This Amazon review of Hands To Make War: The Awakened Book Three got me thinking about balance.

Every fiction author must strike a balance between realism and entertainment, between necessary and gratuitous. As a fan of books and movies, I enjoy realism in the setup and execution of action sequences, but find that it can high-jack a story’s purpose and pacing, or needlessly limit the audience when applied to other story aspects (such as romance, etc.). Where is the balance for you? Which aspects of a story should be treated with more realism, and which ones with more entertainment?