

"NEXCOM works with PMG, Source Interlink, the News Group, and Hudson News to manage the book selection we offer our customers," says Sharon Freyer, who buys books, stationery, office supplies, and other paper goods for NEXCOM. Those distributors also handle the bulk of the book distribution for AAFES.

Melissa Mick, the AAFES buyer, says, "The exchange follows industry standard by authorizing book and magazine distributors to determine the best selection of titles based on top-sellers, past sales history, and demographics for each store they service." As with selling to other big retailers, this presents a chicken-and-egg dilemma for small publishers and niche titles. Mick notes that arranging for a book signing with the local PX's services business manager can help to prove a title's popularity.

Marketing to the Military

When publishers and authors want to reach out to their military customers, they start with author tours. "Our annual book tours with R.A. Salvatore often include at least one stop at a U.S. military base," says Liz Schuh, brand director for Dungeons & Dragons. "In 2010, while touring for the release of Gauntlgrym, Salvatore visited Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State. He also had the opportunity to stop at Fort Bliss in Texas."

Mitchell says Del Rey does its best to include military bases when planning author tours, though it is getting more difficult with increased base security. At Terry Brooks's signing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Mitchell heard firsthand how much the troops appreciate the adventure and escapism of epic fantasy. "When you are on active duty, you really want to take your mind off your situation," she says.

Members of the military also participate in numerous online discussions about books. Del Rey's Facebook page and Twitter account host a lively discussion about the Star Wars novels. Through them, Mitchell learned how popular the series is with the troops, and how much they appreciate its authenticity in portraying individuals swept up in larger events.

Lefever says one of the best things publishers can do to market to active duty military personnel is keep prices low. Hardcover books are often beyond the means of the young enlisted, she says. "When I tell them that the books they want are $40, you just see their faces drop."

Tom Doherty, president and publisher of Tom Doherty Associates, says TDA imprint Tor Books sends PXs and NEXs floor displays that feature low-cost editions of first books in popular series in order to target this cash-poor market. Tor recently put out a $2.95 edition of Ender's Game, which did better on military bases than in supermarkets, and created a similar promotion for the Wheel of Time heroic fantasy series. It can be hard to know how well such techniques work, since AAFES and NEXCOM don't reveal their sales figures, but based on Tor's internal numbers, Doherty says Ender's military sales are "nice, but not huge."

Dragon Knights and Space Fleets

Much as speculative fiction has infiltrated the military, the military has infiltrated speculative fiction. Military SF is the only fiction subgenre requested through Operation Paperback, Honeywell reports. To publishers, the subgenre is quite narrow, primarily covering books written by military veterans or military historians. "If they are not actually military people, they are really doing their research," says Ginjer Buchanan, editor-in-chief of Ace and Roc. The result is a level of authenticity not found in other SF or fantasy depictions of battle. ("We don't consider Star Wars books military science fiction," says Mitchell, "even though Wars is in the title.")

Roc and Ace executive editor Anne Sowards adds that while military SF is defined by a military point of view, the subgenre is not necessarily prowar. Instead, the focus is usually on realism and authenticity regarding all aspects of warfare, including the trenches, the high command, and civilian life during wartime.

Baen Books is generally considered the military SF front-runner. "Why we fight, how we fight, how we should fight, how the view of the fight differs from the commander to the grunt, why should one culture survive a fight and why one should not—these are the concerns of military SF," says Toni Weisskopf, Baen's publisher. David Weber's novels for Baen are exemplars of contemporary military SF, particularly his Honor Harrington series.

Military fantasy, such as Joe Abercrombie's First Law books (Orbit) and George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series (Del Rey), has become increasingly popular in recent years. History can also be mixed into military SF or military fantasy. In Harry Turtledove's In the Balance (Del Rey), aliens attack Earth at the height of WWII; in Naomi Novik's Temeraire series (Del Rey), the Napoleonic wars are fought on dragonback.

Speculative fiction of all sorts has frequently been a way for our society to frame military arguments from across the political spectrum. "It seems to be the only way we can engage in a literary discussion of the wars we are currently waging that is acceptable to society," says Weisskopf.

The same genre fiction that provides escape for the troops can also provide civilians with a window into the military experience, Weisskopf suggests. "An unintended consequence of our all-volunteer armed services is that there is a growing culture gap between those who serve in the military and those who passively accept their service," says Weisskopf. "If you want to make a start bridging that gap, you can read military SF."

Madeline Bodin is a freelance writer living in Vermont.