“One of the most obvious ways that science fiction novels tend to reflect the mores of their age is in their depiction of war.
Novels written in the aftermath of the Second World War tend to show war as a straightforward conflict between the forces of good and evil, monumental armies clashing upon resonant battlefields. The Cold War, and particularly the nuclear dread associated with it, changed all that. Now one mighty battle was unlikely to provide a conclusion (if it happened at all), but rather there was a weary sense of endless conflict; and the concentration was more likely to be on civilian casualties than brave warriors… We are just now beginning to get a war fiction born from the aftermath of the Iraq War.” — Paul Kincaid, in his latest Science Fiction Skeptic Column over at Bookslut.
