Sorry, it's just an old SF distinction, like how to wear your hat. Hollywood destroys SF and makes it into SciFi.
Spider Robinson. If he weren't an athiest, he could be even more powerful. In the meantime, he does a decent pun.
Niven and Pournelle are better than the sum of their parts.
Try Kristine Smith, Jani Killian series. They're not "girl's novels" as my husband thought. Once he started, he agreed that they're good fiction and philosophical delemmas, with the explosions in the right place.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380807831/qid=1144380582/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/002-9163447-4232001?v=glance&s=books I think each of the sequels is as good as or better than the first.
Thanks much, I'll check out Killian and Smith, maybe Robinson. Great thing about FR, you get book recommendations here!