Space Opera Fans discussion

Some of my favorite books involve extremely creative, outside the box ideas. Most of them are military tactics. Auberon by Blaze Ward which is the March Indie Pick has quite a few of these. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned Tactics of Mistake by Gordon R. Dickson and Pandora's Legions by Christopher Anvil too.

There are some non military books like this too. In Hellspark by Janet Kagan, there is a culture clash situation where one person of a team finds bare feet highly disturbing, and a second person on the team insists on wearing the latest fashions from her own planet, so sandals with painted toenails. Tocohl who has arrived recently notices this, takes the sandaled person aside for conversation, and show a picture of someone wearing fancy red boots claiming it's the latest fashion. (It wasn't from the right planet but it helped with tension in the team). There are others too, but they would be spoilers if I mentioned them.

So, what's one of your favorite books that has some outside the box solutions?

Most of Honor Harrington's exploits are outside the box solutions.