Looking for space opera, but good space opera. Preferably a series. I read the David Drake Capt. Leary stuff. Very good, too. But after finishing up both that and Honor Harrington stuff I am totally spoiled. Everything else just seems like drivel. I've read a ton of other stuff. Nothing can compare. What am I missing?

One really great series is the David Drake and Eric Flint "Belisarius" story.
This is available in 6 single books or three double books.
This may not be to everyone's taste, but it's a thundering story.
It's time travel and brutal warfare in the late Roman empire, and the greatest general who ever lived battling an future computer intelligence out to ruin humans future.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=david+drake+belisarius+series&i=stripbooks&crid=3S9PYWGQME1IR&sprefix=david+drake%2Cstripbooks%2C179&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_7_11

Another huge series is the "Off Armageddon Reef" series by David Weber.  There's something like 10 or more books, and the books are the usual 800 page jobs Weber is famous (infamous) for.
It's about the surviving humans on a hidden world ruled over by a Luddite church and the synthetic human who leads them into a vicious religious war.

If you're not aware of it the "1632" books by Eric Flint are the biggest Sci-Fi "world" ever developed.  MANY writers are writing books and short stories in it.
It's about a small West Virginia town thrown back in time and space to Germany in the middle of the 30 Years War of the 1600's.

Again, not to everyone's taste.

If you'd like the best zombie books ever done, John Ringo's "Graveyard Sky" books are the best, and at least have logical "zombies", not dead people rising up.

For a just good read, Ringo's "Live Free Or Die" three book series are some of the best straight Sci-Fi in modern times.
Be aware, like some of these guys he never finished the series, but it's still a read that grabs you.
Aliens visit Earth, aliens get hooked on the most unexpected drug imaginable, humans fight effectively.
Some of the best of it involves the question: how do you know you're fit to survive space?

If you like monster hunting with lots of BIG guns, Larry Correia's  "Monster Hunter" series is good for some laughs.  At least he really knows guns.

For a good space opera, try Weber's Prince Roger "March To the Sea" series.  
A badly misused and spoiled royal Prince who spends his time hunting dangerous game with a monster rifle, and his security force are marooned on an alien world and have to get home to stop a palace coup.

A two book straight space opera series is Weber's "In Death Ground" and "The Shiva Option".
Spider-like aliens attack (and eat) humans and cat-like allies who have to join to survive.  Some great space battles.

Thanks for the comprehensive reply!

Not sure that's my cup of tea. I might check out the first one.

Sounds promising. That's a contender.

I got about 5 or 6 books into that, and then didn't seem to enjoy it anymore, it just got very repetitive and less interesting.

Read and enjoyed all of those. One must set the "suspend disbelief" dial up pretty high with Ringo, but I am an unabashed Ringo fan. Pulpy, but there's something about the way he writes it, and his snarky libertarianism, that puts even the pulp at a higher, dare I say intellectual, level.

Loved those, too! And the Posleen and Cally's War series, Paladin of Shadows series, and Special Circumstances.

Monster hunting has not been of interest, I might take a look at the other two.

As you can tell, I'm a tough customer! I've read all the "good stuff" already Pickin's are starting to get slim!

A few suggestions back your way:

- The Liaden Series by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
- The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
- The RCN series by David Drake (I really liked this series)

Thanks again!

Anybody else? Be sure to look at what I've already read above, first, please.

Some older series.

Dorsai by Dickson
CoDominium Series by Pournelle
The Prince by Pournelle (part of the above)
War World by Pournelle (part of the above)
Hammer's Slammers by Drake
Gap Series by Donaldson
Peter F Hamilton series (several different ones)
Culture series by Banks

I did the Liaden series and the RCN when they first came out.

Here's a few others that might interest you...........

The " Man Who Never Missed" series by Steve Perry.
A disillusioned former solder sets out to bring down an interstellar empire.  His weapons: dart guns that stick to the back of the hands and a extremely effective hand to hand combat system known as the 97 Steps.

The F. Paul Wilson Sci-Fi books.  All these were collected into one book; "The LaNague Chronicles".
The books are........
"Healer"  An immortal with an alien intelligence in his brain battles both his own boredom and an insane being.  Introduces the Ibinsan double barrel, full-auto shotgun firing end over end shot.

"An Enemy of the State".  A man from a Libertarian society has to bring down a expansionist government before it attacks his world.  
Introduces "KYFHO".... Keep Your F**King Hands Off.  
There are two branches..... The Toliver's who say KYFHO, or we'll move away, and the Flinter's who say KYFHO, or we'll KILL you.

"Wheels Within Wheels"  A father and daughter try to find out how their son and brother was killed on another world.  They find a man who can kill with his mind.

If you'd like some fantasy Brian Daley wrote three of the best of them all.  Daley died way to soon.
"The Star Followers of Coramande" and "The Doomfarers of Coramonde".  A Vietnam APC is pulled into another reality.  They have to literally go to Hell to rescue a child.  

"A Tapestry of Magics".  Hilarious story of a group of Lost Boy scouts in another reality.  You'll recognize many of the people passing through from other famous books.

Tom Kratman has some excellent books out, including the "A Desert Called Peace" series.  The first two books including "Carnafex" can be read as a complete series.
On a future very earth-like world a retired soldier's family is killed in a 9-11 type event.  More then a little crazy he sets out to destroy the Islamics responsible, and goes after an orbiting armada of ships from Old Earth sent to prevent the new world from coming after the abusive Old Earth.  
His weapon is an absolute adherence to the Transnationalist's Rules of War but in a way they never expected.

For just sheer fun... "Stalking the Unicorn" series by Mike Resnick.
A jaded Private Eye winds up in a New York City that's tilted about a bubble and a half off.

Another just plain fun series are the "The Probability Broach" series by L. Neil Smith.  
A Denver cop finds himself in another reality where Libertarianism is the system.  Everyone carries guns...including the Gorillas and chimps.

Going back some years, "The Cyborg and the Sorcerers" and "The Wizard and the War Machine" by Lawrence Watt-Evans are good.
A veteran cyborg is stuck on duty after the war ends and is compelled by his ships computer to continue fighting even though the war ended long ago.

Also older, "Cobra" by Timothy Zahn.  There's a following series, but "Cobra" is the best.  
A future man enlists in the military to fight an alien invader.  He's implanted with a range of enhancements that turn him into a super soldier.
The question becomes.... how do you send a soldier home after the war is won when he's literally a walking arsenal that out-guns an infantry company.....and has an un-removable computer in his brain that can take control and fight on it's own.

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys! I've read a few, hated a few others, but there is a lot of stuff I haven't looked at.

I did just notice that I'm actually behind on my Liaden saga, with a book out already and another Baen EARC just released. That should keep me busy for a little while after I finish my current book, which is the second in the Old Man's War series. And which, while competent and mildly entertaining, is by no means in the Harrington class of story.

"The Old Man's War" series is good Sci-Fi.  There were 4 books in the original series, ending with "Zoe's Tale".

Others he wrote are also good.........

"The Androids Dream".... An alien trace is looking for a rare Blue sheep and demand Earth hand it over....or else.  The aliens soon come to really regret making demands.

"Agent To the Stars"... a Hollywood agent is asked to introduce an alien race to earth.  Things go really weird.  A fun read.

I'm just about done with book 2 and I don't think it's anything special. I was just desperate to have something to read. I'm forcing down about 10 pages a day.

Bit of a necro thread, but . . .

I've enjoyed a lot of the series posted here, and started many of them via Baen's free library while a broke college student, and I think my current library supports his theory on the economics of copyright piracy.

Another series that I'll throw out as being both generally phenomenal, though very different technologically is the 1632/Ring of Fire series originally started and still managed by Eric Flint.
1632 is the beginning, but then with the expanding universe Flint brought in other authors and encouraged (and co-opted/canonized) fanfic writing, so now the series is both a series of novels by Flint and other professional writers, and a periodical of short stories edited and published as part of the universe.

David Drake Lt Leary series. It’s like Horatio Hornblower but in space in the distant future.

I really dig the culture of the planet (Cinnabar) he made, it’s a fusion of British Napoleonic era and Roman Republic era. All of the books are based on historical events typically British or Roman which is cool in itself. Most of them are very obscure, think near miss on a war between Rome & the Persian Empire over the actions of the ruler of a client state in the Caucasus.

The first 5 or so were good, then I got bored with it

Mentioned that in my OP. Reading is fun-duh-mental

No doubt, one of the greatest series of all time. Loved it. Hated that he got away from the core characters in the last book. Nothing lasts forever, I guess...

Ha!

Guess I missed that part I haven’t bothered to read the last one. I liked the perspective of the penultimate one, viewing Leary & Mundy et al from a 3rd party perspective. But just writing a novel in that universe didn’t spark my interest.

Hammers Slammers was extremely good as was The Reaches (both sold Omnibus now). If you haven’t read them, much darker of course.

Original Dune books were good. Enders Game series by Orion Scott Card were good. Deaths Head series by David Gunn was good.

Read most of those. Slammers was "ok", a bit sophomoric. Not familiar with Reaches or Deaths Head.

More good reads..........

For a lot of fun and some serious questions try the books by A. Lee Martinez.  
His stories feature among others,  a commander of a goblin mercenary company that can't stay dead... And you better hope he doesn't.
A animal control specialist who deals with "non-standard" magic creatures.  You meet interesting people in the ice cream freezer at the 7-11.
A hansom Asian Adonis and his Minotaur girl friend on a road trip in a classic muscle car.
A huge monster robot killer machine becomes a private detective.
And the classic "Gill's All-Fright Diner".  A good ol' boy team of a werewolf and a vampire traveling through the Southwest come to an odd diner.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=a.+lee+martinez&i=stripbooks&crid=1S95YV73VNAXI&sprefix=a.+lee+m%2Cstripbooks%2C174&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_8

A guilty pleasure of mine is the "Demon Accords" series by John Conroe and his trilogy "Zone Wars".
In the Demon Accords a rookie NYPD cop is a demon hunter after hours.  He's also God's own hammer on Earth.
In the Zone War series years past, a group of terrorist unleashed a freighter full of Russian, Chinese, and Indian killer drones on New York.
The city is dead, but elite hunters make thunder runs into the city to retrieve valuable documents and art work.
The best of them is the son of a former SAS Gurkha sniper.

https://www.amazon.com/John-Conroe/e/B003JBVEJS/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1

For one-off books, there are some of the all time great classics.  If you read Sci-Fi these are musts.....

"The Stars My Destination" by Alfred Bester.
"Way Station" and "The Werewolf Principle" by Clifford Simak.
"Wasp" by Eric Frank Russell.
"Who"? by Algis Budrys.
"Killer" and "Birds of Prey" by David Drake.
"Death World" by Harry Harrison.

Just got done reading the 4th book in the Bobverse by Dennis Taylor
Guy dies becomes an "so" von Neumann probe and goes from there.

Edit to add author to Bobverse.... And Ringo cowrote the empire of Man series. Now finish it!

Just finished the Bobiverse series. I give it a C+. It's easy reading but it took me forever because it was TOO easy...

There's so much there that there's a lot of variety in both quality of writing and topic. I'm a big fan of the later ones that are set outside Europe; Russia, the Carribean, India . . . Good stuff.

Yeah, easy reads for sure.  I spend lots of time on planes and read pretty much everything I can get my hands on to pass the time.

Not sure if you recommended it yourself, or if it was someone else recommending it to you,

The Vorkosigan series by McMaster Bujold.

The Cobra series by Timothy Zahn, just make sure you start with the first one.  "The Blackcollar" by Zahn is good two, but only 2 books.

Mike Resnick has a bunch of books in the same universe, "Santiago", "Ivory", "Widowmaker" and a bunch of others.  Also has a tongue in cheek quick funny series in "Starship:  mutiny, rebel, flagship" etc.

Heinlein's "The Past Through Tomorrow" combines a bunch of his books, and you can find others too.

Edit:  Semper Mars by Ian Douglas was good too.  But then by the 10th or 11th book I lost interest.